(no subject)

[stardust_rifle]

i prefer to call myself an autist for three reasons, one of them being that it neatly sidesteps the handwringing over "person with autism" vs "autistic person", the second of which is that i learned that it was originally a neutral (well as neutral as any medical term for autism) descriptor and i kind of want to bring that back. fuck you, the word "autism" is not inherently an insult unless you make it so.

the third reason is that- so there's this really old post i made about how i kind of think that autism (diagnosis) and autism (insult) are two groups that overlap a lot but are not the same thing, and when it comes to people who are autistic (insult) but not autistic (diagnosis) and people who are autistic (diagonsis) but not autistic (insult), i relate much more to the former than the latter, and "autist"-as-insult is frequently used to describe those people as opposed to the autism-only-as-diagnosis people and i wish to signify this affiliation.

Comments

[scissorsevered]

Also "autist" kinda sounds funny, like its a profession or something. I'm professionally autistic. An autist if you will.

[definitely_not_an_alb]

"people who are autistic (insult) but not autistic (diagnosis)" this is scratching something in my brain about my social experience in school + my diagnosis history (or purposeful lack there-off)

[feotakahari]

After the third time I was tested for autism and came up negative, the tester said I might as well go to autism support groups anyway, because I clearly “read” as autistic and face the same social challenges autistic people do.