Do you find "person first" language to be stupid?

Post Reply New Topic

Some people assert that people ought to refer to us as "a person with autism" rather than "an autistic person". I do not care either way, because the way my autism is worded does not change how much I love myself, so I find it pointless.

What is your opinion?

I care only enough to state how little I care; in that if I cared any less, I would no longer care at all.

I don't like "person with autism", but only because it sounds so clunky.

There's this whole neurodiversity thing which is all about seeing autism as a difference rather than a disability and the proponents tend to get a bit fired up about the use of person first language, maybe because it sounds like we're trying to separate the autism from the person as if it were a disease. Their idea is to be autistic and proud.

But I'm a bit wary of the neurodiversity movement because I don't think it represents those with more severe traits, for whom autism creates more challenges than benefits. My opinion is that we should be able to accept autism as a part of us even when it's disabling, because even the worst off amongst us is no less human, so I prefer "autistic person", but I'm not about to get all fired up about it.

My opinion is that people asserting that can go f**k themselves. I prefer “autistic person” but I don’t have a problem with people first language, it is language policing in general and language policing by people with 61 years less experience then me with the condition in particular that I have a problem with.

it does not matter to me at all

I don't like it when it comes to autism, like I really don't like it. Fair enough if someone says it about themselves or wants someone else to use it but for me, my autism creates both good and bad in me/for me and saying 'with autism' is a judgement call. To my ears, it sounds more like 'a person with femaleness' or 'a person with bisexuality' than 'a person with a cold'.

If someone calls me 'a person with social anxiety' though, I agree with them. I have it, I'm working to combat it and I shouldn't have it and it makes me upset that I have it. I never used to have it and it doesn't shape the person I am, it's just something I suffer from.

When it comes to the second one, I don't care how they phrase it though, at least as far as front or back is concerned. Just don't call me a coward or accuse me of milking the system.

I think all the fussing about it is garbage. Autistic person/Person with autism both mean the exact same thing. Personally I use whichever rolls off the tongue easiest.

and the reason is quite self-evident

autistic is commonly used as a slur...so the qualification that a person has autism (diagnosis) as opposed to labeling somebody with the "A" word which (for our "enlightened" society) is equivalent to using the "r" word...

I tend to think that the more we can be open about calling ourselves autistic (especially those of us on the milder end), the less it can be used as a slur.
Maybe

Certainly remember the more angry vociferous members on WP back in 2012-13 when DSMV was in the process of getting rid of Aspergers from the manual. The fear of losing their diagnosis was real. Things have quietened down nowadays.

Despite the "let's embrace each other" warm fuzzy autism stuff I think the majority of Aspies still desire to pass as NT and don't really want to be linked to intellectual disability autism.

Advocacy is great for Aspergers but for autistic children and adults they rely on us NTs and we are the ones who decide for them.

They will use "Autistic" as a slur and I will continue to identify as it. Screw them, I am tired of the endless cycle of bullies using legitimate words as insults, then the word becoming verboten, then that exact same thing happening to the replacement word. Stop letting the bullies win, start reappropriating these words as has been done with "freak", "queer", "deaf" and yes even "n***a".


Aspie elitists/supremacists are autistic whether they like it or not. It might have quieted down but 2019 saw a wave of Aspie supremacists/Aspergers is the next stage of evolution, and NT's are brainless sheep who only value climbing the social pecking order, so much so that the mods had to actually start enforcing the rules.

If the DSM if the were trying to put "shiny Aspies" in their place it backfired. It made them free to define Aspergers as they please, so nowadays Aspergers pretty much means well above intelligence and beyond with some sort of savant skill.

I guess it is ironic that the Aspergers is the master race people won out on the deal because as it turns out Hans Asperger was a Nazi enabler.

I Agree with your post AS.

However, I think language is still a strong factor when unintentional labels are applied and false semantic meaning attached to labels (even if it never the intention of those who originally created the labels).

It's healthier to take it out of the vocabulary altogether

I don’t think its healthy to constantly let bullies get their way. People who language police are just as much bullies as people who use legitimate words as insults.

We are going to end up replacing autistic with another word that will be used as an insult or we are going to replace it with mush, something along the lies of “differently non verbal language, theory of mind, sensory, executive functioning abled”

If the language needs to be changed because due to research our fundamental understanding of autism is altered that is legitimate. If people did not want to call themselves Aspie or Aspergers because of the revelations of Hans Aspergers checkered background that would have been legitimate because the language is honoring a person.

I hate it.

Fair enough, I can also see your point of view

I've never been much of a fan of person-first language, but I respect whatever opinions others in our community have.

Let's hope. In college I was part of a student club for those with any kind of disabilities and it was the only place on campus where I openly identified as "autistic". They still treated me like a human and It was one of the best things about my college experience. They got just as annoyed as me when "autistic" was used as a slur and hated Autism $peaks just as much as, if not more than, me.




In the olden days (aka a few years ago before the DSM-V came out), I definitely noticed, and got annoyed at, people with Aspergers acting superior toward others on the spectrum, which is a big part of why I'm a huge fan of how the DSM-V changed the diagnosis (still not a fan of the nonsense "levels" though). I remember a friend of a friend who had aspergers asserting that it and autism were completely different things, and I got seriously annoyed since I saw myself, being on the spectrum as well, as an equal. My initial diagnosis was PDD-NOS.