Theme
3:19pm June 8, 2014

patternsmaybe:

slashmarks:

It’s interesting that whenever people criticize general dynamics in activist communities, people will zero in on an area they’re not privileged in and attack them in that context

Or that they assume they’re not privileged in. 

I’ve been attacked for being neurotypical, or for being a man. Neither is anywhere close to true.

Yep.  I’ve had people assume that I’m nonautistic because I don’t like the word ‘allistic’.  Even though my grounds for not liking the word 'allistic’ is that it promotes an inaccurate view of autistic people.  I’ve also had people assume I’m just not very autistic, or not very severely disabled.  When usually by most measures of severity I’m the most severely disabled person in the group of people having the discussion, or very close to such.  Not that it’s a contest, and not that I usually measure it that way, but I’m usually talking to people who do measure it that way and assume that I’m in some completely different location disability-wise than I am.

I’ve also been assumed cis more times than I can count, in online discussions, because I have views that are at best considered old-fashioned in the trans community (stemming partly from when I happened to be most heavily involved in this community).  Or sometimes just views that people think are certain views, when they’re actually not.

Really I think I’ve had people assume privilege in every area I’m oppressed in, just for not having a view exactly like the party line for whatever the oppressed group is.  And by not exactly, I mean I don’t have to deviate that much before people start assuming privilege I don’t have.  (Sometimes I have less privilege in that area than the people doing the assuming, and they never ever wonder how that connects to my views, because often it does.)