Published on 12, July, 2020
I often refer to myself as an "Autist" and would not be at all concerned if anyone else called me it either (assuming it was done without malice).
For some reason the word really appeals to me - it just fits!
A therapist suggested that saying "an autistic person" would be more inclusive.
Are there offensive connotations to the word "Autist"?
I've only ever heard "autist" used as an insult, so not really a fan of it.
same here
Yeah, I understand your point of view a lot more than you may realise.
In my case, I've learned that the simple act of taking ownership of the words used to try and diminish my sense of self worth, reduces their power to hurt me. after a half century of being hurt & diminished by other peoples words, it's a welcome change to have a tool to disarm those sort of people.
I've got Autism, it's a fact which is unlikely to change. Yes it does mean I am "Retarded" in some particularly "social" areas of my life, it also means I'm gifted in others.
I feel I may as well own all of it, with a big "stuff you, and the horse you rode in on" available for those who have no time for the likes of me.
The truth "untoward" is that in this society WE carry the problem, because the normies are in the majority.
And the nature of Autism seems to be that happiness and contentment tend to elude us, which, certainly in my own case, made me a humourless jerk for much of my life, and when I did show humour it was the "normie shadenfreude type" for many years. Now I can more clearly see how I come across to others, and know I can't really change it, then I feel that owning it and minimising the unpleasantness that surrounds it, is the way to go for me.
I've no wish to upset the more sensitive here, and am revising my approach even as we speak, but I'm NOT going to be made to feel ashamed of a difference that I didn't inflict on myself though bad habits or character, any more than I'd expect a person to be ashamed of the colour of his (or her) skin. And just as some coloured people use the words that used to be used to diminish them amongst themselves, I decided to take the same approach to my own Autism.
I appreciate that different folks, have different strokes, so this post is meant as just an explanation, & not an argument..
I'm getting lost
Artist and autist are different words with different spellings and meanings so for me they have nothing to do with each other. The fact a word is slightly similar to another doesn't make me like a word more. And I do not want to be an artist either.
I have been called "autist" at school and as an adult by people who are making fun of me or trying to insult me - people who don't know I have autism, so they mean it purely in the way people use "retard" - and for that reason I do not like the term. I don't know why that means I've led a "sheltered life".
I've never known someone use the term in a medical setting. I think it's the fact it's accurate which makes me take offence more. If someone insulted me in pretty much any way I wouldn't care, but when I'm masking and trying to be normal and someone calls me an autist to make fun of me, it makes me feel bad because they are right.
If you like the term and want to have fun with it, that's fine. You are a different person and led a different life. Whenever someone calls me "autist" I'm particularly reminded of the unpleasant times I was bullied at school.
You guys have led sheltered lives, I've seen all possible ways of saying Autist used as an insult already, and I've only been identified as one for a year!
Personally, I find It's phonetically close to Artist, and like artists what we do, is both useless and essential, so I feel it fits. And of course, I can sign things "The Autist formerly known as Xxxx"..
I don't know about you lot, but although stupid little things can and often do derail my efforts, when things get really "gnarly" I have often found I am the only one still able to think, whilst the normies shut down around me. Being Neuro Diverse makes you uniquely useful in some situations.