Astraea's Politics:
Abuse Survivorship & Awareness

Sexual and Gender Abuse Issues

Female Genital Cutting and Mutilation: Networking and Education

Female Genital Mutilation in America An article from the New York Times. Speaks frankly & openly on a subject that has been covered up for many years. Don't ever let anyone tell you that this only happens in Africa and Asia. Touted as a cure for everything from masturbation to UTI's, a preventative for infertility and lesbianism or just to "look more normal". Ain't it lovely?

Making the Cut By Martha Coventry. Gives you some background. Is this still going on? Yes.

Tyranny of the Aesthetic By Martha Coventry. It isn't always a question of being intersexed.

"Natural Causes" by Peter Feibleman. It is fiction, but loaded with genuine facts.

Doctors Against Circumcision Putting an end to routine male circumcision.

Cut babies and the horror of sex A history of male circumcision and why we think it's "healthy". (This website has many wonderful articles on censorship, homosexuality and culture.)

Intersex Society of North America To end shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgeries for people born with atypical sex anatomy.

Drop the Barbie! Does your little girl play with fire trucks? Does your little boy like to collect pink ponies and wear nail polish? They may be gender-atypical! (or, more kindly, "childhood gender nonconformity"). Ohnoes! Time for them to be institutionalized, drugged and conditioned in sometimes brutal programs.... to cure them of the dreaded Gender Identity Disorder. (Or, leave the kid alone and he can be the next Johnny Weir.)

A 'Real Boy' and Not A Sissy A history of the psychiatric view of gender and masculinity. Extremely revealing.

ABA Treatment for "Gender Disturbed" Children By Michelle Dawson, autism advocate. This treatment was part of the UCLA Feminine Boy Project. These "feminine boys" were supposedly suffering in terrible pain. (Well, from being bullied, yeah...) So did Ivar Lovaas (yes, THAT Ivar Lovaas) do research on bullying or try to change society to accept "feminine" boys? Nooooo. The answer was to put them through Alex's aversive behavior conditioning in A Clockwork Orange. This is not for the squeamish.

Bullies and School Shootings

More on boot camps for kids here - Torturing Teens for Fun and Profit Cruelty, sadism, injury & death in locked residential facilities for so-called 'troubled' youth. Define 'troubled' -- many of these kids get locked up for such crimes as bad grades or investigating non-Christian religions.

This was our school experience. Was it yours? What can be done to change things?

Services & Resources for Abuse Survivors

Livejournal communities discussing sexual abuse

Self-harm Resources

Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests

You should also see Deliver Us From Evil if you can.

SANCTUARY: Safe Network Community, The Underground Abuse Resource was begun as an online forum on spousal abuse, it's open not only to all abuse survivors but to friends and supportive family. It is run as a MUD (Multi-User Dimension), and is essentially a very large, complex set of chat rooms and bulletin boards.

Title: For Your Own Good: Hidden Brutality in Child-Rearing, and the Roots of Violence Author: Dr. Alice Miller Publisher: Noonday ISBN: 0374522693

If you think you were never abused, read this book. Most people do suffer some form of physical, emotional or intellectual brutality in childhood. People who are acknowledged by society to have been abused tell horrific battle stories. Those of us who were "merely" slapped, spanked, and bullied as children are thus inclined to overlook our experiences as trivial. Most child abuse goes under the sobriquet of parental discipline. It affects our thoughts and feelings in later life, often in subtle ways we don't even notice. "It made me stronger" often simply means "it made me numb". This is not a whiny book, nor is it a Bradshaw feel-good hugfest. Child abuse exists and chances are you've been through it. Don't revisit it on your kids. And the next time someone says "You think you had it tough" and starts talking about some publicized extreme case, show them this book.

This book is now available in its entirety on line. Click here to read For Your Own Good in free e-text.

Alice Miller's Blog

Alice Miller Page

Mindfreedom Traditional mental health "treatments" for abuse not doing you any good? Go here.

Autism

Stop the abuse of autistics
and the murder of autistic children by their families.

Rettdevil's rants Autistic woman gives her point of view on autism and how the 'epidemic' is being handled by the media.

The original Autism Vox blog was shut down earlier this year when Kristina Chew decided to dedicate her efforts to change.org or you can catch up with her at We Go With Him.

An Open Letter To Parents Considering Intensive Behavioral Therapy For Their Child With Autism Courtesy of Virgynia King. A stinging indictment of behaviorist methods. Applies to all children -- not just autistics. If you feel your child needs therapy, please consider play therapy or some other non-behaviorist method.

This does not just happen to autistics but to children with learning disabilities, or anyone who is considered different. This kind of thing is happening in our public schools, and always has, and there is no law against it.

(Now that you've stopped laughing at the "when we send our children to school, we expect they will be safe from danger" remark, let's proceed.)

No Autistics Allowed Explorations in discrimination against autistics. What are non-autistic people deciding for autistic people? Pay particular attention to Bettelheim's Worst Crime: Autism and the Epidemic of Irresponsibility. OF INTEREST TO ABUSE SURVIVORS.

Also of interest: Ballastexistenz 'Severely autistic' does not mean incapable of thought or expression.

Jim Sinclair's Website About Autism

Autism, A Way Of Life

Autism Network International

Title: Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism Author: Paul Collins Publisher: Bloomsbury USA ISBN: 1582343675 By the father of a child who may or may not be on the "spectrum" - unique among parental accounts because of its lack of tragedy. Instead of seeing his son as a victim of a horrible devastating illness, Collins saw his son's unique reading and mathematical abilities and his love of computers over people as part of what was right about the kid. He researched history to find individuals who may or may not have been autistic, and to find out just exactly what autism is. Collins' message is that it's a mistake to try to force we autistics into so called normality. He learns to communicate with his son through picture cards and he finds an autistic program in a school where the children are allowed to learn through their own special interests. Simply letting autistic people be autistic is such a revolutionary idea! But it may well be the future. A review of Not Even Wrong, by Jay Young If you are interested in books by autistic authors, try Amanda Baggs' Autistic Authors Booklist.

Discrediting "False Memory Syndrome" and the FMSF

Help Stop Psychiatric Abuse!

Astraea differentiates issues of Abuse Survivorship from those of Multiple Personality. Read our statement to find out why. If you want to read about multiple personality, go to our Multiple Personality page.

Child's Play Think it all started with D&D?

Star Bright

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