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She went on to say that even people who fall within that neuro average aren't the ones making the rules for what is typical, and unofficially dubbed them neuropowerful. Once people have power, they can impose their ideas as the standard regardless of whether it's the average or not. They're outliers whose experience (both internally and externally) has been allowed to set the standards by which many (even most) people fall short, even those close to the "average." The same is true for physical characteristics. If more than half the population is "overweight," who determined what the acceptable weight is? Because it definitely isn't *average* to the population. I know a lot of disabled and neurodivergent people flock to each other, but sometimes you realize everyone you know has some kind of major divergence, and nobody is in fact "neurotypical."

This isn't to say that all a "neurodivergent" person needs to be okay is a different environmental/cultural/societal structure. For some, ADHD/Autism are disabling, but for others, it isn't, even if it's the same level of deviation in the same environment. For me, personally, it's a bit of both. I would benefit greatly from shifting cultural expectations as far as being able to meet my obligations, but my ADHD would still hurt me in moments when I want to do something for personal enjoyment and executive dysfunction will not let me get off the couch. I would benefit from a world that is not so depressing all the time, but I would still have days when I struggle to get out of bed because my brain is physically not set up to do serotonin.

The more I learn about ADHD and autism and other brains not labeled "neurotypical," the more I understand that the issue is not our brains, but society and culture and what's valued and what isn't. If you don't fit into this capitalist mold, there's something wrong with you.

In fact, from what I understand, people often get a diagnosis of ADHD or autism or other neurodiverse "conditions" after someone/ many someones/an authority determines that you are not able to do what society or culture or capitalism demands you do. It's never considered that these demands are not optimal for the majority of people, regardless of whether they're able to fit into the "norm" or not. This doesn't mean that the various differences in brain aren't real. It does mean that they're not necessarily Conditions and Unhealth that must be Fixed.

Capitalism and white supremacist ideas of society pathologize any actions or thought patterns or ways of being that disrupt the status quo. Your slave ran away? They have a mental disease that makes them not want to stay on the plantation and work! Your wife/daughter is upset at not having autonomy over her body and her assets? She's hysterical! You are attracted to and want to be in a romantic relationship with someone who isn't the "opposite gender"? You're mentally ill!

Yes, the examples above are no longer thought of as actual mental illness by the medical establishment (we won't talk about individuals rn...), but they were. And there are still Ways of Being classified as Mental Conditions today that are just as stupid and terrible as those examples and for the same reason: capitalist white supremacist society. Hopefully all of that will be abolished someday.

We’re into the second half of Round 1 now, and deep into the Season 2 episodes!

Match 8:

2x03: “Heartbeat Hospital”, starring Jess McKenna, Zach Reino, Chris Grace, and Ashley Ward.

VERSUS

2x10: “Heebie-Jeebies”, starring Jess McKenna, Zach Reino, Philip Labes, and Mary Lou.

Feel free to reblog and share, and advocate for your favourite in the replies, comments, and tags.

absolutely nothing brings me more joy than jess cracking herself up

bonus:

Real artists, made-up song titles.

Tag with the exact number if you know it

Tag with an estimate if you don’t know it

Howdy folks! Sorry for the delay, I was, uhhhh covering the Tour de France. Anyway, I'm back in Chicago which means this blog has returned to the Chicago suburbs. I'm sure you've all seen Barbie at this point so this 2019 not-so-dream house will come as a pleasant (?) surprise.

Yeah. So this $2.4 million, 7 bed, 8.5+ bath house is over 15,000 square feet and let me be frank: that square footage is not allocated in any kind of efficient or rational manner. It's just kind of there, like a suburban Ramada Inn banquet hall. You think that by reading this you are prepared for this, but no, you are not.

Scale (especially the human one) is unfathomable to the people who built this house. They must have some kind of rare spatial reasoning problem where they perceive themselves to be the size of at least a sedan, maybe a small aircraft. Also as you can see they only know of the existence of a single color.

Ok, but if you were eating a single bowl of cereal alone where would you sit? Personally I am a head of the table type person but I understand that others might be more discreet.

It is undeniable that they put the "great" in great room. You could race bicycles in here. Do roller derby. If you gave this space to three anarchists you would have a functioning bookshop and small press in about a week.

The island bit is so funny. It's literally so far away it's hard to get them in the same image. It is the most functionally useless space ever. You need to walk half a mile to get from the island to the sink or stove.

Of course, every McMansion has a room just for television (if not more than one room) and yet this house fails even to execute that in a way that matters. Honestly impressive.

The rug placement here is physical comedy. Like, they know they messed up.

Bling had a weird second incarnation in the 2010s HomeGoods scene. Few talk about this.

Honestly I think they should have scrapped all of this and built a bowling alley or maybe a hockey rink. Basketball court. A space this grand is wasted on sports of the table variety.

You would also think that seeing the rear exterior of this house would help to rationalize how it's planned but:

Not really.

Anyways, thanks for coming along for another edition of McMansion Hell. I'll be back to regular posting schedule now that the summer is over so keep your eyes peeled for more of the greatest houses to ever exist. Be sure to check the Patreon for today's bonus posts.

Also P.S. - I'm the architecture critic for The Nation now, so check that out, too!

If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.

Ingredients Yield: One 9-inch loaf ½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter 2 tablespoons/6 grams chamomile tea (from 4 to 6 tea bags), crushed fine if coarse 1 cup/240 milliliters whole milk Nonstick cooking spray 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar ½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt 2 large eggs 1 large lemon 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1½ cups/192 grams all-purpose flour 1 cup/124 grams confectioners’ sugar ½ cup/8 grams freeze-dried strawberries

Taking the above recipe, for example:

All I have to do to get around this garbage is go to the address bar and click this icon:

It then bypasses Javascript, or whatever unnecessary nonsense they use to fill the page with ads and pop-ups that don’t let me in, and I can read the whole article no problem.