04/03/2026
🚨 Content trigger warning.
It is autism acceptance month + sexual assault awareness month and I want my friends to know that Autistic individuals (and individuals with disabilities, in general) are at an increased risk for abuse and sexual violence (the most marginalized—BIPOC, LGBTQ+ carry the highest risk). 😰
While I don’t have children now, I care about kids as a whole. I write from a place of concern, having experienced sexual violence on multiple occasions and not being able to name it until a couple years after my last experience, not quite a decade ago.
If you get the opportunity to read this book, Creating Cultures of Consent by Laura McGuire, I respect the author for everything she wrote. She addresses consent as a premise for agency, suggesting, for example, it should be OK for the kids to say “no thank you” to Aunt Janet’s hug or kiss (I am paraphrasing and making up names). Something simple like this could help kids maintain boundaries when they will need them the most.
Sometimes “no” is bypassed and if that has ever happened to you, I hope you have found strength in healing and I hope you know it was not your fault. Violence doesn’t require physical struggle or fighting back to be considered violent.
I believe that teaching consent early can help make the world a better, less violent place.
All views are mine, informed by books and experience.
📸1️⃣ Throwing it back to my 21st bday
📸2️⃣ Book rec, Creating Cultures of Consent by Laura McGuire
