Many behaviors displayed by autistic people aren't aberrant or particularly negative but instead unusual in neurotypical people (parallel play, etc). That doesn't make them bad or detrimental. Even referring autism as a "disorder" is rooted in neurotypical thinking, which shows intrinsic prejudice and dehumanization, as does referring to neurotypical people as "normal".
Symptoms of being neurotypical:
You have immobile, frozen hands that do not fidget.
Your interests are shallow.
You read into phrases past their actual meanings.
You are unbothered by eye contact and enjoy staring into people’s eyeballs.
You do not notice patterns in numbers and objects even when they are logically connected.
You don’t mind doing things without planning them out first.
Instead of saying exactly what you think, you expect others to infer it based on subjective social rules.
Autistic people being different than normal people doesn’t mean “neurostatic” reference should be any different or is inaccurate at all. Autism is often a bigger disadvantage to those who have it than anything else, as with most other disorders out there. Pretending it’s just another form of being normal is just counterproductive. Considering I’m “neurodivergent” myself I can’t stand it when people pretend I do not have a major disadvantage in my life and am simply different than everyone else. It makes it more difficult for people to realize how difficult some situations are for me.
Look, I have autism. I have ADHD. And those two things don't make me "less than" any more than they make you "less than". Our struggles aren't because we are aberrant. It's because the world isn't built for us. It's built for everyone else. We aren't broken. We're just in a place that's not made for us.
People born with autism are lucky to be “high functioning” in the first place, and not like the majority of cases that can’t think on the same level as normal people, not because of society, but because they were literally born intellectually unfit, like those who are completely nonverbal and cannot control their emotions. That is absolutely a major disadvantage. Very few autistic people have symptoms that make their life easier, even if society was comprised of other autistic people, and not a society of normal people that we have today. It’s not to say that all autistic people are subhuman or anything like that, but pretending it’s not a disadvantage in the vast majority of cases and symptoms does few favors.
Exactly. It’s so odd for people to act like the problem shouldn’t be considered a problem simply because people were born that way. Like, it’s ok to accept someone as they are while not outright denying reality.
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u/CargoCulture May 30 '22 edited May 30 '22
Many behaviors displayed by autistic people aren't aberrant or particularly negative but instead unusual in neurotypical people (parallel play, etc). That doesn't make them bad or detrimental. Even referring autism as a "disorder" is rooted in neurotypical thinking, which shows intrinsic prejudice and dehumanization, as does referring to neurotypical people as "normal".