Katy Elphinstone
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neurofabulous.bsky.social
Katy Elphinstone
@neurofabulous.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1.1K following 1.3K posts
Thinking about humanity from an autistic perspective | Mother to two wonderful humans and one small dog | #Autism, #Autistic, #Neurodivergent, #AutismAcceptance, #BPSdouble_empathy

www.neurofabulous.org.uk
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neurofabulous.bsky.social
Katy Elphinstone @neurofabulous.bsky.social · Sep 7
"So much to love about this book...

- neuro-affirming.
- non pathologizing
- by an autistic parent
- joyful & funny
- list format is easy to read
- practical
- makes you feel empowered
- actually enjoyable to read!"

#ActuallyAutistic
#ParentingTips
#Autism #Neurodivergent
Book cover of the book "how to raise happy neurofabulous children", by Katy Elphinstone
neurofabulous.bsky.social
#Neurodivergent
#AutisticJoy
#ActuallyAutistic
Owl! at the library @SketchesbyBoze "No one wants to hear about your special interests--" I do. tell me all about how the Appalachians are older than Saturn's Rings or how the invention of the compass led to the atomic bomb. Life is so brief and the world is so big and we have to learn from each other.
November 28, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
fablefoolery.bsky.social
Anxious? Naturally. Things that were, things that are, things yet to come… and the cursed paperwork that insists that destiny requires three signatures and a blood sample.
thomlinjupp.com
#fablefoolery #thomlinjupp #booksky #books #fantasy #comedy
November 23, 2025 at 10:17 AM
neurofabulous.bsky.social
"What do you have to be anxious about?"

Image from Neurodivergent Memes on FB 🙏

#Neurodivergent #Autism #ActuallyAutistic #SocialAnxiety #Anxiety
Title: "what do you have to be anxious about" Below this are four pictures of the scene from Lord of the rings, with Galadriel and the urn. She's saying, "things that were, things that are, and some things...that have yet to come to pass"
November 23, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
kathryn42.bsky.social
Full piece here:

Horror movies have an ableism problem. Isn’t it time we found new ‘monsters’?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Horror movies have an ableism problem. Isn’t it time we found new ‘monsters’? | Kathryn Bromwich
Films such as Frankenstein still use disability as shorthand for moral depravity. But human behaviour is far scarier than human appearance, says journalist Kathryn Bromwich
www.theguardian.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
kathryn42.bsky.social
I love most of the films I mentioned in the piece. This isn’t an attack on these directors, and I’m not telling anyone they can’t enjoy these films. I would just like this kind of thing to stop, so that people with disabilities can enjoy films along with the rest of you without feeling excluded
In her excellent International Booker-longlisted novel Hunchback, Saou Ichikawa references The History of the Body, edited by Corbin, Courtine and Vigarello: “The ‘criminalisation of the gaze’ that took hold around the dawn of the 20th century had led to the decline of the freak show, which was subsequently replaced in popularity by the Monsters of Hollywood. Now, with costumes serving as an ethical cushion, people can enjoy ogling deformity without guilt or reserve.” What is perhaps more painful, and insidious, is the portrayal of disability in films not specifically in the horror genre but which trade in a sense of discomfort: arthouse films by respected auteurs, with less emphasis on gore or jump scares than on an undercurrent of psychological unease. In these films, a disabled actor (or an actor in prosthetics) will often appear at a crucial moment as a visual signifier heightening the level of eeriness in a scene. This has happened in some of the best films ever made: the mute, paraplegic girl in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (referred to as a “mutant”), the “dwarf serial killer” in Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, “the disabled one” in Aster’s Midsommar, the gratuitous five-second shot of a facially scarred amputee gleefully clapping along at a Nazi event in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (a modern masterpiece, and one of the most important films of this century). In Yorgos Lanthimos’s remarkable Poor Things, Willem Dafoe’s prosthetics-assisted “deformed … scary face” (as it is described in the screenplay) and Emma Stone’s character’s intellectual disability are not a sign of moral depravity but are nevertheless presented as “creepy and uncanny”. The saddest thing is that these are some of my favourite films. I have no wish to publicly criticise them, but feeling excluded from them is particularly hurtful.
October 31, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
kathryn42.bsky.social
(Re Frankenstein: visually stunning, great performances, hated the saccharine ending, but why tf, in an allegory about the dangers of ableism and fear of the Other, would you make the villain disabled – when he isn’t in the book – to make the point he is “the real monster”...?)
There is something sadomasochistic about being a horror fan with a disability. For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to the intoxicating cycle of dread-terror-release that a genuinely frightening horror film can bring – the simultaneous feeling of “I hate this and want it to end” and “This adrenaline rush is making me feel fully alive.” But I have also come to expect certain tropes that I know will make me feel a different kind of dread, which other people in the cinema may not necessarily be attuned to. Guillermo del Toro’s handsome adaptation of Frankenstein, which received a 15-minute standing ovation in Venice this August, powerfully makes the case that we ought not to be afraid of difference. However, given that the story is widely regarded as an allegory for disability, it is disappointing that the film stars only able-bodied performers and that a creature repeatedly referred to as “deformed” is portrayed by Jacob Elordi. While the creature is shown to be gentle despite his “obscene” appearance, the audience is heavy-handedly invited to conclude that “the real monster” is his creator, Victor Frankenstein (in case you hadn’t understood the book). Unfortunately the film then drives home the point about Victor’s moral degradation by making him increasingly disabled – in a departure from the original novel, he is given a prosthetic leg, facial scarring and amputated fingers. Del Toro may have adapted the book with a great deal of panache and visual flair, but he has not understood its most basic message.
October 31, 2025 at 2:33 PM
neurofabulous.bsky.social
The five neurodivergent love languages 😊💖

#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticJoy #Neurodivergent
the five neurodeivergent love languages: infodumping, parallel play, support swapping, Please Crush My Soul Back Into My Body, and "I found this cool rock/button/leaf/etc and I thought you would like it" from Amythest on Twitter, 2021
October 14, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
jomacd.bsky.social
The number of times I’ve told my parents about one of my kids’ diagnoses, to have them say But isn’t that everybody?
neurofabulous.bsky.social Katy Elphinstone @neurofabulous.bsky.social · Oct 14
Ah yes. This. My son didn't seem in the least "different," to me 😂

#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent #Diagnosis
Given that autism is highly heritable, it's a huge flaw in the diagnostic process that parents are supposed to know and confirm if there's anything "different" about their child. If there is, they probably won't have noticed, as it's likely their entire family is autistic.
October 14, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
seiratempest.bsky.social
Alright, I'll do one of those introduction posts!

Hi, I'm Seira! 32 years old & genderfluid autist.
I like
#Books 📖
#Games 🎮
#Animals 🐈
#Anime & #Manga 🤓
#Art 🎨
#Languages 💬

I'm also a hobby-writer, a cat-parent & a nerd. I speak english & german fluently and japanese at beginner level.
September 9, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
seiratempest.bsky.social
This, and also the fact that parents will not see anything "wrong" with their children. Even among neurotypicals children are not all the same and parents perceive their kids as "normal". My mom kept saying "you were a normal child" but my teachers in school said something different.
October 14, 2025 at 6:52 AM
neurofabulous.bsky.social
Ah yes. This. My son didn't seem in the least "different," to me 😂

#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent #Diagnosis
Given that autism is highly heritable, it's a huge flaw in the diagnostic process that parents are supposed to know and confirm if there's anything "different" about their child. If there is, they probably won't have noticed, as it's likely their entire family is autistic.
October 14, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
chanda.blacksky.app
"In the images of the area, even the sunlight looks different and otherworldly. I couldn’t figure out why, until I realised it was because there were no structures to filter it. No shade, no shadows. A home returned to is just a plot on which to pitch another tent and wait for aid."
While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland | Nesrine Malik
Western leaders attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit have enabled and sponsored this slaughter. They are in no position to build a Palestinian future, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik
www.theguardian.com
October 13, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
lizardofoz316.bsky.social
“This follows the playbook of many non-democracies that cancel or manipulate reports that would otherwise show less-than-perfect news.”

apnews.com/article/trum...
After cuts to food stamps, Trump administration ends government's annual report on hunger in America
The Trump administration is ending the federal government’s annual report on hunger in America, saying it had become “overly politicized″ and ”rife with inaccuracies.″ The decision comes two and a hal...
apnews.com
September 21, 2025 at 2:57 PM
neurofabulous.bsky.social
I relate to this.

Anyone else out there 'hardworking and quiet'?

And.. yes:

"Why don't we just start using words to communicate so I can stop tracking everyone's eyebrow twitches, that would be great."

#Autism #Neurodivergent #ActuallyAutistic
@she-waves-at-cats I think it needs to become common knowledge that 'inability to read social cues' can show up as overcompensating. You don't know how much misbehaviour is allowed so you become the perfect child who never tests rules. You don't know how much is expected of you at work, so you'll kill yourself in a minimum wage job and not notice that nobody else is working like this. "hardworking and quiet" should be as much of an autism red flag as "ignores rules and doesn't stop talking". Or why don't we just start using words to communicate so I can stop tracking everyone's eyebrow twitches, that would be great.
September 21, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
dugginsnews.bsky.social
www.apr.org/news/2025-08...
How federal SNAP cuts may hit Alabama
The cost of groceries is up this summer. The news comes as Gulf Coast food banks say they’re feeding a record number of hungry families. Many of those individuals also get by with the help of the Supp...
www.apr.org
August 7, 2025 at 10:23 PM
neurofabulous.bsky.social
#parenting

Too true, yikes 😬
You either face your demons or they raise your children. Unknown/tiny Buddha.com
August 4, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
breena1214.bsky.social
youtu.be/6Q6bwSNEtH0?...
I found another "Whites Only" community.
YouTube video by Monte Mader
youtu.be
July 30, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
penbooks.bsky.social
This is for you, the misfits, & the not-so-normal poets, artists, musicians, healers, actors, storytellers, teachers, lgbtqia, restorers, lovers, and peacemakers everywhere.
#WarIsNotHealthyForChildrenAndOtherLivingThings #MakeLoveNotWar
#PeaceMakers #Artists #Storytellers #Poets #Healers #LGBTQ
June 10, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
mythlfrythtyg.bsky.social
www.aclu.org/press-releas...
ACLU Condemns Trump Executive Order Targeting Disabled and Unhoused People | American Civil Liberties Union
WASHINGTON – President Trump signed an executive order today directing states to criminalize unhoused people and institutionalize people with mental...
www.aclu.org
July 25, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
gemmaclark.bsky.social
Scotland always come up with creative signs but please, someone do ‘grab him by the Epstein Files’! 🙏🏻
July 25, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
dudeimanaspie.bsky.social
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 PM
neurofabulous.bsky.social
As ordinary Scots face a continued cost-of-living crisis, it is unacceptable that they are being forced to pay for Trump’s security during what is a private visit.

Scotland is not his playground.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#Trump #Fascism #RightWing #Populist #Poverty #Scotland

www.thenational.scot/news/2533877...
All we know about protests against Donald Trump in Scotland
As Donald Trump packs his bag and police prepare for one of the biggest operation's ever seen in Scotland, protesters are organising to welcome the…
www.thenational.scot
July 25, 2025 at 10:13 AM
neurofabulous.bsky.social
What she said 👇

#equality #genderequality #womensrights #feminism #patriarchy #financialabuse
Vuyiswa @becca_mts The women before us fought for the right to work not because labour is fun but because relying on men financially resulted in financial abuse & restricted women's freedom. No one hates labour more than me but putting my life in a man's hands sounds more daunting than a 9-5.
July 19, 2025 at 9:46 PM
neurofabulous.bsky.social
Spain and Brazil push global action to tax the super-rich and curb inequality.

news.un.org/en/story/202...

#TaxTheRich #inequality #FutureForHumanity #Billionaires #Poverty #UnitedNations
Spain and Brazil push global action to tax the super-rich and curb inequality
Spain and Brazil have launched a joint initiative to promote higher tax contributions from the super-rich worldwide, aimed at tackling soaring inequality by ensuring those with the most pay their fair...
news.un.org
July 14, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Katy Elphinstone
doomscroling.bsky.social
DOD has announced that it will no longer share critical weather data with the national weather service after July 31st, data that is used to save lives during severe weather such as during hurricane season.

#Pinks
July 2, 2025 at 5:15 PM