as small as a world and as large as alone

2:12am September 22, 2014

feliscorvus:

chavisory:

rise-of-mysterion:

Every single person who’s replied to my autism has had “autistic” in their about me section. 

I don’t understand. I’ve never understood that. Why do you want to be defined like that? Why do you want people to know that first instead of what kind of movies you like, or what songs you listen to, or something that’s actually relevant to your personality? Autism is a part of your identity, but it isn’t your identity. 

…because there’s nothing wrong with being autistic, and there’s nothing wrong with being okay with it, and because a lot of people use Tumblr for the purpose of connecting with other autistic people, so being able to easily identify each other is useful?

Because it is, in some ways, kind of a definitional experience?

I dunno, why are you telling other people what their identity is and isn’t and how they should and shouldn’t want to be defined?

IMO, making a point of *not* mentioning I’m autistic (presuming I wasn’t avoiding the subject for safety reasons) would be as weird as making a point of never bringing up the fact that I’m from Connecticut. No, being from CT doesn’t define me *in and of itself* as a person, but it certainly did a heck of a lot to shape my initial impressions of being alive and it’s not something I can ever “remove” from myself. If *other* people want to use my birth state OR my neurotype OR any other single characteristic I have to define me, I figure that’s their problem, not mine.

Exactly.  To me, autistic is just a word that describes me.  Like the fact that I come from the redwoods initially – which defines me quite a lot, actually.  These are things that matter to me, and matter to some other people.  There’s no shame in them.  Why have to hide them unless you want to?

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