Autism awareness trinkets/symbols

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I am just wondering about the implications of different symbols and jewelry and such. I was looking for a trinket or a necklace to wear to stimulate conversation or thought or whatever, something flashy to play with when I stress out. The "puzzle piece" (and accompanying primary-colored beads) seems to be a prevailing theme. However, this seems to be an offensive thing to people. Personally I don't find a puzzle piece offensive in itself. I know I'm puzzling; I like puzzles, but only sometimes, and only certain puzzles.
I don't want to offend anyone, not over a piece of jewelry anyway.
Thoughts?

I think the puzzle piece autism awareness symbol thing kind of implies that autistic thoughts are as inflexible, rigid, and specific as puzzle pieces.

My sister gave me autism awareness charms for my birthday. My mom and I made necklaces out of two of them. My mom wears hers every day. ^^

I personally don't have a problem with the puzzle symbol myself.

I was fine with the puzzle symbol, until Cure Autism Now co-opted it.

I wear my Asperger's trinket on me all the time: it's myself.

I have a few buttons by oddizm - "It's a stimmy day", "Autism: it's not like you think" and "Autism is not a tragedy, ignorance is the tragedy", - and a sticker, "I stim, therefore I am" (oddizm, if you are on here - thank you ). A couple of months ago a friend living in the USA was preparing a gift package for me and asked me what I wanted to have; I replied that I would like some buttons by oddizm sold at CafePress, because I was having trouble with online shopping and couldn't buy them myself. She bought some and shipped them to me. Having them makes me feel warm, somehow. Besides, they are a great addition to my badge/button collection.

I personally don't have any trouble with the puzzle piece symbol. I think any person is like a puzzle to be solved, whether they are autistic or not - the solving lasts a lifetime and, for that matter, it is crucial for being able to relate to that person (because one simply can't relate to what one cannot understand).

I'm planning to buy a Free-Range Aspie keychain as soon as I get around to it.

[quote="Cameo"]I'm planning to buy a Free-Range Aspie keychain as soon as I get around to it.[/quote]

Why thank you.

It may be found here on zazzle - "free range aspie" ought to bring it up.


The description text is something worth sharing all by itself:
[i]
Raised without benefit of chelation therapy, Applied Behavior Analysis or gluten free diets, you just learned to cope on your own - and you don't much envy the advances made on behalf of youngsters these days.[/i]

When I think of the things my parents did "for my own good" without having a clue what was "wrong" with me, I shudder to think what might have occured had they run across some "quack."

As it was, I missed being the centerpiece of an exorcism by just THAT much.

Why?

Because I was "fixated" on Dungeons and Dragons.

I have quite a lot of autism-related things on Cafepress, too, in the /webcarve store.

Generally, if you want to use any of my images for fund-raising, and you aren't some sort of obvious curebie - the answer is yes. It's good for you, good for my portfolio - oh, who the hell am I trying to kid. It's my perseveration. Some people spot trains, I spot t-shirts. And bumperstickers.

I've been known to [i]argue[/i] with bumperstickers. Aloud.

Oh yeah, me too. I'm very argumentative to bumper stickers.

So anyway I ordered one (a necklace with a subtle puzzle piece on it; a nice lady that emailed me a couple of times made it, so it is "real"). Once I put it on, I have not taken it off.

I plan on buying the braclet so I will not take it off. Necklace, I get nervous that I'll choke in my sleep.

There is a jeweler who uses a sun to symbolize "a ray of hope" for autism awareness. It seems that the sun means a lot of things in a lot of different cultures though, long before autism was discovered. I've also seen ribbon ones, but without an autism "color" (rainbow is for GLTB as far as I know) you can't differentiate from the other ribbons like breast cancer awareness, having a child die in a war, or other "awareness" ribbons.

I'm not a big fan of the puzzle piece, but I think it's pretty well established now so I'm just gonna roll with it. I don't wear a whole lot of jewelry anyway so it really doesn't affect me much.