"Autistic as a Reclaimed Word"

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Which do you prefer?

http://musingsofanaspie.com/2013/11/01/ ... imed-word/

You can't separate a person from their autism. It's more fundamental than even gender. For example, I don't think it's possible to "neuro-identify" as either autistic or non-autistic. Or to transition like one might transition in gender. You can even have a racial identity that is part of your own, or not biologically connected to your own at all. Not so with autism. It's either a part of you or it isn't.

It would be more correct to say "a person with femaleness" (Caitlyn Jenner) or "a person with blackness" (Eninem) rather than "a person with autism."

I've seen people say they hate "autistic person" because apparently that means their disability comes first and they don't want their disability to define them etc etc etc

I've also seen people say they hate "person with autism" because it sounds like a disease or whatever.

I don't see why it even matters. You can't win and if someone looks for a reason to be offended they'll find it. One person will tell you to say the first thing because the second is demeaning, another will say to say the second because the first is demeaning. It's just tumblr PC bullshit.

Both mean the exact same thing as far as I'm concerned. Sick of nitpicking of words that SJWs do.

"Person with Autism"

I am a person with an identity. Autism is a perceptive and/or developmental disorder. It is not an identity.

Would you call a person with too much body fat "Fatso"? Would you call a person with autism "Autismo"? Either way, it's an insult.

Autismo sounds like the name of a wizard.

Not if you like fat people.

Says a fairly fit neurotypical person luckily married to a fat autistic man.

I mean, I know how it sounds to say "autistic person." I wrote my entire thesis using that terminology and frankly it made me cringe sometimes. But that's the only technically correct way I could say it. It's society that's made it feel like an insult. Like the OP said, to use it, it's reclaiming it.

Lol, Autismo the Wizard!

Also seems to be autism in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.

It has been drilled into my head (in Psychology and Criminal Justice) to use "person-first language", ALWAYS, without fail, since I first started taking Psych courses in the early 2000s. This article got me thinking, "what do the individuals involved really want? Did anyone bother to ask?"

As for me, saying "person with autism/Asperger's" is beginning to sound (at least to me) kind of pretentious. Of course, some people I interact with still don't know what "Aspie" means, so that opens up a conversation.

"Autismo the Wizard" - or, "The Great and Powerful Autismo"! (Some of you will get that reference. )

We certainly say "blind person", but that puts them in a category doesn't it? We're always mentally filing people in to categories. He's black, she's a woman, he's fat, she's autistic. It can be very insulting to identify a person by their condition (in the archaic sense). "You there, black person" would be, I imagine, as insulting as "You there, autistic person", would it not?

It is a genetic trait, like height or eye color, and like those, it does not define you as a person. I have blue eyes, not I am blue eyes.

Personally, I would say that I am an Aspie, just as I would say I am a male, I am an Englishman. But where I would say I'm English, I would say I have Asperger's, like "I have blue eyes". I suppose I'm just a little paradoxical. But then again, claiming to be an Englishman is subtly different from claiming to be English.

As my username says it has a large part in how I think and act, personality plays a role in that also. Want to know what is truly offensive? Telling me at 58 years old how I should identify myself.

I've seen many people still refer to autism as "disease" or "disorder"

Yes! there is social difficulties

Yes! we don't fit into a neat little labled box like other persons

Yes! Many have mood dysregulation (a product of environment not biology in my opinion)

But, make no mistake! Do your current research! This is genetic evolution! Gene mutations can occur within one generation of breeding. Statistics used to say 1 in 250 have an ASD, ten years later newer research says 1 in 88. And there is many HFA and AS that go undiagnosed. Our genetic pool is rapidly spreading! We are taking over. We are the future of civilization!
Dr. B

I like when people use person-first language to say someone is "with Autism." It lets me know who thinks I am defective and in need of a cure. Makes it way easier to ignore them.

I also make a personal note of such things. Another good one is when people say FEMALES. As if one isn't even human. "Hello, you are a fine looking female..." A female what? What are you saying?

Or when people talk about their "vehicle." Isn't it a CAR? What is it? Is it a dune buggy? Like, just say what you mean. Sometimes when people try to be polite or educated they end up sounding worse.

I think you're missing the point.

By your logic, a left-handed person should call himself a "person with left-handedness" because being left-handed is not an identity. Obviously that would be ridiculous. Would you call a tall person a person with tallness? Because being tall is not an identity, it's just a description of physical height.

Also your comment about calling someone "fatso" makes no sense. Fat is an adjective when you say "you're fat." Adding an o to it merely turns it into a slur. Autistic is not a slur. Autismo is also not a slur that I've ever heard but I could see it becoming one if you wanted to popularize it.

I don't care about the words. I care about the attitudes and intentions of the person using them.

"n****r" can be a value-neutral adjective in the right hands (or complimentary invective between members of a select subculture); "African-American" can be downright pejorative in the wrong ones.

Ditto "autistic" vs. "person with autism."

Now, personally, most of the people who have condescended to me have used the term "person with autism." Most, if not all, of the people who have condescended to me and/or attempted to harm me have been the type of people who want to GIVE THE IMPRESSION OF seeing me as an equal and a valid human being ("give the impression of," because they don't ACTUALLY just organically see it that way). Therefore, I tend to be leery of people who say "person with autism" or otherwise make heavy use of politically correct speech.

That's just me, though.

My advice would be to be leery of people who work hard to "GIVE THE IMPRESSION OF," "APPEAR," "BEHAVE LIKE," or "SEEM TO BE" ANYTHING. Because, if they have to work so hard at "seeming," then they probably aren't.

They might have good intentions. What's that adage about the surfacing substance on the road to Hell again??

ETA: I'm all in favor of reclaiming. Currently, I'm working on "autistic," "retard," "speddie," "hillbilly," "hick," and "housewife."