Does anyone else not like the term 'aspie'?

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I don't mind being called eccentric, unique or quirky. There's a difference between calling someone quirky. Because then it is Joe is quirky. Joe is Joe first, quirky second. Same goes for Aspergers. Joe has Aspergers, not Asperger's is Joe.

I don't mean in instances where people insult you, I mean in instances where people use it to identify.

I don't understand being proud of anything you are born as. It's like being proud of homosexuality, heterosexuality, red hair...anything. I'm proud to overcome it and proud to deal with Asperger's and be relatively OK. It's not a negative thing in my mind anyways.

I like the term "Aspie," and I use it quite a bit. I don't mind at all being called an Aspie.

That's hilarious! I do the exact same thing. I sometimes modify the name of things I'm ordering to avoid caving to this. There was this popcorn shop in a town I used to live that the sizes of cups (of popcorn) you could order were named like bras. The largest size on the menu was "double-D". It even extends to less cute expressions like "hold the tomato" or "fill 'er up." I say, "No tomato, please" or "I would like a full tank of regular" instead. The other things sound so bad and if they come out of my mouth they sound really funny. Enough that on the occasions I have tried to say them, whoever is with me starts laughing. And in starbucks I deliberately do not use their language for the cups in the order they want you to say it. I find this juvenile. I always say "16 oz" or "12 oz", despite the fact that they always repeat back to me the order in starbuck's-speak.

And this is part of the reason, I think, I don't tend to use the word "aspie". It does not bother me when people with Asperger's use it, but I don't use it myself because of the way it sounds. I prefer Asperger's to Autistic, perhaps because the latter has even more negative connotation baggage that other people immediately associate with it.

It's better than being called a ret*d so I don't mind.

The word 'Aspie' for me has something of childish, harmless,
it's sort of softening, a euphemism.
And also not to be taken serious.
I think it partly depends on who uses it whether or not you have a positive or negative feeling about it.
I don't realy like it but I dont hate it.
It may be that my opinion is coloured by th fact that English is not my fist language ( I am Dutch).

I like it.

But to those of you who don't, remember that almost everyone who uses it to describe you does not have a negative connotation in mind--you can tell them that you don't like the term, but there's no good being offended because they weren't meaning to offend.

I have a similar problem with person-first language. I absolutely hate it; it's as though when they call me "a person with autism" they are implying that autism is a shameful thing to be tiptoed around rather than something that's a neutral part of me. "Autistic" should imply "person" just like "woman" does, and you shouldn't have to separate them to emphasize it.

However, I can't get annoyed with them for the person-first issue because I know that when people use it, they mean well. They mean not to offend; at worst they're trying to be politically correct. I can't get on their case about it; the best I can do generally is say, "Oh, you don't have to be polite about it. Just call me autistic. It's not shameful or anything, is it?"

I don't mind the "pie". It's the "ass" I don't like.

I think "Aspergian" sounds somewhat noble like Burgundian. I could imagine a young aspie who doesn't know they're aspie being "turned-on" after a conversation with an Aspergian and then rushing home and desparately trying to find Aspergia on a map of eastern europe so they can infatuate more on this new person that they just met!

Ass-burgers? If you think in pictures like me, you can imagine dreadful things...with cheese...hold the onions...pickles, lettuce, and tomatoes on a sesame seed BUM!! ! Lions and tigers and bears...OH MY!! !! !

It's starting to grow on me as a term.

I didn't like it to begin with but now I have got into the habit of using it.

A term is a term.

Maybe some NTs are unhappy being "typical", and so on...

It's possible to dislike a term without being offended by it.

~

I just really don't think my diagnosis is relevant enough to anyone that they should use it to refer to me at all (aside from the likes of doctors or those working in the disabilities office at my university, and from them I'd expect something less informal than "aspie"). I think it's on the level of referring to me as "lefty" or "lanky" or "Scotty" or "blondie"* - all those are strictly true, but none really capture any particular "McTellness".

* - well, I'm not blonde anymore, but I was in the past

I don't mind being called "Asperger" but aspie just has a demeaning ring to it. I don't mind if someone else who is on the spectrum calls me that but I get extremely offended if an NT does. I think it's like how black people get offended if a white person calls them "n****r" but with other black people it's okay.

I hate the word Aspie. When I had depression, I didn't call myself a "depressie" or "deppie." It just seems weird to give your mental disorder a cutesy-ass name.

I find it a very handy term and it rhymes with NT.

ruveyn