as small as a world and as large as alone

6:41am August 18, 2014

madeofpatterns:

alliecat-person:

madeofpatterns:

chavisory:

fierceawakening:

lisaquestions:

fierceawakening:

I don’t know if I’m supposed to weigh in on this or not, but I really don’t like the term “allistic.”

I gather that it was intended as sarcasm or snark, and not as the claim that people who aren’t autistic are focused on “all…

GROUP SIGNALING.  Yes.  That is exactly why it grates on my brain.

I want it to just be a neutral word, you know? That doesn’t imply anything about what you think about nonautistic people. 

Also I wish that people would remember that neurotypical never meant to imply that everyone who isn’t autistic is neurologically normal.

Would the word non-autistic be a suitable substitute?

I always thought that’s the right word. It means exactly what it says and doesn’t carry any value judgment.

That’s what I say when I specifically mean not-autistic.

It’s what I say too.

But the last time I said that nonautistic is a perfectly good word, I got yelled at by someone who said “That’s as bad as saying non-trans.”

I don’t know why non-trans isn’t a perfectly good word either.

But apparently there’s an ideological belief system out there that says that for any (or any oppressed?) group of people, there needs to be a specific word for not being that group of people, because simply saying “non(whatever)” is bad in some way.

They use the words “centering” and “decentering” when talking about it, whatever it is.

And it’s supposed to be so blatantly obvious why it’s right, that it should take no explanation.

But it’s not blatantly obvious to me what’s wrong with nonautistic.  Especially given that nonautistic is a word that everyone can understand, and that’s a very important thing.  I would say having a word that is easily understood is more important than whatever this centering/decentering thing is.

But what do I know?  Whenever I enter into these discussions, people assume I’m nonautistic myself, because they think it would be obvious to an autistic person why we ‘need’ words like 'allistic’.

(I still find the word allistic actually offensive, because it reinforces the view that autistic people are oriented towards the self while nonautistic people are oriented towards the other.  Which is simply untrue.  In fact, while autism can cause people to be aware only of ourselves, it can also cause people to be equally aware only of others, or it can cause neither one at all.  It’s kind of funny to me, but I wouldn’t mind the term allistic paired with autistic to denote specific states of awareness of self and other that exist in autistic people.  But as one meaning autistic person and one meaning nonautistic person, no, I could never accept it in a million years.)

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