Autism pride is BS

Post Reply New Topic

I don't know about pride, but I run a blog and I try to focus on the positive aspects of Autism (and life in general) and here's why:

It's easy to find all the negative pathological articles and talk online. Thw world doesn't need more of that. I know that I am sick and suffering, and the people who are know that too. It's depressing.

There are certain things about my Autism that I would never change, especially my personality and even my strange memory - as frustrating as I may be.

If I could ease my sensory issues without changing the way I experience music - of course I would give those up and the meltdowns. They suck.

But people don't understand Autism or Autistic people. That is why I write. Trying to shed light from a first hand perspective.

It works for some people, apparently.

I find that autism has no positives whatsoever to celebrate, but I can recognize that others have a different experience.

Autistic Pride Day was started in 2005 by a group of autistics. Some of the autistic founders happened to belong to the LGBTQ community.

Here is one of the main founders, Gwen Nelson, describing the history of Autistic Pride Day:

The antithesis of this use of "pride" is "shame": should people with Autism be ashamed of themselves? Shame promotes ignorance. I have Dyslexia, Asperger's and Tourette Syndrome, yet when I tell people that I'm Autistic, they invariably say, "You don't look Autistic..." When I told my neighbor I'm Autistic he began to argue with me, "I don't care, you're not Autistic... Autism is the worst thing in the world... I know someone with Autism, you're not like him..." When I tell them I have Tourette's they do a little flinch and expect me to start acting like Linda Blair from the "Exorcist". Hollywood has stereotyped/distorted these conditions so much that the status-quo has only a cartoon-idea of what they are.

When I told my sister that I realized I am these things she told me, "I've studied it, you don't have it..." she's basing her conclusion on 30-year old studies. I know she is Autistic too, yet she can't admit it because of the shame of being looked down on, that look people give us like it's contagious and we might drool on them while we flap and dance around in our uncontrollable fit of rabid monkey stimming. Because 98% of the time you would never know I am these things, people refuse to believe that I am as such.

The reason why we need "pride" is that so much of the world "others" us: we are no longer human, they pity us, but there is no respect/compassion behind it. When you start to "other" people, you begin to ferment the ideas that it's OK to make places like Auschwitz concentration camp.

How many people who believe that there was a "good old days" know that places like "Agnews: The Great Asylum for the Insane" existed. How many people on this forum would have been permanently institutionalized running around with no clothes and rolling around in our own feces?

Until not that long ago it was very illegal to be LGBTQ: you would go to prison, or in other cases, they might give you a frontal lobotomy so that you would be "normal". Thankfully we had people who were proud and not ashamed of who they were and willing to stand up to authoritarianism. Look up the "Cooper's Donuts Riot" which was followed by the "Stonewall riots".

I hate being dehumanized by people who take belligerent pride in their willful ignorance...

DIVAIR

I think pride is a personal thing irrespective of anything. I am these days ashamed of it though as People have beaten the crap out of my pride in general and leave me consistently thinking of ways to die .. I am depressed as hell as people seem to have a hard time understanding. Or maybe it's me. I would probably go speak to someone about this except I feel like a prisoner in my own head and house.

It doesn't make sense to me to be proud or ashamed of anything we are not responsible for. Pride and shame should be reserved for our achievements, for things we do. Pride for the good stuff and shame for the bad stuff. I'm proud of myself for surviving through some very difficult times and for using it to grow stronger. I'm proud of being a good parent and of raising an amazing, happy, emotionally balanced, daughter. I'm ashamed of hurting other people with my behavior when I was younger. I used to be mean sometimes. I was mean to our cat a couple of times too, it was years ago, but I still feel ashamed about that.

I grew up with a lot of toxic shame about who I was, because I was shamed by my parents for not being what they wanted. But no more. Now I accept myself as I am.

When I developed genuine self acceptance, it no longer mattered what anyone else thought of me, I didn't need to put anything about myself on display to try and get external validation. I'm autistic, but I'm not only autistic. I'm proud of what I've achieved in spite of it and because of it.

As others have suggested, maybe acceptance should be the goal. Firstly self acceptance and then social/cultural awareness and acceptance.

I think the word "pride" is being used instead of "acceptance" because while people know about it existing, they fail to understand the scope of it: this is to say they don't respect its many aspects/facets. Yes, we could continue to argue the semantics of it, but using very specific words can give people hope.

If I thought I was a unique individual with this affliction, I probably would have killed myself a long time ago: but I'm not unique in that respect, there are quite literally billions afflicted with it.

Yep, the world is a horrible place, life isn't fair and people are stupid, but there's also some good in the world too. Hopefully if we can educate people on things based in reality and scientific principals, instead of ignorance and superstition this planet we all share, can continue to be as it is.

So yes, perhaps acceptance is more appropriate, but as things stand, people are willfully ignorant of anyone else's needs and dealing with anyone different through belligerence has become the norm.

Wouldn't it be so much easier if instead of having the ego crushing stigma and shame, they could be dealt with like a headache or broken arm? Having pride in ones self give you the courage to stand up and say, "Hey, I'm different and I need help..." instead of, "Well, I guess I am just a worthless piece of s***, I'll get out of the way so you can help 'normal people'..."

DIVAIR

Semantics aside, there is a lot to be proud of with all of the achievements of Autistic people! With all of our proclivities it is very safe to say that modern science would not exist with out us, maybe even science in general Because the idea of Autism is a modern construct, people don't want to see that most scientists are on spectrum. They like to use the technology created/realized by our brains, but don't recognize that these special people lead lives of outsiders, they didn't fit in. Yes, there are the famous ones like Einstein and Tesla that even a two year-old knows about, but what about people like Robert Oppenheimer and Lise Meitner, the woman who it is believed actually came up with many of the ideas in nuclear physics, but because she was a mere woman, could not publish her ideas of her own, only men could do that WTF!! !! Many of the great writers/artist were/are on spectrum, and yes, I am both a fine artist and a writer, and I very much doubt I would be either of these things if I was NT...

DIVAIR

I think that 'pride' movements and such sentiments often take hold because of oppressive forces that spread harmful information about marginalized groups, propagating the idea that x group is contemptable and not as 'good' as the dominant group. As a result, members of said marginalized group may come together to collectively say "I'm not ashamed of what I am, I'm proud of who I am."

As for myself I'm not proud to be autistic and I don't think many of us are. But what I personally detest is how NTs may intuitively assume that we're beneath them in intelligence or some other sense because we're autistic, without actually getting to know us, how complex we are, how we think.

Instead of focusing on our supposed weaknesses I'd rather stress on our strengths. I think NTs are often very good at at being logical, and I've met many other people with high functioning Asperger's. I know where I'm weak, but I also know where I'm strong. But as far as the topic of pride is concerned, I don't see anything wrong with being proud of your demographic as long as you're not prejudiced towards other demographics along with it.

The only thing I'm up against in this particular area is dehumanization.

'Pride' is just a means. A stepping stone towards the layers of acceptance and validation.
And it's an idea-tool anyone can outgrow should one realizes the true context.


I've only seen that rule of how one should build outside whatever system one is against.

And so far, I haven't seen anyone who teaches how to outgrow these means that no longer serves, how to outpace enablers, how to bring down the loudest of all misinformed and to be ahead of those who twists the ideas.

Also no one ever seem to teach that ideas by itself does not care about individuals -- only that it is alive and existing. It's the reason of how an individual becomes a sort of fanbase like hive.


I'm not proud to be autistic.
But I'm proud at what I've done with it.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

I've also heard pride in identity categories used to mean pride in surviving and thriving in a society that hates what you are. Like, not being proud you're autistic per se, but proud that you didn't kill yourself when you were being bullied in school, that you're living with self-determination as an adult, that you're not ashamed of it despite the hurtful effects of autism awareness, etc. Similar to how gay pride often means pride in thriving and finding love and happiness despite homophobia.

It's the same as gay pride.

Nothing wrong with gay pride either.

It’s never something I really wanted to be involved in, that remains true to this day.

IMO, psych diagnoses are hyped up in general.