Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello fellow autistic people! Today is the day (among every other day) to celebrate your autistic identity!
How will you celebrate? Are you proud to be autistic? If so, why?
I am definitely proud to be autistic for numerous reasons but I shall list my top 3:
I think pride should be reserved for things we have done, not innate qualities. I have an ability in visual art, my father also had the same, so I inherited it. I am not proud of this, it is just a part of me. However, when I produce a painting or drawing that looks close to what I intended and it works, then I am proud of it.
Likewise I inherited autism - mostly from my father, again - I am not proud of that, it is just part of me. My autism has given me a very precise eye for detail and an ability to hyper-focus. I have used these autism-derived qualities to proof-read many PhD theses. As a result people I know, including friends and my wife, have benefitted by having an easier time in gaining a research degree, which has led on to productive careers. I am proud of what my autism has enabled me to do to help others.
I dunno Martin, I think the autistic community has done very well so far in fighting to increase and protect our basic human rights as autistic people, even if we still have far to go before we obtain true equal treatment and the end of ableism and anti-autistic prejudice. For example, things like how we aren't just carted off to Bedlam and other assylums to be forgotten about by society like we used to be is it's own kind of acheivement imo.
I feel, and this is purely personal, that pride in accidents is a fundamentally neurotypical thing. The way people are proud of the country they were, entirely accidentally, born in. Or how people identify with sports teams and say 'we', as in 'we won the cup!", well no you didn't, you just watched other people win a trophy. What they are talking about is not 'we', but something entirely separate from them, largely made up corporate entities reliant on hideously overpaid people who are good at kicking a ball around - a puerile pastime if there ever was one. I have nothing against most autistic advocates and what they have achieved for the community, I just balk at the concept of pride in anything that is not an achievement that the person being proud has not actively participated in.
I did. Before I saw this one actually.
Yes, and see my post below.
Ah I see, one of those personal pet hate sort of things for you then.
No, no, no. I'm talking about the definition of a term/word and how to apply it, not opting in or out of anything. I am not in any way against people celebrating, or advocating their autism. I am just against the use of the word 'pride' in connection to just being something, rather than having achieved something. Call a day, week or month: 'Autism Celebration...', or 'Autistic Advocacy...', or 'Autistic Joy...', or 'Autistic virtually any positive adjective...' and I would be entirely happy to subscribe. While I approve of the concept behind 'Autistic Pride Day' etc. I have reservations about the use of the word 'pride' in this context.
Sorry you feel that way but I don't think you understood me either. I am saying you are entitled to your opinion and to opt out, but I think you (and/or others not specifically you) will have to just accept that pride days and months exist anyway because pride means many things to many people and they aren't going anywhere any time soon.
well said Martin.
I feel that you have not followed what I have been saying. It is all about how the word 'pride' is defined. I feel that pride should be confined to personal achievement, not accidents of birth, or what other people are doing. I do not know how to make myself more clear. I am not gainsaying the achievement of anyone, or any group, just that pride should be connected with what a person has done, not who they are. If you have achieved something yourself or as part of a group it is fine to feel pride. However, I don't feel it is appropriate to feel 'pride' in some accidental happenchance, like having white skin, or being straight, gay or autistic.