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7:57pm April 18, 2013

➸ Trying to find the right words: What I meant about autism speaks in my stereotype list

not-allistic:

youneedacat:

josiahd:

I understand fully how horrible Autism Speaks is.

But I’d still be as autistic if I supported them, or if I didn’t care.

And there’s this thing going around, that somehow you’re less autistic if you don’t have a very specific emotional reaction to them. If you’re not actively distressed and…

I’ve seen that too. In particular people will claim that no autistic people support Autism Speaks. When really a lot of autistic people do. Some because Autism Speaks fits into their value system. Some because Autism Speaks seems to be the only game in town (and puts a lot of energy into seeming that way). Some because Autism Speaks has lied about stuff. Some for other reasons.

I’m super groggy right now and kind of nauseated. So I feel like nothing I say about this will be quite how I mean it, or quite how I perceive things. But I think there’s. what’s the word. Insular. Going on. But I can’t describe it.

Let me take a crack at describing this: autistic people form groups. They form a lot of groups, not one big one. In their groups, they feel like whatever group they’re in at the moment is most autistic people or even all of them. The groups don’t talk to each other much, so they don’t realize that there are other groups of autistics.

Some groups support a cure and some don’t, among other differences. Some support Autism Speaks and some don’t. Because within a group it’s fairly homogenous in opinion, people forget the between-group variance.

Wow. I am so happy about how people have actually tried to translate for me recently. Really grateful.