The term 'Aspie'

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I like the term. To me it seems friendly and informal. However, others have indicated that it's not a term they like, and for various reasons. One even went so far as to compare it to calling a mentally handicapped person a ret*d.

How do you guys feel about it? I don't want to use it if people find it offensive.

I like the term, aspie. I think that it's cute, just like most aspies are.

I like it.

I overlook it when others use it about themselves and try to overlook it if someone uses it in reference to me, but if I know the person at all, I let them know that I'm not terribly fond of the term and would prefer it not be used in reference to me if the person can remember not to. (I realize that many people listen, agree, mean to comply, but then totally forget. It's human.)

I think it cutsifies and that's almost worse than pathologizing. I am not a cutesy-pie; I have relevance and gravitas. I'm not some little three year old showing the room her new ruffly panties and that's what "aspie" feels like to me. It's like being a "biggie fries" at Wendy's. Grow up and call it a large fries because that's what it is and no amount of "biggie" will make me feel cute and charmed about ordering a hog size of junk food. (Not that I am junk food, but I don't require euphemisms. I'm fine as I am, asperger's and all.)

The things that are good to me about having asperger's are bigger than a word like "aspie" can contain and the things I struggle with are diminished and dismissed with a cutesy word like "aspie."

But I understand that others really like the word and I want to assure them that I don't extend theses judgements to others. It's a me thing. I don't look down on others who choose to use the word.

I like it, because it's short and it indicates that Aspergers is part of me (I'm an Aspie) versus sometihng that I have (I have Aspergers).

I hate it and would certainly never use it, especially not as part of an handle on an internet forum.

I'll agree that it's better to belong to something than to be afflicted by it, so in that sense it has an advantage. I'm completely neutral on the word - as I've mentioned before, it's a thousand times preferable to the derogatory terms ASS BURGERS and ASS PIE. What puzzles me is how frequently this gets rehashed in thread after thread, as if it were so momentous an issue, it's actually causing people to lie awake nights worrying about it. I sense a Civil Rights parade coming on.

Personally, if we had to vote for a club name, I like Aspergian. I think it makes us sound smarter.

Hmmm, difficult. I use it among people with Aspergers... they know what I'm referring to.

Outsiders would not, therefore I would use the "little professor" term of Aspergers Syndrome, Aspergers Syndrome, A.S., Autism, Aspergers Syndrome, A.S., Autism, Autism Spectrum, Aspergers Syndrome... until a point my reader or listener is feeling frustrated with the technical term, and I'm sounding redundant. Aspie is short and sweet.

I use it in application to myself and also (rarely I think) to refer to us as a group. I don't dislike the term. There's also the thing that I find I sometimes mis-spell Aspergers and don't want to embarrass myself by mis-spelling.

If someone was to refer to me as an Aspie though, I might get offended depending on context (if someone were to say something like "hey Aspie" or "I just met this Aspie" I'd get offended because I'm more than just a diagnosis).

I like Aspergian.

Aspie is a slang term as opposed to a formal term. To me, slang nouns and other diminutives should only be used between people who are familiar with each other. Inside of this board it is OK for me because I have a high comfort level about the people who post here. I would not want to be called an Aspie by strangers.

The doctor concurs...


Dr. Hans Aspergers

Of course if we had pronounced it like Dr. Asperger's name, no one would have called us "ass burgers" because it sounds more like "ahs PEHRGER" than "ASS burger" like people in the U.S. say it.:

http://www.forvo.com/word/hans_asperger#de

Thanks for the link. I'd read a WP thread on the question, I thought it would translate to English as Ah's Pair-Gur...

It is written -
"Aspie" is not a bad thing, title nor term.

It's a short hand term. I like it. I think it's endearing. It was a term created BY Aspies, mentally handicaped people did not create the term "ret*d" so it's is nothing alike IMO. IMO those who get up in arms over it are being a bit defensive. I mean, if they don't WANT to be called that that's fine, but don't start saying it's meant to demean or offend because it isn't.

I'm an ASPIE and PROUD

Last edited by Gigi830 on 03 May 2010, 6:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.