Why do ASPIES TAKE PRIDE in being Aspie

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Why should I be ashamed? It's not like I am exhibiting pride for having HIV or AIDS. I'm not flaunting being a serieal killer. There's not thing wrong with being proud to have AS. I find the term "aspie" very offensive when used by an NT or non autistic.
AS gives me unique strengenths and talents. It allows me to see things in ways non autistics can't even begin to fathom. If I was NT or non autistic or whatever they are called, I would be all worried about apearing "weird" about my meerkat obsession. If I was NT, I proubly would not even care about meerkats. I'm now slowing or softning to appease anyone. If you don't like me I do not care. Go get lost.

I'm going to be politicaly incorrect for a momment but why are homosexuals allowed to flaunt their diffrence but when someone tries to flaunt being autistic they are chastised? If you try to stop a homosexual from flaunting their orentation you are acussed of being homophobic and of trying to comit a hate crime. But if someone tries to stop an autistic from flaunting they are congragulated and praised for keeping the "peace". I have nothing against homosexuals but I can't stand the unfairness.

I take pride in trying to make other Aspies feel bad because it's fun.

I take pride in being tall.

Being like everyone else is horrible! I like being me, if people can't grasp it, I dont give a flying rat's rear.

The alternative is being ashamed of who you are.

It is just the same as being proud to be black or be a woman or be gay or whatever.

I'm not proud of being an Aspie, but that doesn't mean I'm ashamed of it either. I'm not proud of it because I didn't have a thing to do with it. I'm proud of some things my Asperger's has helped me accomplish, and I'm proud of some things I've done despite my Asperger's, but to be proud of Asperger's itself makes absolutely no sense.

FIRSTLY, before I cop another "you're a stupid NT you suck get out" comment, let me just say, I'm all for Aspie pride, I think it's fantastic. Why? Because it's confidence building. Many Aspies may feel embrassed or not want to try and do certainthings because they're scared AS will hold them back, having pride for who you are is very important in overcoming those obstacles.

Just want to say re: gay pride.

It's a bit different. The gays flaunt their orientation because they suffered HUNDREDS of years of opression and hatred. Their orientation was listed in the DSM as a psychiatric disorder (as I'm sure you know), but it is not one. People have been bashed, raped, tortured and killed because they refused to deny their homosexuality, while the rest of the community had to hide who they were from fear. Having something like that finally accepted by the majority of society after all those years is liberating for the gay community. The same as it is for African Americans, who were thought of a second class citizens and physically opressed for many years and the deaf community who had to fight for a long time before people stopped seeing them as 'ret*d'). The flaunting is a celebration of the new found freedom, liberation and acceptance.

Meanwhile Aspies (which has only officially existed since 1994) have never had to live in fear of someone finding out they have AS and then bashing, raping, torturing or killing them (yes I am sure there are some specific cases, but it's hardly the same as the way gays were condemmed and persecuted), there's no fight to be liberated from those horrific occurances, unlike the gay community. Aspergers IS a (biological) psychiatric condition, that's not going to change, there's no fight to be liberated from that position, unlike the gay community. People with AS are free to love who they love without persecution, nobody will come for you with burning torches because of your choice of partner, so there's no fight for liberation there either, unlike the gay community.

So like I said, Aspie pride is awesome! But I think that was a bad comparison. Aspie pride is about being happy and confident with who you are in spite of being biologically different from mainstream society, gay pride is about celebrating freedom after years of shunned, abused and intimidated by mainstream society.

And one more time for people who don't read posts properly, this is not a post against Aspie pride, it is a post saying that in my opinion, comparing Aspies situation with the gay communitys isn't a great one considering the difference in circumstances.

I imagine someone with an incurable syndrome or disorder or gift or whatever label you want to attach to it will feel much better if they look for the positives in it. There are some good things about aspieness.

Also, I would think that someone who has difficulty putting themselves in another's shoes (ie. an NT) may be inclined to develop feelings of superiority.

It's best to avoid that, but you should use the gifts that come with AS and work on your weaknesses. You can succeed.

Very good point about the superiority. I think a lot of that stems from exactly what you said: some Aspies lack the ability to imagine how someone could think differently from them. That leads to thoughts such as "How could anybody rational think that way? My way is the only one that makes any sense!"

1. Being strange is not bad.

2. I don't understand pride for something that one did nothing for. It's like "shoe size pride".

3. I can understand pride in accomplishing things despite disability.

4. Being comfortable with who one is is different from pride.

5. It's not true that you have to be either proud or ashamed. It's like saying that you either have to be totally happy or totally sad. Neutral states exist.

when i was a child i was assessed by many professionals because i was in an institution, and i was a specimen that many wanted to study. it was determined that i can not feel pride or shame. pride is the opposite of shame.

i am detached from the world of bonding with people and i care not one iota what they think of me. whether they idolize me or condemn me, it is all in their heads and i have no understanding of how they think what they do.

i do not understand what feeling normal people have when they are congratulated. to me it is just an observation by a brain out there.

i do not understand what people think when they condemn me. they are disgruntled about something that is in their own minds.

i feel no pride or shame, and i know that i am very different than other humans, but that is not my fault and i can be happy in my own world as long as they do not interfere with me.

i am much more affected by autism than most people here but i can write legibly which is a spanner in the works.

most people with my level of autism can not spell words or write a coherent sentence and i can so i am not typical of any collection of people. i am completely isolated from asperger people and non autistic people alike.

i talk on here because i want to get tired enough to go to sleep. typing makes me tired and that is why i do it.

i do not understand nearly anyone on this site or where they are coming from, and they do not understand me.

i do not know why i post here except for the fact that it is digital stimulation to type words when i am tired.

Autistics are over a dozen times more likely to be murder, rape, and assault victims. We have had to live in fear. Maybe not as much as gays, but don't you dare talk about us not living in fear until you've talked to somebody who's lived through the horrors of being institutionalized, systematically tortured by classmates every day, raped by people who think s/hes's an easy target, or beaten up by their own parents for not being the perfect child.

when you ripped me a new one in another posting, you definitely understood disgruntlement, and condemnation was what you did to me. but disgruntlement was something in YOUR own mind as well, and THIS is what people might have been thinking when [as you say] they condemned you. why should anybody bother to attack you if you have not also been unkind to them? so now you know what other folk might've been thinking because YOU thought similar thoughts in response to perceived attacks. this is a ramble but i know you understand.



how is it "a spanner in the works"?



no offense, but if you need a soporific, typing on a word processor will be just as effective. but if you want people to read you, you have 'em.



i believe you DO want folk to understand you. i want to understand you even if that makes you want to rolf. what person doesn't want to be understood? and you stick around because you have some interest in figuring this wrong planet thing out, and place at least a nominal value on other's opinions. otherwise, why would you bother with it? there are other places to type one's awakeness away, but it is better that you do it here on WP so people can read it and learn something.

take care.

Asperger's Syndrome might not have existed as a DSM entry until 1994, KoS, but I have been one since 1950. If you are saying that Aspies as a group have missed being targeted as a specific group to be discriminated against, then I agree with you. However there are people that can just 'smell' that my mental wireing is off, that my eyes are not the 'windows of my soul' and just assume I am normal and can control the fearless arrogance my aloofness or catch me in an off day and mark me up to a mental defective.

So individually we have born our differentness, in that herd mentality to exclude the 'odd'. (and yes, but this is way off the subject, that I have suffered all of the situations up to dying when my murder was attempted, in my 'specific case'.)

Merle

Did you not read the thread where the question was asked if people were proud of having Asperger's syndrome?
Most people wrote that they did not understand taking pride in something they did not accomplish and that it was like taking pride in hair colour.
I am confused as to why this thread was created.

I see three threads like this one pop up, every week.