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Autistic Pride Infinity Möbius Unisex T-Shirt — Review

[Image Description: A photo of a black t-shirt on a clothing hanger. Printed on the top half of the t-shirt is a rainbow infinity symbol with the words ‘autistic pride’ written across it. End Of Description.]

Item Type: Unisex T-Shirt

Store: Redbubble.com

Artist: Amethyst Schafer

Sizes Available: Small to 3XL (Unisex), full range of apparel covers Newborn Infant to 3XL in “Men’s”

Base Price: $16.96 (as of March 2019)

Full review under the cut

Been a while since I’ve reviewed anything, had some stuff I needed to get through. But I am happy to finally be getting back into writing reviews.

My first clothing review will be of one of my favorite clothings items, a shirt displaying my pride for being autistic. Since this is a Redbubble item, I’ll be reviewing it in two parts: first I’ll talk about the physical t-shirt, then I’ll take a look at the design and artist.

For those who don't know, Redbubble is one of various websites where artists can have their work be sold on merchandise: from mugs, to blankets, to posters. Redbubble takes care of manufacturing and mailing the product. The artist meanwhile provides the design and chooses what products they're available on.

On Redbubble specifically, artists can also choose the price of the products in their shop, with some restrictions, affecting how much they earn per sale. As such you may come across one artist selling their tees for $17, with another selling theirs for 20. Similar product types may also have different base prices, with the ““women’s” clothing options being more expensive” trend applying here. Individual sizes of the exact same clothing type are the same though.

Unfortunately, as it’s been over a year since I bought the shirt, I do not remember exactly when my order got to me. It was definitely within two weeks of purchasing it, if not much sooner, arriving in a plastic parcel. There was a fabric tag clothes-pinned to the collar tags displaying a “thank you for purchasing” style message. As with every purchase, the shirt also came with a free 4 inch square sticker of some artwork surrounding the Redbubble logo.

The shirt appeared exactly as it was presented on the website barring some slight measurement differences that I discuss below. The colors were accurate to the image, and the graphic had the exact size, proportions, and placement as shown on the website. As I mentioned, the shirt does have only two tags located on the inner back collar. These tags display what you'd expect them to: size, manufacturing details, and wash instructions.

Speaking of washing, I’ve had no issues with cleaning the shirt across the 16 months that I’ve owned it. Yes, the graphic has faded over time, but this is to be expected out of any graphic apparel after several years of use. In fact it’s held up even better than some of my graphic tees from JCPenney, though I should note that I’ve owned these shirts for at least a year longer than my Redbubble ones. I’ve also not come across any issues like threads coming undone, persistent stains, shrinking in the wash, or the like. It’s held up as well as I could expect a t-shirt to.

How it fits and feels is in the same category: nothing spectacular, but still well-fitting and comfy. Due to my small height and frame, I had to go with a small, the smallest size the Unisex T-Shirt comes in. The website lists this size as being 36 inches (92 centimeters) around for the chest and 28 inches (71 centimeters) from the shoulder to the bottom. I measured the shirt to be about 34 inches (86 centimeters) around and 22 inches (56 centimeters) in height, putting it on the average to small side of most “men’s” small and extra small tops.

The shirt is roomy without feeling too loose. I don’t feel any stiffness or strain when I put it on or move around in the shirt. Everything is also well covered. My armpits don’t show when I raise my arms, the collar sits exactly at the bottom of my neck, and, at least for me, the shirt comes down far enough to cover the top of any bottoms I’m wearing. The shirt is also not see-through. At first, I thought this was just due to the fabric being black, but I have since bought a few other tops from Redbubble in other colors, and all are equally opaque.

Now finally, we get to the graphic. I’m super happy to have found such a beautiful t-shirt design. This particular take on the rainbow infinity neurodiversity symbol is really gorgeous. The colors and shapes are very smooth and symmetrical. The lines making up the letters are a bit crooked, though this is almost unnoticeable on the actual shirt, even up close. I usually don’t like rainbows other than the classical, bright one, but being as this a symbol for autism pride, the duller shades make more sense. A symbol that could likely cause sensory overload to the individuals it’s meant to represent wouldn’t make much sense.

And speaking of the colors, since much of the graphic is a spectrum of all colors, this limits which of the available t-shirt colors it shows up best on. While the Unisex T-shirt is available in 18 different colors, I found that only about 6 of the options allow for all of the graphic’s colors to show up well. Though I can’t knock it too hard in this regard as it’s an issue with any rainbow symbol or design.

There are also tons of other designs in the artist’s shop pertaining to disability, neurodiversity, and autism, including a variation of the infinity symbol with the words ‘neurodiversity’ in place of ‘autistic pride’. If you can spare spending at least 25 bucks on a single clothing item and are disabled, I highly recommend browsing through Schafer’s shop to see if anything they’ve got strikes you.

The artist, Schafer, is also a disability rights activist and public speaker. They run both a YouTube channel under their full name and Tumblr blog called @neurowonderful. I haven’t looked really deep into the content they produce, but from what I can tell, they do some pretty good work. I’m especially drawn to their YouTube series, “Ask an Autistic”, where Schafer explains various features and facets of autism.

Since their blog and channel center around combating ableism, there will be mentions of and responses to ableist words and actions amongst their content. I’ve not come across anything really graphic myself, but do be careful if you are sensitive to that kind of stuff.

All in all, I absolutely adore this shirt. It’s by far one of my favorite clothing items. For the first few months I owned it, I even wore in weekly. It's super comfy, looks amazing, and was at a great price with equally amazing service. If the graphic design caught your eye, then check it out on the artist's shop.

Even if you aren't interested in this particular product or design, Redbubble has tons of others to choose from. It’s one of, if not the most, popular site for artists to sell their work in this way, so you'll almost certainly come across something that you’ll love.

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Giant Spider and Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale; Volume 1 — Review

Brief Summary: A story set after the apocalypse about a young girl bonding with a giant spider over her love of cooking.

Author and Illustrator: Kikori Morino

Format: Graphic novel/manga series

Genre(s): Post-apocalyptic, slice-of-life

Length: 180 pages

Full review under the cut

Alright, my first official review of anything ever. So as a little warm-up, I’ve decided to review a heartwarming tale that I’ve just recently begun reading, Giant Spider and Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale by Kikori Morino.

I was gifted the first book, the only one I’ve read thus far, on our shared birthday by a close friend of mine. Immediately, I was drawn to this book by the jumping spider, one of my favorite animals, on the cover, with the domestic, watercolor scenery, and post-apocalyptic label further intriguing me. Something about soft storylines in speculative fiction really interests me.

And I was not disappointed. The story focuses on a girl (my guess is that she’s a pre-teen) named Nagi living in a secluded cabin out in the woods, shortly after her father left to go traveling for a bit. While out gathering food, Nagi comes across a giant spider, who, despite appearances, turns out to be very gentle and curious towards her. Though hesitant at first, Nagi comes to befriend this adorable arachnid, whom she names Asa, with the two bonding over Nagi’s love of cooking.

The major conflict of the story centers on Nagi learning to understand Asa. Other conflicts and tenser moments do occur, but even with these, the story remains very low-drama. No grand-scale or hyper-fantastical conflicts, just a girl taking care of herself and developing a new friendship. For every sad or scary page, there are three more humorous or heartwarming ones to balance it out. Giant Spider is filled with tiny moments like Asa rolling around on the ground or the two companions enjoying lunch under the trees that will just make you smile.

Thus far, the story’s just been a mellow take on the post-apocalypse genre. Despite its genre, the backstory to the setting seems to be more so a justification for the tranquil, slice-of-life elements of the tale than anything else. Sure, human civilization as we know it may have crumbled, but in its wake are serene forests filled with life where the remnants of humanity spend their days cooking homemade food, generously caring for one another, and traveling the Earth whenever wanderlust strikes them. If it weren’t for the presence of Asa or the few brief alludes to the past, I likely wouldn’t have known that Giant Spider was set after-the-end.

On that note, I’d say the author did a tremendous job with the personality and design of Asa. They most closely resemble the adorable jumping spider with their large eyes and fuzzy, round body, which is just perfect for this playful character. While quite a bit of artistic license was taken with Asa’s design, there are some surprising and delightful bits of accuracy with Asa’s behavior.

I’ll admit that Asa’s gentle and protective nature could very well just be the “seemingly scary creature actually being docile” trope in action rather than being based on actual spider traits, but whichever the case, Asa’s actions do match up with those of real world jumping spiders. Members of this taxonomic family have been found to be fairly intelligent compared to other spiders. And while I have yet to come across any conclusive studies on this, many people have noted how calm and seemingly inquisitive jumping spiders tend to be around humans. On top of that, there’s at least one known species of herbivorous jumping spider, Bagheera kiplingi, giving credence to Asa’s behavior of happily eating Nagi’s vegatarian cooking.

Which brings me to the next major facet of this book, the recipes. Yup, this post-apocalyptic manga about a girl and her spider is also a cookbook. Much like the Cake tv show or The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell, Giant Spider has a rich narrative intertwined with recipes you can follow at home. However, unlike in similar works, these instructional portions fit more seamlessly into the plot and have a bigger in-story function. As someone who’s recently taken to experimenting with cooking, it was a wondrous surprise coming across these recipes.

I have yet to try out any of these recipes, so I can’t yet give a verdict on how easy they are to follow or how the food turns out, but from the way they’re written, I imagine you could follow them so long as you have at least some experience in the kitchen and a good amount of patience. I especially love how there are little details like what differentiates various types of coffee or how you can use the stems of root vegetables in a dish. At least in the first book, all of the dishes are vegan or vegetarian. It’s almost certain that Nagi does eat meat and other animal byproducts, so it’s likely that these recipes were chosen for safety reasons, though thinking about it, a meat-sparse or free diet would make sense in this particular setting.

All in all, this book is just a delight to read. As of the publishing of this review (January 2019), there are three Giant Spider and Me volumes out. Each book is relatively short. Even when only reading in bits and pieces at a time, I was easily able to finish the first volume in only two days. Considering the tone and length of the books, I most suggest reading this tale during brief periods of downtime or when you just need to unwind. I recommend this book to anybody who enjoys sweet, small-scale stories, especially if you’re as much in love with spiders and/or cooking as I am.