All of my bras are missing!

Confused?

You should be.

This is a Facebook awareness "game" that has slowly been doing the rounds over the last few weeks. I found the following in my messenger inbox this morning, having responded "eh?" to a friend's post claiming "I just peed myself!":-


You shouldn't have liked or commented on my last status hahaha. Now you have to pick from one of the below and post it as your status. This is the 2017 Autism Awareness game. Don't be a spoil sport. Pick your poison from one of these and post it as your status.
1. Just found a squirrel in my car!
2. Just used my kids to get out of a speeding ticket.
3. How do you get rid of foot fungus?
4. All of my bras are missing!
5. I think I just accepted a marriage proposal online?!
6. I've decided to stop wearing underwear.
7. It's confirmed I'm going to be a mommy/daddy.
8. Just won a chance audition on America's got talent!
9. I've been accepted on master chef.
10. I'm getting a pet monkey!
11. I just peed myself!
12. Really thinking about getting butt implants!
13. Just won 700 on a scratcher!
14. We're moving to Vermont at the end of the year!
15. Mayonnaise on Reese's peanut butter cups is sooo good!
16. I've just been accepted on come dine with me whoop whoop.
Post with no explanations. Sorry, I fell for it too. Looking forward to your post. Ahhh don't ruin it. (Don't let the secret out). And remember it's all for the 2017 Autism Awareness. Have fun! X


Needless to say that I am a spoilsport and I haven't shared one as my status.
I also haven't shared a ❤️ for breast cancer prevention either, which probably doubly makes me a spoilsport.

I don't think I'm alone in wondering how on earth these games, which are not my idea of fun, raise awareness for the various conditions they are tediously trotted out for. Not one of the phrases says anything about autism, there is no educational purpose, they don't raise any money for any autism charities (and if they did, it would be for Autism $peaks). There is no purpose in them at all, apart from perhaps making the person sharing these statuses feel that they've done their bit for autism.

Instead of inane sentences, it might be more useful to share useful snippets of information to educate, something like:

Autism is a neurological, developmental disability, not a condition caused by parenting.

Autistic people often mask, so you may not know they're autistic.

You cannot see that someone is autistic.

Meltdowns are not tantrums, they are not a sign of bad behaviour and shouldn't be punished.

Except, I see these sort of quotes on autism pages every day, and they're not interesting enough for people with no link with autism to share, there's no amusing angle with an informative caption, as opposed to engaging with a caption that catches others' attention, gives fleeting thoughts about autism for as long as it takes to type "Just found a squirrel in my car!", but which actually does nothing to change the challenges so many autistic people face every day.