AS Performers and Performance
Lately I have been watching the extraordinary performances of Robert White, a man of many diverse talents on the spectrum, who wowed the judges and public on Britain's Got Talent and won second place in the final.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... got-talent
I have sometimes noticed a false assumption/stigma/stereotypical myth (not just here) that AS and successful performance careers are mutually exclusive. Yet there is a lot of evidence - not only Robert White - that this is not true.
It saddens me when I see AS people believe myths like this. I know that some subscribe to the myth on the basis of reasoning that goes like "Well I don't have that talent, I don't know anyone who does" - overlooking the fact that most NTs also don't have that talent and most don't know people who are extremely successful in it.
Successful performers are a minority in any group of people, NTs or AS or what ever, just as very accomplished novelists are, or very accomplished musicians or scientists. It's not a reason for AS people to promote the myth themselves that AS people can't succeed in the performance group. We can and we do. I can't, but I totally applaud those who can and do. It's also wonderful PR for the entire AS population, in my view.
ASPartOfMe
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I think average AS person has more training at performance then the average NT person bt necessity .
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
Nothing to do with the subject.
Winning on American Idol, or Britains got Talent, or even winning a Nobel Prize, doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you have a disorder, or a disability.
The success of Ray Charles, and that of Stevie Wonder, did not cause society to stop classifying blindness as a handicap, and a disability.
Nash was looney tunes, but he still won a Nobel Prize for mathematics.
Nothing to do with the subject.
Winning on American Idol, or Britains got Talent, or even winning a Nobel Prize, doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you have a disorder, or a disability.
The success of Ray Charles, and that of Stevie Wonder, did not cause society to stop classifying blindness as a handicap, and a disability.
Nash was looney tunes, but he still won a Nobel Prize for mathematics.
Yes I misunderstood the question. My bad. I thought the op was referring to performance IQ. In terms of being "on stage" I always found it easier than talking to people individually. My audience is captive, so I have more control. Plus, when you have a lot of people they tend to aggregate into a kind of order, so they are ironically more predicable.
As for winning a noble peace prize or whatever, it doesn't surprise me that autism people could compete with the best of them, because such prizes are awarded to people who engage in a specialize task, where their disability need not interfere.
Same here. Back when I was playing in bands, I would get a little stage nerves, but nothing like the anxiety of the after-gig party! On stage, the social contract was easy; I had licence to put forth whatever I wanted to express, had practiced expressing it, and did not have to compete for attention or to raise a subject of interest. I was much closer to being the "real me" on stage than I ever could have been while masking in order to cope with mingling socially. I stopped doing it only because the social side of gigging burned me out very quickly, especially when playing gigs out of my home town; too many unfamiliar people and places, and inevitably, the gig organiser both putting us up for the night and hosting the after-gig party, so no escape from it.
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