Published on 12, July, 2020
I can't stand stereotypes and do not wish to be defined by my condition. I would rather people saw me as an individual with strengths and weaknesses, some of which can be explained by me having Asperger's syndrome, rather than defining me by a label. This is why I can't stand the word 'aspie'. While having Aspergers is an important part of my identity, it is no more important than me being female, no more important than my sexuality or my age. I would hate it if someone did not see past me being a woman or past my age, why is having aspergers any different? The disability movement campaigned for disability to be seen not as an individual affliction or difference, to move beyond individualising disability and to see it as a societal problem: people with disabilities should campaign collectively to change society, making it imperative to see the person before the disability. I am a person with asperger's syndrome, not an aspie. I share traits that other people with AS may have, but I don't share all the traits, just enough to have aspergers. We are all different, to say I am an aspie suggests conformity with other 'aspies' and obliterates the part of me that defies easy categorization.
Studies used to claim black people are better at athletics than white people, later shown to be the racist nonsense that it really is. What research are you referring to? I am afraid I don't agree with the (predominantly sexist) research. Yes, I am aware of Simon-Baron-Cohen's research, and I am independently minded enough not to go along with the conformist notion that women are more emotional than men, more sensitive, less into technology and all this pre-1960s tosh.
Also, I am not a reductionist. We are more than hormones. We shape the environment, the environment shapes us - nurture complements and molds nature.