Bringing Infantilism To The Public In A New Way

[anondl]

Why?

Anyone who wants to know about infantilism has probably already searched the web. Bitter Grey has (or had) a site that was informative without being offensive.

I wouldn't want to see a tee shirt that proclaimed "I'm straight, monogamous and vanilla. Accept me".

I simply don't see the point of this sort of outreach.

Anondl

[Guest dllightning]

added update

[PalmTropyx]

I agree fully with SarahAB and would add any assistance I would provide would be that of a supportive role in the respectful and socially responsible methods of supporting our community.

Smiles,

Palm Tropyx!

[abenas]

It's as weird/weirder than most kinks that could never be normal mainstream....and I'm okay with being a freak Like someone else said, if you look at yourself from the outside- it still seems pretty weird. I'm okay without the world trying to figure out if I'm wearing or not .

[Jimpy]

The furry community has been trying to do similar for years. It sadly hasn't worked. That’s because all it takes is one weird or brow-raising image or content to pop up and those impressions stick. Paraphilic infantilism would be no different I don't think. For most people it's a fetish and those who don't have it and are exposed generally look disfavorably upon it. It would take allot for a subculture to gain acceptance, and any progress would be fragile, particularly so when people think we're all pedophiles, blah. I say it should stay underground. But good luck to ya.

[superdiaperbaby]

The furry community has been trying to do similar for years. It sadly hasn't worked. That’s because all it takes is one weird or brow-raising image or content to pop up and those impressions stick. Paraphilic infantilism would be no different I don't think. For most people it's a fetish and those who don't have it and are exposed generally look disfavorably upon it. It would take allot for a subculture to gain acceptance, and any progress would be fragile, particularly so when people think we're all pedophiles, blah. I say it should stay underground. But good luck to ya.

The following image is probably the most popular diaper image on the net. It has become a cliche. All people see is a guy in a diaper and say it is sad and sick or very funny. We can fluff up our reasons why we wear and give perfect explanations, but the second anyone sees it, an image of us in diapers trumps all psychological reasons.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/1457/

Now people who go to BitterGrey's website notice one thing - there are no pictures of people wearing diapers. The reason is because the visual truth trumps the psychological truth. It is as if we all know we look silly so we ignore that fact to get people to accept it. But, if we wanted to be totally open like what some people suggest we need informational sites with pictures, showing the reality of being an ABDL. We can type "I like to wear diapers" all day, but we would never take a picture of us wearing diapers with our face showing. We are so far away from mainstream it makes sense. Let's just stay in the water closet. In a perfect world we would have a site that had 100s of normal AB/DLs wearing diapers and showing their face. That makes it real and that would make it easier for others to see that we are real people. I just don't see that happening. Our community is ashamed and that is it. The people who want to be free are going to have to actually be free, but should not expect all of us to jump in. Just some thoughts.

SDB

[Jimpy]

The following image is probably the most popular diaper image on the net. It has become a cliche. All people see is a guy in a diaper and say it is sad and sick or very funny. We can fluff up our reasons why we wear and give perfect explanations, but the second anyone sees it, an image of us in diapers trumps all psychological reasons.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/1457/

Now people who go to BitterGrey's website notice one thing - there are no pictures of people wearing diapers. The reason is because the visual truth trumps the psychological truth. It is as if we all know we look silly so we ignore that fact to get people to accept it. But, if we wanted to be totally open like what some people suggest we need informational sites with pictures, showing the reality of being an ABDL. We can type "I like to wear diapers" all day, but we would never take a picture of us wearing diapers with our face showing. We are so far away from mainstream it makes sense. Let's just stay in the water closet. In a perfect world we would have a site that had 100s of normal AB/DLs wearing diapers and showing their face. That makes it real and that would make it easier for others to see that we are real people. I just don't see that happening. Our community is ashamed and that is it. The people who want to be free are going to have to actually be free, but should not expect all of us to jump in. Just some thoughts.

SDB

Wow, I feel bad for that guy, being posted up and laughed at like that.

And yes I fully agree with you. I think most AB/DLs recognize their fetish is strange and people WILL mock it. I understand wanting to overturn the ignorance, it'd be great if we could. But it's sadly never going to happen I don't think, not with the way society functions.

[Guest dllightning]

updated OP

[sarah_ab]

UPDATE - After reading some posts, I am going to abandon this project... NOT! Fear will not drive me away. You (opposers) have no idea what we are planning, you don't even grasp the concept.

I just have to say, for someone who is wanting acceptance and a unified community, comments like this make me not want to even visit this site when it is up.

As for grasping the concept, just remember, making people aware is completely different than making people accept, and you can make people aware all you want, but you can NEVER MAKE someone accept, that is something each person has to do that on their own and most people will not accept ab/dl no matter how much we love them, or they love you.

I wish you well on your journey, but please do not be angry at those who do not agree with what you are doing. That in itself with give people a reason not to work towards unification.

[PampersPete]

Resistance is futile.......Can anyone give me the quick definition on insanity?

[CBD]

At this time I'm more interested in helping diaper lovers find out they are not alone than worrying about what others think. Been tossing around the idea of making a company-neutral site (meaning not a front page to sell products, memberships, etc.) linking to all the major community and info sites, then taking out ads in the alternative newspapers and other fetish mags to help those interested find us all.

That is certainly a very viable plan. It would be a great thing for the community.

[Bettypooh]

UPDATE - After reading some posts, I am going to abandon this project... NOT! Fear will not drive me away. You (opposers) have no idea what we are planning, you don't even grasp the concept.

I quite grasp the concept, more than that I grasp the real reason you're doing this and what the end is likely to be Nothing beats experience for a teacher so go for it. Me? BTDT and I've still got the shreds of the T-shirt I escaped with as a poignant reminder

"And now for something completely different, a human going hoist by his own petard"(My apologies to Mr. Cleese!)

Bettypooh

[curiositykilledthecat]

Can I just say that I don't really want a cross dresser/sissy acting as my personal representative of my fetish to the outside world. I have no objection to you doing whatever it is you want to do, however, to think that any of us can selectively speak or act on behalf of the entire community is a bit absurd. I don't think the "Community" needs ambassadors. I also don't believe that this fetish really needs to be mainstream. This is a fetish and as such we can only enducation people on an individual level, won't work collectively.(Too much negative press online) We are all unique in our own way and Techincally whether you want to admit it or not being an abdl is a sub-genre of bdsm. Anyways went off topic, but if you want to express yourself to the outside world as an abdl, be my guess and rock on; just don't presume to feel the need to be our national spokesperson. I salute your efforts yet just want to offer a word of caution.

[curiositykilledthecat]

Resistance is futile.......Can anyone give me the quick definition on insanity?

Repeating thwe same idea over and over and expecting different results.

[sarah_ab]

but what if you repeat the same idea over and over, but DONT expect different results? does that make me sane? or just stupid? or maybe stupidly sane?

[Yvhuce]

but what if you repeat the same idea over and over, but DONT expect different results? does that make me sane? or just stupid? or maybe stupidly sane?

Isn't that called OCD?

[curiositykilledthecat]

Isn't that called OCD?

ROFL, my partner at the emergency shelter was an extremely effeminate male with an extreme ocd. Took a couple hours before he stopped irritating me but last night was interesting. He was a nice guy once i got past his intricacies.

[sarah_ab]

hahah so i have a friend who's a police officer with tourette syndrome... and as with TS he has OCD, and has his own certain behaviors and compulsions... well one night after an injury he was pulling desk duty, and the other fellow in the squad room with him was a gentleman with extreme OCD as well... the thing was, they had completely opposite compulsions.. where as my friend needed everything lined up in rows of three, this fellow needed everything in rows of five.... and on and on and on... it was like a sitcom in real life hearing about it!

[PampersPete]

Tourette's Guy is my hero

[BabyJune]

The first thing you are going to need to knock down is people thinking you want to molest thier kids.

What's odd about this is, for many people, the attachment to diapers (after potty training, that is) came way before puberty kicked in. Diaper-loving is not always sexual; it's an escape from the harsh, cruel, realities of life...and in many cases, it works. It's a much safer stress-reliever than booze or drugs.

I was about seven or eight when I rediscovered the joy of diapers and plastic pants. That was many years before I knew what "child molestation" meant and would never have dreamed of it. Even now, I work with children all the time and have no ill intentions toward them. I am, however, a bit envious of their carefree lifestyle...but in a good way.

Baby June 2/22/2009

[underwhere]

Can I just say that I don't really want a cross dresser/sissy acting as my personal representative of my fetish to the outside world. I have no objection to you doing whatever it is you want to do, however, to think that any of us can selectively speak or act on behalf of the entire community is a bit absurd.

It may sound absurd, but perhaps it is not.

I've spoken at length about my disability in various places on this web site, most notably my blog and and in a couple of forum posts. I've also had some extensive discussions about it with people in the chat room. Prior to October of 1996, which is when I took my personal website live, there was no personal information available online about it, and it was believed by the cognitive science community that there were only some 200 or so cases in the entire world of people who have my disability. It did not take long for me to discover how wrong the cognitive science community was. I quickly came into contact with a significant number of other people who also have my disability, most of whom had no official diagnosis. Current research suggests that the prevalence within the overall population may be as high as 2%. Not all of us share the exact same coping strategies or the exact same degree of social difficulties or even the exact same degree of impairment in recognition, but we all share one underlying thing in common: we all have difficulties with faces as compared to the rest of the population.

I never intended to become a spokesman for people with my disability. Certainly, that is not what I was aiming for when I began that journey, but somehow, a person was needed to take that role, and I felt comfortable putting myself in that role, and well, the rest as they say is history. I was featured in an article in the Boston Globe. I was asked to contribute to a sidebar in an article published in Psychology Today. I was featured in a piece put together by CNN. I've assisted in the script-writing and editing process for a pair of theater productions. I was specifically asked to be quoted in a literary publication out of the UK. Many people have quoted my words published online and through e-mail correspondence as part of their student and professional projects. I've participated in more cognitive science research studies than I could possibly remember.

I've got quite a resume on this whole advocacy thing, but I've always made a point to stipulate experiences which I know are exclusively mine and separate those from experiences which I know are more general in scope for other people who have my disability. Given my experience, I do think it is possible to do something quite similar for the AB/DL community, and I would love to participate in that. However, I don't feel comfortable being that spokesman. I don't feel like I have a sufficient amount of knowledge or understanding about the various facets of the AB/DL community to be able to paint a fair picture which would be an accurate representation which I would feel comfortable sharing with the world. But if you need somebody to be a spokesman for my specific disability, I'd do that in a heartbeat.

I think there are people who can and would be fantastic representatives of the AB/DL community, if they were willing to take that role upon themselves. The primary thing to keep in mind is this: we may all be different and share different thoughts and experiences and desires, but we all share a common love and appreciation for the wearing of diapers. Beyond that, there are various branches of this "interest" (I don't wish to use the word "fetish" since it is not for many people) which might be better explained by different people, keeping in mind that not everybody's experiences will be the same.

There was previously a discussion on this site about creating a wiki, and frankly, I think this might be the best use of such a tool. That way, everybody could contribute their knowledge and understanding to a greater project about AB/DL and create a repository of knowledge that other people can stumble upon and read at their leisure. One can then advertise the wiki for all to come and read. If we decide to do this, I think a useful place to begin would be to consider the various topic areas we would want to cover, and designate different people to write those specific topics. We can always go back over as a community and edit if we think there is a need for more or less clarity or specificity.

I don't think the "Community" needs ambassadors. I also don't believe that this fetish really needs to be mainstream. This is a fetish and as such we can only enducation people on an individual level, won't work collectively.(Too much negative press online) We are all unique in our own way and Techincally whether you want to admit it or not being an abdl is a sub-genre of bdsm. Anyways went off topic, but if you want to express yourself to the outside world as an abdl, be my guess and rock on; just don't presume to feel the need to be our national spokesperson. I salute your efforts yet just want to offer a word of caution.

I understand where your thoughts are coming from, but I think if you look at this from a bit of a different perspective, we can achieve a bit of a different result. I agree that AB/DL will never be mainstream, but that is okay. It's not about being mainstream. It is about providing enough knowledge and understanding so that if you say casually in a conversation "I am a diaper lover" or "I am an adult baby", somebody you might be talking with could respond, "You know, I just read something about that. That sounds interesting, and I'd love to ask you some questions about it if you don't mind." THIS is where advocacy has the best chance of succeeding, an interested person asking one of us about our "interest", and word will travel once this starts happening.

Just as a further point of reference, this will not happen overnight. It took several years from the time I started my personal project of advocacy for my disability before it really started to take hold. It took 5 years to decide that a private e-mail list for those with my disability was nice and useful, but we also needed a public e-mail list for such discussions too. That was created, and its been a downhill slide ever since. I believe strongly that AB/DL advocacy has the potential to work the same way.

[Guest dllightning]

ur in. I just updated this thread with the forum info on the OP. Check it out and I will let you in the Admins Council

It may sound absurd, but perhaps it is not.

I've spoken at length about my disability in various places on this web site, most notably my blog and and in a couple of forum posts. I've also had some extensive discussions about it with people in the chat room. Prior to October of 1996, which is when I took my personal website live, there was no personal information available online about it, and it was believed by the cognitive science community that there were only some 200 or so cases in the entire world of people who have my disability. It did not take long for me to discover how wrong the cognitive science community was. I quickly came into contact with a significant number of other people who also have my disability, most of whom had no official diagnosis. Current research suggests that the prevalence within the overall population may be as high as 2%. Not all of us share the exact same coping strategies or the exact same degree of social difficulties or even the exact same degree of impairment in recognition, but we all share one underlying thing in common: we all have difficulties with faces as compared to the rest of the population.

I never intended to become a spokesman for people with my disability. Certainly, that is not what I was aiming for when I began that journey, but somehow, a person was needed to take that role, and I felt comfortable putting myself in that role, and well, the rest as they say is history. I was featured in an article in the Boston Globe. I was asked to contribute to a sidebar in an article published in Psychology Today. I was featured in a piece put together by CNN. I've assisted in the script-writing and editing process for a pair of theater productions. I was specifically asked to be quoted in a literary publication out of the UK. Many people have quoted my words published online and through e-mail correspondence as part of their student and professional projects. I've participated in more cognitive science research studies than I could possibly remember.

I've got quite a resume on this whole advocacy thing, but I've always made a point to stipulate experiences which I know are exclusively mine and separate those from experiences which I know are more general in scope for other people who have my disability. Given my experience, I do think it is possible to do something quite similar for the AB/DL community, and I would love to participate in that. However, I don't feel comfortable being that spokesman. I don't feel like I have a sufficient amount of knowledge or understanding about the various facets of the AB/DL community to be able to paint a fair picture which would be an accurate representation which I would feel comfortable sharing with the world. But if you need somebody to be a spokesman for my specific disability, I'd do that in a heartbeat.

I think there are people who can and would be fantastic representatives of the AB/DL community, if they were willing to take that role upon themselves. The primary thing to keep in mind is this: we may all be different and share different thoughts and experiences and desires, but we all share a common love and appreciation for the wearing of diapers. Beyond that, there are various branches of this "interest" (I don't wish to use the word "fetish" since it is not for many people) which might be better explained by different people, keeping in mind that not everybody's experiences will be the same.

There was previously a discussion on this site about creating a wiki, and frankly, I think this might be the best use of such a tool. That way, everybody could contribute their knowledge and understanding to a greater project about AB/DL and create a repository of knowledge that other people can stumble upon and read at their leisure. One can then advertise the wiki for all to come and read. If we decide to do this, I think a useful place to begin would be to consider the various topic areas we would want to cover, and designate different people to write those specific topics. We can always go back over as a community and edit if we think there is a need for more or less clarity or specificity.

I understand where your thoughts are coming from, but I think if you look at this from a bit of a different perspective, we can achieve a bit of a different result. I agree that AB/DL will never be mainstream, but that is okay. It's not about being mainstream. It is about providing enough knowledge and understanding so that if you say casually in a conversation "I am a diaper lover" or "I am an adult baby", somebody you might be talking with could respond, "You know, I just read something about that. That sounds interesting, and I'd love to ask you some questions about it if you don't mind." THIS is where advocacy has the best chance of succeeding, an interested person asking one of us about our "interest", and word will travel once this starts happening.

Just as a further point of reference, this will not happen overnight. It took several years from the time I started my personal project of advocacy for my disability before it really started to take hold. It took 5 years to decide that a private e-mail list for those with my disability was nice and useful, but we also needed a public e-mail list for such discussions too. That was created, and its been a downhill slide ever since. I believe strongly that AB/DL advocacy has the potential to work the same way.

[boy ricky]

UPDATE - For those wanting to place feedback, we have the forums up and running. The forums are for discussion of the project only. There is a thread where you can introduce yourself and the details about you to better help us build the site.

go to: www.projectemergence.freeforums.org

pass to get in is blackhawk09~

UPDATE - After reading some posts, I am going to abandon this project... NOT! (edit - I was a little emotional on this earlier, let me tone it down.)

UPDATE - A huge THANKS to everyone pledging support of this project. There are a couple of us really willing to help bear this task. (A thought back to the Lord of the Rings). The forums to collaborate on this task are up and being organized in the next couple of days. Please stay tuned for updates. I am code naming this undertaking Project: Emergence.

Heya All, thanks for the view- I will make this a brief read.

In recent activity mainly with CBD and adriansurely, and a couple other people on the net. I believe it is time to really, and I mean really take our community to the next level and work at getting infantilism mainstream in a good light. Lots of ideas are floating around out there, I know. I am willing to help create a site, THE SITE, that will be our community's face to the general public. This won't be an easy task, but it can be done.

If you want to be an active part in a sub section of our community wanting to get the public aware of infantilism in good means, then PM your email address and I will add you to our list. Looking to get either a sub forum up in here that is password protected or I will start one on another server.

I am about done with stigma. It's time we actually did something vastly effective for our community.

Also, if you want. Post here and let everyone know you are on board after PMing me your email.

I would be interested in taking part in this.

[sarah_ab]

Tourette's Guy is my hero

sadly a little over a year or so ago tourette's guy passed away.

[PampersPete]

sadly a little over a year or so ago tourette's guy passed away.

Alas,so I've been told I saw Tourette's Guy not as making fun of people with the affliction,but quite the oposite. I saw Tourette's Guy as making fun of the"normal"people. Just in an enlightening way. FUCK SALT!!!!!!!!