EsotericResearch wrote:
Hey everybody,
I've noticed some weird things about the public perceptions of folks with autism. Notwithstanding people using the terms like sperg, etc as an insult, but just the perception of how autistic or Asperger's adults are like.
Like libertarian, privileged, far-right wing, spoiled, rich, lily-white, uniformly male. Even the stereotypes of our interests are tinged with privilege - like computer culture / Silicon Valley, which is coded as wealthy, instead of working class interests which the majority of us are into most likely. It's like in the public perception, women of color or poor people, who have to work hard aren't supposed to be autistic. Social problems that the media alleges result from autism, are suburban school shootings and bad Wall Street trades leading to the financial crash - which are coded as being done by privileged perps.
It's almost like the subtext is saying that autism results from being spoiled and privileged. That autism is a first world problem, the disability version of being a hipster. I'm really uncomfortable with this and not just because it ignores that women / minorities / profoundly affected / poor adults with autism exist, but because it's being coded with this idea of 1%ers during a down economy when the phrase 1% vs. 99% is very significant.
I'm really uncomfortable with this idea of autistic people being viewed as 1%ers, as expensive and privileged. And I don't know if this is a carefully crafted media image to throw autistics under the bus. There seems to be a bit of a parallel here with the middleman minority trope, such as the Korean Americans of California in the 1980s or Jewish people in old Europe. That "look, these people might seem discriminated, but in actuality they're doing much better than you. So let's build resentment between different groups."
Which resulted, in the widespread oppression of Jewish people in old Europe, as well as the media pitting Black and Asian communities against each other in California in the '90s. Anyone here with me? I don't know who autistics are being pitted against, but the effect is to drive mass opinion against us by saying look, this minority group is doing much better. And in a down economy, it can lead to scapegoating and widespread discrimination while the authorities look the other way.
Or am I just being paranoid? Your thoughts, please.
i think it could be the opposite - minorities are being discouraged from seeking benefits they (imo) deserve because they "couldn't" have the "potentially useful for making money (for the) white man disease" because it doesn't present in that way. it does seem to me that minorities get blamed for so called moral problems to a greater degree.
but then again i'm also of the opinion that stuff like adhd is also at least partially on the spectrum and again it's less linked to money making potential and more things like music, physical labor jobs, handy people, crafts workers, cleaners, data entry and so on.
so the reason i suspect you don't see a lot of media representations is how often do you hear about people that don't work glamorous jobs? aren't white? and aren't male? pretty under represented as a whole. and then if you are any of these things you might not want to make it about your autism, which it probably would become if it was known.
and rich white men are in the safest position to admit to having autism too because they have job security. and then they are held up as an example of what "anyone" should be able to do unfortunately.
28 May 2014, 2:41 am
So that's an issue with society in general, but the fact that so little attention is paid to neauroatypicals and we're not really represented anywhere makes it even worse. I don't remember hearing the spoiled rich kid stereotype before, but I wouldn't be surprised if it exists.
