Person First Language vs Identity First Language

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I've been thinking about this a lot. Do you prefer PFL (person with autism) or IFL (autistic person)?

I know some people (allistics especially) will avoid using either and say "on the spectrum."

But I want to know how you, individually, feel. Personally, I prefer to say that I'm autistic rather than I have autism.

I am not a person with autism, I'm an autistic person.

We don't insist on calling women 'people with female gender', or white people 'people with pale skin', or Canadians 'people from Canada'. Even people with blond hair can be called 'blonds' without offending anyone. Only when it's a stigmatized identity do we convolute our language in that way. I don't think calling me an autistic implies it's all I am, any more than calling me a blond does.

I am an Autistic Person. I do not refer to myself as a person with Autism and I will correct anyone strongly if they insist that I do. I respect anything that any other person wants to personally call himself and I will honor that towards him (or her) but I will not let people tell me that I should call myself a person with Autism. It is such a huge and integral part of my identity that I do not consider that I am a person first. That would imply that I could exist as me without Autism. I was born with it, I have never existed without it and it cannot be removed from me so I will never exist without it. And it affects every part of my life in a very substantial way. Insisting that I call myself a person with Autism, for me, minimizes and trivializes how Autism affects every part of my life, every moment of every day and night. And it's not all negative but whether it is negative or positive, I am still affected.

I'm an autistic person. If you say I'm a person with autism you may as well also say I'm a person with blackness and a person with gayness and a person with Asian roots...gets kinda crazy after a while, doesn't it?

And I don't want a "cure" or "treatment". Just thought I'd throw that in.

To me this sounds like various ways people introduce themselves at 12 step meetings.

Someone said what's in a name.

Others name is everything - their given name and title.

My diagnosis is neither.

That my thoughts at this time. Stick around - they might change

or not.

"If we can't laugh at ourselves, others will beat us to it." Said someone else....

I agree, saying "person with autism" sounds to me like trying to separate something from a person that really can't be viewed independently. it also seems to portray autism as a disease, an ailment best cured (which I also don't support!)

drlaugh, I'm not sure what that meant... could you elaborate?

One of the reasons that it infuriates me when people insist that I use person first identity with Autism, is that the people who have personally done that to me have given me the impression that they were doing it because they thought that I needed to "feel better" about "having Autism" as if I was upset or insecure about being Autistic. I think the problem is that for them, they think Autism is a negative thing. So they want to appear sympathetic. It's as if they are saying, "Don't feel bad, we still see you as a person even though you "have Autism." To me that means that they have the problem not me. And why the hell should I care how you see me? Are you so important that how you see me is how I need to see myself?

If you have try to convince yourself that you really do see me as a person and you are doing that by trying to pass it off as if you are trying to convince me that I am one because the way I self identify makes you feel like I don't acknowledge or understand that you realize that, that is your problem not mine. You need to mature in your understanding.

If you really do see me as a person, than my calling myself an Autistic person should not affect you or rub you the wrong way. If you accept that people call themselves whatever they want than it shows that you don't have an issue with how they identify with themselves. If you insist that people call themselves what you want, it shows that you have the issue with accepting how they identify themselves. Just like with someone saying, "I am a deaf person," or "I am a blind person." People don't say, "No, don't say that. I want you to say, 'I am a person who is deaf, or I am a person who is blind because you are a person first and you are not your disability." I think that is arrogant and stupid. That is just personally how it makes me feel. I can't speak for anyone else.

skibum- yes! It makes me so mad when NTs try to tell us how to say it, or when they assign PFL as the standard.

I am not changing the words I use for myself, even if they make non autistics uncomfortable. narratives about autism have centered around how it affects them for too long.

Luke S.
Regarding cures.
I'm happy being me.
I've talked with my counselor about meds but decided the down side might be taking away my creativity , improvisational comedy and writing.
Below is an example I don't go to O. A. I do participate in Celebrate Recovery.
Some at meetings might say I'm
John and I'm an over eater.

Or I'm an over eater my name is John

After the meeting I'm john a person with over eating

Related people introduce me as
____'s a comedian, or He's dr. Laugh.

On a weird on related so much some people call me by my "Lead puppets name by mistake or memory clitch".

Did Leonard Nimoy write a book
I'm not Spock?

In a box of my mind I'm writing a book I'm not (my puppets name) but (my puppets name) is part of me.

Sometimes I don't even understand me.

I haven't (yet) been diagnosed, so this isn't something that people even know about me, but I definitely consider myself to be an autistic person.

On here I tend to use a mix of 'autistic', 'with autism' and 'on the spectrum' when writing up my posts, but I think I'm trying to balance out a bit for everyone.

Referring to me, if I receive a diagnosis, I'll want to use 'autistic'.

On WP
I have typed
New
Newly Diagnosed
Level one
Level 1

Sometimes at the end as part signature as in


me....level one

even when I type my real name off WP I use small rather than Capital Letters. I also have this year (365 ish days) started to use emojis like

My son is an autistic, I have aspergers.

or in less formal setting/among friends; Im (an)Apsie (it is slightly awkward word even shorter. Darn german words n names)


I am not going to convolute language any more than I have to.

I fear for the day I have to answer:

"I am pale complected indigenous blooded, American born, parapartum, heterocentric, Pan European, latina, Monotheist human of female gender with autism"
Would even "American" be neutral enough? <_<
married is so volatile.. maybe religious contract bonded? vs social contract bonded and local law contract bonded or verbal contract bonded?

Ski B.
Side note
I was working when someone moved the letters on the door to make 2 words instead of one

The new words

The rapist.

I like words and was taken aback.
That was almost 30 years ago and I had not thought of it until your post.

Mini laugh/smile while typing.
Sorry for my digression.

I say I'm an "autistic person" because that's how adjectives work. In English it's customary for adjectives to come before nouns. My car is an "old purple van", and the fact that it's old and purple doesn't make it any less of a van. Autistic is an adjective that discribes me.

Honestly? I don't really care one way or the other. I am more likely to say that "I HAVE autism" rather than I'm autistic or a person with autism.

I'm not a fan of "autistics" as a noun, but I don't know why, but I'm not about to get all up in arms about it and it's fine if someone chooses to use for themselves, just not for me. However, I can't stand "suffers from autism", as autism isn't causing me to "suffer".