No, I describe myself as an autist all the time.
I am an autistic. I am an autist.
Its a word that describes what I am.
If you get bad vibes from it, you have some insrcurities you need to handle.
Comment on It makes me shudder
SaraTonin@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Is It just be that loathes the word “autist”? Gives me real “Oriental” or “the blacks” vibes
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
SaraTonin@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Say it was Black instead. Can you not see how describing someone as “a black” could be dehumanising?
I am autistic. I am an autist.
I am schizophrenic. I am a schizoid.
I have Down’s Syndrome. I am a Down’s.
Or just disability in general.
I am blind. I am a blindist.
I am deaf. I am a deafist.
Or even just other self-describing words.
I am old. I am an oldist.
I am tall. I am a tallist.
I have zero insecurities about being autistic. I also dislike coy phrases like “on the spectrum”, which have the implication that there’s something wrong with saying that someone is autistic. Like it’s something to be ashamed of. It’s fine. I am autistic. You can say I’m autistic. That’s cool.
But that doesn’t mean that I should accept a term just because that’s what 4chan, WallStreetBets, and Gab popularised by using to put us down either by using it ironically or just by straight-up using it as an insult. You can make an argument for reclamation, perhaps, but I don’t think we’re there.
And, and perhaps this is just me, but isn’t it a horrible word? Phonetically?
As I’ve said, there seems to be no consensus in the autism community and one dividing line appears to be America vs. the UK
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
You can make an argument for reclamation, perhaps, but I don’t think we’re there.
I am there.
That is exactly what I am doing.
Yep, autists are in fact different from other people, here I am, let me tell you and show you what’s real and what is a harmful, false stereotype, or a common misunderstanding.
I’m also bi, queer.
Pretty sure the term queer had to be reclaimed, just like fag/faggot did, and was.
Autism and/or autists have for decades now suffered massively from being described and defined and represented in media by non-autists who perpetuate many extremely offensive and innacurate caricatures and misunderstsndings of autism.
It rarely occurs to a non autistic person to just actually ask an autistic person ‘hey, what is it like to be autistic?’
We have tons of examples of ‘autistic coded’ characters in media being actually more accurate depictions of autism… than of characters that are explicitly stated to be autistic.
We have tons of even academics and psychologists/therapists that have basicslly only a surface level/caricature understanding of autism, you basically have to specialize in it, or just actually be autistic yourself to understand it better.
We have to represent ourselves, or we will continue to be misrepresented and misunderstood.
Anyway, as to the linguistics of ending a word with -ist seeming awkward to you…
Economist. Scientist. Artist. Martial Artist. Dentist. Journalist. Pianist. Pharmacist. Biologist. Dendochronologist. Archaelogist. Anthropologist.
Tourist. Cyclist. Motorcyclist.
Capitalist. Marxist. Anarchist. Pacifist. Environmentalist.
Optimist. Pessimist. Nilhist. Absurdist.
You’re categorizing Autist as a word that indicates disability.
I’m categorizing it as a word that indicates common activities, knowledge sets, capabilities, skill sets, thought patterns, ways of thinking.
Autism is not a disability, to me.
Its a different way of existing, of being, one that is inherently not alterable.
Aside about Deaf Culture
(Talk to a lot of people born deaf and they’ll often tell you the same, there’s a whole culture there, you’ll wind up with things like deaf people getting ostracized from the deaf community if/when they get implants or treatments that allow them to hear… I’m not deaf, I’m not well-versed in this, but I’ve known enough deaf people and people who work or interact with deaf people that I do know this is a thing)
We can mask, we can try to pretend to be ‘normal’, we can even sometimes get pretty good at it, but it causes massive mental and physical overload and can lead to autistic burnout.
Or… we can just be ourselves and be more or less fine, if other people approach the concept of an autistic person more accurately, more realistically, with more humility than pre-baked stereotypes.
SaraTonin@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Anyway, as to the linguistics of ending a word with -ist seeming awkward to you…
All the words you cited describe what people do or believe. Not what people are
Autism is not a disability, to me
I think it clearly is
There’s a saying “everybody has different abilities and needs, but ‘disability’ is a product of society”. You yourself list some of the struggles that we face. And these struggles more often than not have consequences beyond what you list - lack of employment, isolation, barriers to healthcare. Hell, our lifespans are shorter on average than allistic people. 5-10 years without any mental health comorbidities, and up to 20+ in people with comorbidities
All from existing in a society which is built around other people’s needs and which doesn’t account for ours
I don’t see how it can even be a question. And I say that as someone who firmly believes that if the stats were reversed and we made up 98-99% of the population and allistic people made up 1-2% of the population they would be the ones considered disabled because society would actually be built around us
And let’s not start shrugging off the term “disability” as if that itself is something to be shunned or ashamed of. There’s enough stigma around disability - particularly mental disability - without having it also come from inside the house
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Autist used as an insult on Wallstreetbets, it’s usually people referring to themselves as autists.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Exactly.
People assume its an insult, because they assume someone calling themself or another an autist… is deragatory.
Which only makes sense if you presume that it is bad to be autistic or an autist.
… Many autists do not see it this way.
They are offended by the idea that somebody would think it is an insult, though.
SaraTonin@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Yes, that’s the irony. It’s allistic people calling themselves “autists” because they have a strong interest in something and act in stupid ways
To illustrate how it’s used there, you only need to look at the terms that it’s interchangable with: “idiots”, “smooth-brained”, and the r-word. This is not an example of positive representation
Lumidaub@feddit.org 3 days ago
“This is an American.”
You don’t need to accept a term you don’t like for yourself but others may not mind.
Btw, autistic brains exist outside the UK and the US. In German, it’s becoming more common to say “Menschen mit Autismus” (people with autism) but I suspect that’s actually more to do with an effort to de-gender because constructions like “Autistinnen und Autisten” (female autists and male autists) are clunky.
Also, your “blindist” and “deafist” don’t exist in English which is why they sound weird, they do exist in German.
SaraTonin@lemmy.world 3 days ago
The “American” one would suggest “an autistic”, rather than “an autist”, no? He is American, he is an American.
You don’t need to accept a term you don’t like for yourself but others may not mind
I’ve said repeatedly that this isn’t a settled debate within the autism community, and at no point have I suggested that other people aren’t free to use whatever terms they want
Btw, autistic brains exist outside the UK and the US
I understand that. I’m specifically talking about the English word “autist”. Ich rede nicht über Deutsch.
Also, your “blindist” and “deafist” don’t exist in English which is why they sound weird
I suppose that asks the question why is “autistic” one of (if not the) only example with a dedicated noun?
Grass@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
I’ve only ever heard the term(?) used by people with whatever aspergers is being called these days. They used it to refer primarily to themselves. It’s only 3 people though.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
Aspergers has basically been rolled into Autism Spectrum Disorder.
More technically, its a more specific sort of set of behaviors/mannerisms/ways of thinking and acting, but, they all fall into the new category of ASD.
ASD is… a spectrum, of things that are different from the norm, Aspergers is basically a subset within that set, though many other subsets are possible and exist, in different instensities.
ickplant@lemmy.world 4 days ago
In my experience living with an autistic husband and having working with many autistic people, they don’t mind the word at all and use it themselves.
SaraTonin@lemmy.world 4 days ago
As an autistic person with several autistic family members, friends, and associates, I’ve never met someone who used it or liked it
Perhaps it’s a US vs UK thing? I’ve only seen US and Canadian people use it, in the same way that I’ve only seen US people use the term “blacks“ when referring to black people
It has that connotation to me. And the fact that it’s the term of choice to use as an insult in places like 4chan and other edgelord spaces doesn’t help
Seems like it’s one of those things like “autistic person be ”person with autism“ where there’s no consensus within the community
Zwrt@lemmy.sdf.org 4 days ago
I am in the “i dont have autism, i am autism” camp because i consider stereotypical autistic behavior to be “autisms”.
When neurotypicals start saying “they or everyone also have a little autism” what i understand is they have 1 or 2 autisms but besides those scenarios they are completely within classic norms. The difference then with someone like me is there is no situation in my life where i am not actively experiencing one or more autisms. I have never known anything else and is therefore a core part of my identity.
This said, i would so much prefer that everyone used the term neurodivergent instead and left the term autism for professional medial diagnosis only.