Sherlockismyfix wrote:

Nakahara, I have a family member with autism, so I find this doubly nauseating.  We have experienced the pain of seeing him humiliated by his peers too many times....

I think, however, that we have to address the casual cruelty pervasive and even encouraged in our society. The ice-bucket challege is just the medium of choice in this case.  Those little monsters would have devised another humiliation if they had not chosen this one. 

Oh, I am so sorry to hear that you must encounter similar human insensivity and stupidity being aimed at your own family... it is sickening to think how many individuals try to boast their small egos by attacking those who are so vulnerable. 

And yes, our current culture, in which it is all too acceptable to belittle others, make it so much easier for those awful bullies.

That´s why I feel that the original charity should have chosen some different form of raising awareness about ALS than this "ice-bucket challenge". Let´s face it, people who bully others are numerous and this just gives them the perfect tool to harm the weak and vulnerable - dunking a bucket on someone´s head is like a bullies´ wet dream. They would have it much more harder and wouldn´t entrap their young autistic victim so easily if the challenge was about taking a walk in front of the camera, for example. 

Not that the dumping of an icy water over someone´s head is less harmfull, anyway. Such a sudden shock to your head and body could not be healthy. And it contains an element of humiliation to it that doesn´t sit too well with me even in that form. 

I think I have to disagree that the ice-bucket challenge is inherently humiliating--the challenge is to dump ice water on ones own head, which (especially in summer) is not particularly humiliating--such a thing could only be perceived as a humiliation if done without warning or agreement by someone else. (Benedict's "surprise" soakings were clearly not a surprise to him at all!)

That the challenge was used in such a way is horrible, but it doesn't retroactively make something that people cheerfully did to themselves--or not did, as in Patrick Stewart's example!--humiliating. (And I am super-ultra-extra sensitive to humiliation masquerading as "just fun.")