I’m not going to dox myself, but I am an autism activist and we all pretty much use the term autist. If you read Unmasking Autism, a good book btw, it will show that Autist is the preferred nomenclature
I appreciate the insight from everyone here, I have a friend who taught kids with autism and told me that they were taught to say “person with autism” so I’ve always gone that route since then.
I have a friend who taught kids with autism and told me that they were taught to say “person with autism” so I’ve always gone that route since then.
“Person with autism” is something neurotypical researchers cooked up to describe our “disease” that we need to be “treated” for. Like we’re a person with the flu, or a person with asthma. It implies that we’re fundamentally broken in some way. It’s very common in clinical or educational circles. Your friend probably didn’t know any better, and the kids they were teaching didn’t, either.
“Autistic” or “Autist” is how we talk about ourselves. Autistic folks aren’t sick or broken—we’re whole people. Being autistic is who we are.
I’m fine with “autist” tbh and describe myself as such. I’ve gone so far as to call some of my behavior when I know I should mask and don’t for tactical reasons “weaponized autism”. Honestly one thing that a lot of NTs don’t understand is that some of us like that our neural patterns are autistic. I don’t want to be NT, I like myself, I like how I think. Is it annoying that I get sensory issues? Sure, but I don’t want to trade for the “benefits” of being an NT.
I’m also a Jew. People have used “Jew” as a slur before as well. Did getting hung up on saying “Jewish” or “person of Judaism” ever help prevent the Holocaust ? Did it help Jews get into a college other than Tulane before 1964? Whether someone respects you as a person isn’t going to be changed through their language. They’re just lying.
You can hate me, I can’t change that. But make it easy on me and don’t lie about it, I have a hard time with social cues. I prefer self describing as “autist” and it being a “bad word” for NTs. It makes it very clear not only who is autistic but how an NT feels about you as an autistic person. For others I typically use autistic because I know some autistic people don’t like autist and it helps create that signal that’s gonna make it easier for me to tell who to stay away from.
RFK’s bullshit is very closely tied to the ideology of orgs that pretend to be focused on the needs of autistic people but actually and actively cater to caregivers of autistic people and their inherent ideology of “I have been saddled with this annoying child and someone needs to fix it.” These orgs such as Autism (Caregivers) Speak are already genocidal in their talking points about autism, RFK is mainly catering to these people who believe we’re broken and taking their ideas to their logical conclusions that we should not exist in our current mental states.
I have talked with people, rarely are the people pushing for “Person with Autism” the same ones saying it is a disease needing cure or treatment. They tend to be the individuals who are most likely to be interacting or advocating for autistic people, however they learned “Autistic person” the person started to be ignored, they decided the best way to solve that issue was to put person first, and to their credit, it can work, however it just shuffles the issue and postpones the same issue this linguistic trick was started to avoid. It was after the retorical change that groups like Autism Speaks decided to run around saying this proves its a disease that needs cured. No one changed their mind over the reshuffle, it was just that it is clunkier than the previous it knockes some people out of automatic thinking
I’ve done some disability assistance work and people broadly ignored the training that said “person with X” and instead opened with “[adjective] person,” for whatever that’s worth
obviously you go with whatever the person you’re talking to is comfortable with once you know what that is
“people with autism” it has come from a responce to Autistic people triggering people to not hear the people, this came after autist became the “slur” because people “forgot they where people and not a diagnosis” The new shift to People with autism is in the same vein. You can already see some people droping the intent. It is language shifting without trying to figure out or fix the rout cause of individuals not being able to keep (Diagnosis modifies person) way they can keep Tall and Person without loseing both
I’m not going to dox myself, but I am an autism activist and we all pretty much use the term autist. If you read Unmasking Autism, a good book btw, it will show that Autist is the preferred nomenclature
for who, the author? many autistic people dislike the term. IMO we don’t really even need a noun for autistic people. adjectives work fine.
I appreciate the insight from everyone here, I have a friend who taught kids with autism and told me that they were taught to say “person with autism” so I’ve always gone that route since then.
“Person with autism” is something neurotypical researchers cooked up to describe our “disease” that we need to be “treated” for. Like we’re a person with the flu, or a person with asthma. It implies that we’re fundamentally broken in some way. It’s very common in clinical or educational circles. Your friend probably didn’t know any better, and the kids they were teaching didn’t, either.
“Autistic” or “Autist” is how we talk about ourselves. Autistic folks aren’t sick or broken—we’re whole people. Being autistic is who we are.
I’m fine with “autist” tbh and describe myself as such. I’ve gone so far as to call some of my behavior when I know I should mask and don’t for tactical reasons “weaponized autism”. Honestly one thing that a lot of NTs don’t understand is that some of us like that our neural patterns are autistic. I don’t want to be NT, I like myself, I like how I think. Is it annoying that I get sensory issues? Sure, but I don’t want to trade for the “benefits” of being an NT.
I’m also a Jew. People have used “Jew” as a slur before as well. Did getting hung up on saying “Jewish” or “person of Judaism” ever help prevent the Holocaust ? Did it help Jews get into a college other than Tulane before 1964? Whether someone respects you as a person isn’t going to be changed through their language. They’re just lying.
You can hate me, I can’t change that. But make it easy on me and don’t lie about it, I have a hard time with social cues. I prefer self describing as “autist” and it being a “bad word” for NTs. It makes it very clear not only who is autistic but how an NT feels about you as an autistic person. For others I typically use autistic because I know some autistic people don’t like autist and it helps create that signal that’s gonna make it easier for me to tell who to stay away from.
RFK’s bullshit is very closely tied to the ideology of orgs that pretend to be focused on the needs of autistic people but actually and actively cater to caregivers of autistic people and their inherent ideology of “I have been saddled with this annoying child and someone needs to fix it.” These orgs such as Autism (Caregivers) Speak are already genocidal in their talking points about autism, RFK is mainly catering to these people who believe we’re broken and taking their ideas to their logical conclusions that we should not exist in our current mental states.
I have talked with people, rarely are the people pushing for “Person with Autism” the same ones saying it is a disease needing cure or treatment. They tend to be the individuals who are most likely to be interacting or advocating for autistic people, however they learned “Autistic person” the person started to be ignored, they decided the best way to solve that issue was to put person first, and to their credit, it can work, however it just shuffles the issue and postpones the same issue this linguistic trick was started to avoid. It was after the retorical change that groups like Autism Speaks decided to run around saying this proves its a disease that needs cured. No one changed their mind over the reshuffle, it was just that it is clunkier than the previous it knockes some people out of automatic thinking
I’ve done some disability assistance work and people broadly ignored the training that said “person with X” and instead opened with “[adjective] person,” for whatever that’s worth
obviously you go with whatever the person you’re talking to is comfortable with once you know what that is
Its standard nomenclature, I can as an autistic person go on an hours long rant at how that is stupid and only shifting the problem to later
Do you mean using autist is stupid and shifting the problem to later ? Sorry, I didn’t quite understand
“people with autism” it has come from a responce to Autistic people triggering people to not hear the people, this came after autist became the “slur” because people “forgot they where people and not a diagnosis” The new shift to People with autism is in the same vein. You can already see some people droping the intent. It is language shifting without trying to figure out or fix the rout cause of individuals not being able to keep (Diagnosis modifies person) way they can keep Tall and Person without loseing both
Ahh I see what you mean, thanks for clarifying