Do you think high functioning autistics/Aspies have ....

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Do you think high functioning autistics/Aspies have privilege? Why or why not? I've been thinking about this later. My aunt said I was lucky that people can't tell that I have a disability (even though I don't consider it that personally) right away and my doctor was shocked when I told her I had AS. She said she honestly had no idea. It got me thinking of how I pass to NTs. It's only when you get to know me more that you'll notice something a little different.

It varies on a case by case thing I have two examples to testify to this.

Their is a girl in my class who is "Autistic." She is 15, has an IQ in the top 1% and is two years above her year level, has many friends and in the future wants to go to Harvard. To me that seems like privilege because of her autism she was able to climb greatly. She scores near perfect results in Maths, is a genius and widely seen as the smartest person in the room.

Then their is another girl who also had high IQ. Unlike her she was thrown two years below her year level. She loved science and was incredibly smart. The thing is she couldn't articulate herself. People just labelled her as ret*d over and over again. She didn't have any friends hardly anyone anyone to talk to. And recently she admitted she knew what it is like to depressed. Every measure we give in our society to being intelligent she had it yet all that happened was that she was dismissed.

To me I think it is complicated, one person with High functioning autism can be hampered the other utilizes it to climb.

Of course this may just be a superficial outlook.

Overall, I'd say yes. The only down-side is that some people will be less tolerant if they expect you to act 100% NT and you don't meet their expectations. I'm sure being invisibly autistic is easier in most situations though.

It is so complicated. My friend has immense social anxiety, he struggles so much to talk to people. I can see that as being a real block in the road. Other times I see autistic people well off, living great lives talking about how they are persecuted. It makes no sense so many people have climbed a result of something they call a disability. It is BS to put it lightly. But the worse effect of this is we trivialize things like autism, we begin to associate it with something other than what it is and it has to end.

In a way it is easier because people won't try and take advantage of you or treat you different. But in other ways it's harder because then people just expect you to be normal and not take your problems seriously because you are so high functioning and you have negative labels from your peers.

Nope.....we don't have privilege!

We have to work hard for everything we got!

Like Shahunshah said it is complicated and situational.

If people know you are HFA/Aspie they will deny your autism, accuse you of using your autism as an excuse, assume you are a savant or genius.

If people do not know they will have typical expectations of you meaning they will not assume automatically that you can not do things, but that could be a double edge sword as sometimes these expectations will be unrealistic.

In general people will judge Autistic parts of you as flaws.

So in general I think HFA/Aspergers is not a privilege, but a substantial disadvantage.

What does any of this have to do with "privilege"?

Nothing you stated here is an example of any kind of "privilege".

Why?

Privilege: "a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most"
The assumed benefit being the ability to pass... or immunity from some of the issues that others have to deal with who don't have that option.

Why what?

A "privilege" is a benifit given to you because you belong to some special class of people.

You have disability, but it is invisible. Thats all she said. Where is the "privilege"?

I dont see the connection.

If anything its the opposite of privilege. If you have a visible disability (like a leg in a cast) folks make allowances for you. If you have an invisible disablity folks dont make allowances for you. So you're screwed. Which is the opposite of "privilege".

I think autism itself is a disability. What makes someone with autism climb high is not their autism...it is their intellect/resilience and other characteristics.

I think lower functioning autistic people have privilege over HFA/Aspies in that they're more likely to receive help with job services and financial aid and more people will be tolerant of them and expect less from them if they even believe HFA people are autistic at all.

Last edited by JohnnyLurg on 27 Mar 2017, 8:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think it's their intellect, too.

However, there are times when what may be termed "autistic singlemindedness" (i.e., a persistent and consistent focus on a salient thing) could very well lead to great discoveries.

It is very rare, indeed, for someone to be granted a "benefit of the doubt" because they have autism.

This happens more often, as other posters stated, with people with more "visible disabilities" (yes, they do, at times, deserve a "benefit of the doubt.")

But to say that autistic people have privilege is a fallacious statement, in my opinion.

I sometimes wonder what society we live in where we are seriously discussing if any disability gives you 'privilege'.