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.
Scorpian, your argument comes right out of the Victorian rule-book. Women=emotional, caring, passive. Men=active, intellectual, thing-driven. As a Feminst I think your views reek of sexism. Welcome to the 21st century. Women have a life and not all women want to sit at home all day, passively self-sacrificing their needs on the alter of patriarchy. Times change. And you have not answered my point about what these scientific studies prove. I suggested that it is very hard to disentangle the effects of nurture in the studies from that of nature: upbringing can affect the brain, we still live in a patriarchal society that brings boys and girls up differently. In any event, it is not clear how chemicals or brain structure influence real behaviour.