Relationship with Audience

I think that the relationship that Amanda Baggs is trying to establish with her reader is that of a type of equality. She wants to show that she is the same as everyone else. She does this through her comparison of her language to that of Standard English. I think that she is openly combative to her audience because she feels strongly about her topic. Her obvious passion for, and sometimes anger about, the fact that her language is not actually considered communication very obviously shows through in the duration of her video. She uses anger to promote the issue of equality between her audience and herself to show that autistic people can often communicate and show anger just like anyone else. I think that she makes a good point when she talks about the fact that she feels, touches, smells, and tastes things to communicate with them. Often, communication is focused on speaking, writing, and things of that nature. In this video Amanda makes her readers confront an issue that she feels is very pressing. In order to establish Amanda as an equal with the rest of her audience, she becomes combative. Now, my first reaction when someone is combative is to be defensive. I think that Amanda wants the audience to feel defensive so that they will automatically respond to what she is saying, instead of stopping to consider her “disability.” I also think that she is combative towards her audience because she is angry with the overall attitude that people have toward her “language.” I also think that she is trying to establish an overall feel of authority toward her audience. It seems to me that she comes across as kind of yelling at her audience, which I associate with a figure of authority. I could be completely off track with that one though.