Autism Stereotypes

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Here are a few oft-repeated stereotypes about Autistic folks:
- Autistics are guys
- Autistics are white
- Autism/Asperger is known as 'the geek syndrome'
- Autistics don't believe in religion
- Autistics like rock and goth
- Autistics can't speak or write
- Autistics are math nerds
- Autistics are introverted

- I'M.... female, Asian-American, popular and best friends with all the cheer leaders/ BBall girls, Christian and spiritual, hip hop freak as well as amateur hip hop singer, learned to read at 11 months of age/ speak at 1 year, considered to be the loudest, bitchiest kid in my grade, and an inveterate dud in Calc 2. And I'm HFA.
I happen to defy every one of them, and I'm sure that many other folks do as well. These stereotypes were created by NTs so that they could 'deal' with us. Just like European colonialists made up stereotypes about 'natives' so that they could 'deal' with them in the colonies. We must remember that autistic stereotypes are just as bad as racial stereotypes and to have zero tolerance for them here.
Screw stereotypes!! !

I'm a girl and hopeless at math; unfortunately that makes me confirm another stereotype...

Autistics like rock and goth. I've never heard this before.

lol, batman..... arrgh! I'm a stereotype! I forgot to check the autistic handbook before 'picking' a music preference.........

also Tali - I don't recall seeing any posts here suggesting any of these existed, or were true of everyone. The only stereotype I noted from your list that seems to actually be widespread was the 'geek syndrome' thing, which is annoying (and god knows where the music one came from... ) dunc

gosh. i don't fit the stereotype either. and i'm not even officially diagnosed. there is, obviously, no hope of being a real aspie for me....

V

Last edited by vetivert on 28 Nov 2004, 6:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

I fit the stereotype perfectly except for the goth part.

I am female ; white British with scottish/jewish/malay ancestry; I don't think I am a geek although I am interested in many scientific subjects; I am a Buddhist (and I won't go here into the question of whether Buddhism is a 'religion' or not!); I love classical music , I can talk the hind leg off the proverbial donkey and write too; and I find maths fascinating even if I know little about the subject. I guess I am introverted, in the sense that my interests and concerns lie within my own mind; I feel emotionally as if I am enclosed in a glass case, so I find it difficult to be involved with society and the outside world as a more extraverted person might.
So I feel as though I don't conform to these stereotypes except in small ways, here and there. Thats the problem with stereotypes; because they might incorporate partial truths, people might be tempted to accept them as true in general. In fact, they are away of seducing people into believing that they know something about a subject, without going to the trouble of (gasp!) actually THINKING!!

I imagine you also do not fit this one:



unless someone is typing for you.

I have never heard the rock and goth one, myself.

I think that many of these stereotypes exist because a lot of people's awareness of autism comes soley from having seen "Rain Man." While that movie was good in that it brought about more public awareness, that sort of thing always comes at a price. People generalize in order to make things fit their understanding. As more knowledge can be incorporated into their previously held beliefs, they may eventually be able to change them. I don't think these stereotypes are about intolerance, as you've suggested, I think they are mainly derived from ignorance.

I am not diagnosed. But I am white, female, and a "geek". I don't have a particular religion, but I do believe that there are other things beyond this physical world which we experience. Possibly things greater than ourselves. I do like alternative rock, and I often dress in black. Obviously, I can write. I can speak, but I'm not particularly good at it. I am not interested in math, but I'm average or slightly above in it. I am extremely introverted.

We are all people. Individuals. Autistic, or not.

Forget It!

Saying I'm bad at math is the understatement of the century!

This is the least likely of your list. Most people that have disability actually have a moderate to strong faith.

As for myself, a 27-year-old Catholic male that goes to church every Sunday moring, somewhat reluctantly. I was brought in a way that should be considered right (meaning Christian faith isn't an awful thing in someone's life). I am not extremely religious by any means, in fact I am unsure of things, but believe in God.

There's a sort of agnostic theist in here, too.

I like alternative and electronic... I go to church... and I'm hyperlexic... to a Jeremy Bentham degree...

I'm violating the stereotypes while rebuilding others...

That's all disability advocacy is in real life... replacing one unjust stereotype with another...

I'm female; white; sort of a cross between geek and class clown; Christian; have better music tastes than most kids my age; can read, speak, and write (althoguh my handwriting is messy); good at certain types of math (i.e. fractions) and stink at others (i.e. long division); AS.

...so I don't fit the stereotype.

Mich

A certain amount of stereo type is based on truth, otherwise where do they come from?

I don't fit it.

I like rock but I'm the complete opposite of goth. I like geek things like nintendo, but that's it. I love shopping, believe in the supernatural, fine with speech and writing, and only posess a few traits of having it at all.

I fit the Geek stereotype very nicely. I wear my Horn-Rimmed babies with pride, and I'm always bangning into things. I also have Beatle Hair and I think it looks cute with my Glasses.