On autism terminology
Aug. 25th, 2020 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
paranoodleHi everybody! This is a topic that gets brought up every now and then in the Wholesome Games discord so I figured I'd make a more fleshed out post with more info for everyone to ever refer back to or take longer to read than a quick and transient discord conversation. Some terminology is somewhat-common either online or in person, but it can be hard to know which is generally deemed appropriate and which has issues, so here's a little breakdown of this stuff.
General content warning for ableism in this post, mostly in reference to things allistic people say about us. Additional warning for mentions of nazis in the second section.
Covered in this post: "autistic person" terminology, the issues with the term "asperger's", the issues with functioning labels, descriptions/explanations of stimming and special interests.
Disclaimer: this is written by an autistic person, primarily for the benefit of other autistic people but also as general information for allistic people. Some of the information in this post is sometimes a source of disagreement or debate in the autistic community, because there's a lot of us. If you are autistic and disagree with some of my points, sorry but I don't feel like arguing about this. If you are allistic and disagree with some of my points, tough luck because I will block you if you try because this is an intra-community matter that you have no part of.
In general, I'll try to cover which terms fall under "seriously, don't use this even if people claim it's fine" (usually due to causing harm to other autistic people if you do), "only use this if you know the person wants you to", and "this is generally fine to use".
tldr: unless someone specifically asks for something else for themselves personally, use "autistic person"
This one is going to be a freebie for most people, but step 1 is "what's the best way to refer to an autistic person overall?"
And by "freebie", I mean that some people will disagree on this, but most people are fine with "autistic person" and the general use of "autistic" as an adjective (using it as a noun is super rude, so don't do that). If someone prefers something else, then it's good to respect that for that person, but the use of "autistic person" (or "autistic woman", etc) is generally considered to be the most appropriate way to use it.
Some people are also fond of the noun "autist", but that's going to be a lot more personal and I would recommend against using it without being asked to. Same with "person with autism", which, while some people like it, most find it very dehumanizing and it has a lot of ties to anti-autism groups such as Autism Speaks who try to push that language as "the only correct one" at our detriment.
tldr: very bad don't use it
While this term was reasonably common as a diagnosis for a time, I strongly strongly recommend avoiding it for a variety of reasons.
First off, it's named after Hans Asperger, who was a fucking nazi. I don't think much else needs to be said on that front but he's also specifically responsible for starting/giving momentum to a lot of harmful stereotypes against autistic people (if, again, the fact that he's a fucking nazi isn't a big enough deterrent on its own).
Secondly, "Asperger's" isn't really a thing. What I mean by this is, it's not actually a coherent category. It does not have any description that can clearly draw a line between itself and the rest of the autism spectrum. This is due to it being primarily described from the point of view of an allistic person assessing what they see of an autistic person, as opposed to any form of self-description.
A lot of the attempt at separating between "asperger's" and "autism" also came as an attempt to harm the community as an alternate way of using functioning labels (see below).
Thirdly, and hopefully if neither of the above somehow convince you to avoid it hopefully this will: the term "asperger's" is now increasingly frequently used by neo-nazis to try to groom autistic people into the alt-right, as an attempt to convince them that they're "smart and not like the other, dumber autistic people". An increasing amount of people who keep "asperger's" in their bios/etc are doing so knowingly and it functionally acts as a dogwhistle.
As with other dogwhistles, this does not mean anyone who identifies as such is necessarily associated with the alt-right, but it does mean that should you wish to identify as such, you now do so knowing these are the type of people you risk others associating you with.
"Okay but what do I call myself then?" You can just use "autistic" and "autism" and "autism spectrum" like everyone else! It's a spectrum for a reason we're all in similar boats here.
tldr: very bad don't use them
If you've never heard of them, "functioning labels" corresponds to using the terms "high functioning" and "low functioning" to describe autistic people. These terms don't have precise definitions because as with the above section, they don't actually constitute any coherent categories. They're basically a shorthand for "can an allistic person pretend you aren't autistic in certain situations". If the answer is yes you're "high functioning" and if the answer is no you're "low functioning".
As you can imagine, this is a crock of shit. Not only because, as always, an external person describing you (especially you under specific circumstances) is not going to get the full picture, but also because there's no actual use to this description in the first place other than to cause harm to all autistic people regardless of category.
So, first off, "high functioning" typically means that allistic people will think you can communicate "just fine" (though they will probably tell you off for stimming and/or "speaking weird") and that as a result any difficulties you may have, either related to communication or anything else, is something they can dismiss. They are going to ignore any and all things you may have trouble with and refuse to give help, and often claim that you're just doing this for attention. If you ever have opinions related to autism or its community, allistics will dismiss them as "okay but you have an easy time being autistic, not like the low-functioning ones, so your opinion is moot".
On the flip side, "low functioning" means that allistic people either think you have too much trouble communicating, or you're not doing so in a way/speed that they like. This is overwhelmingly autistic people who are either non-verbal or speak in a way that is "noticeably autistic" to allistic people, whatever that may mean (it's always arbitrary). As a result, literally everything you do or think is going to be belittled by them because they'll insult your intelligence and speak for you because they think you know better. If you ever have opinions related to autism or its community, allistics will dismiss them as "you're too stupid to know what's good for you, so your opinion is moot".
You may have noticed that both of these end in "your opinion is moot". That's because when those terms are used (especially by allistic people) they're basically just a way to prevent self-advocacy. This has become slightly less of a problem in recent years, but every once in a while the terms pop up again and people who aren't familiar with them don't understand why they're an issue when they aren't actively being used to dismiss people.
And the answer to that is that even if they aren't actively used as such (though occasionally they still are), they provide absolutely no benefit. There's nothing any autistic person wins from being arbitrarily sorted into two nonsense categories and pitted against each other. We can describe our own experiences on the (very vast!) spectrum with our own words and whatever granularity we want, and a pair of labels does nothing but attempt to get in the way of this.
This also ties a little into the previous section because often, this is used interchangeably with the "asperger's" label (= "high functioning") to separate the "smart/good autistics" from the "stupid/bad autistics" when that's absolutely not how any of this works. Depending on which aspects of myself I describe to people, they won't sort me in the same category, because that's how useless these labels are.
Now, for more positive stuff! Some explanations of some words that don't require whole disclaimers and that might hopefully give some more context sometimes.
"Stimming" is short for "self-stimulating [behavior]" and it basically boils down to "bring your own stimuli". It can be things like making noises with your mouth, chewing on things, specific movements (such as flapping arms or leaning back and forth), or listening to certain specific sounds, etc. There's a LOT of things that can count as stimming.
Technically all humans stim (tapping fingers, etc), but autistic people tend to do so more frequently and often more deliberately, and "stimming" typically refers that experience specifically. Stimming can be a conscious thing, but doesn't have to be. It can be done for fun, but it's frequently related to strong emotions, either to "let them out" (such as happy stimming, where you stim because the happiness has to go SOMEWHERE and sometimes that somewhere is your arms), or to keep them under control (such as anxious stimming, which is a way to keep the anxiety in check and prevent it from getting worse).
Most stims come naturally (though a lot of are taught to repress them, which is bad for our health!) but it's possible to discover new stims by just trying them out and realizing they fit. Stims are real neat.
Special interests are a unique experience to autistic people. Not all of us experience them, but a large majority do. People with ADHD can have a similar experience (called "hyperfixations" iirc) but they're a little different even if there's some overlap, and I'm not going to go into that here.
A special interest (or SI) is basically something an autistic person is interested in VERY VERY MUCH. I don't know how to get across the intensity of this very much. I can go a whole 24 hours while doing NOTHING but indulging my special interests. And I mean nothing, no breaks, no sleeping, no food, no nothing. And I will not realize it's been 24 hours because of how engrossed I am in it. I will drop everything else I'm doing it as soon as the special interest is mentioned because OH SPECIAL INTEREST?? It's intense.
Special interests also don't have to be about something someone likes. Interesting, yes, liked, frequent but not necessary. Some of my special interests are terrible video games that suck to play and that I strongly dislike. It's kind of like a curse but a fascinating one that I can spend 24 hours talking about.
Related, infodumping is the act of dumping a lot of information onto someone very fast. Example: this entire post. It's a very frequent form of communication from/between autistic people and while a lot of allistic people find it rude it really isn't! It's an attempt to share something very exciting with other people. While I can understand it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes, if you ever had to ask someone to slow down a little or give you a break, please be understanding and compassionate about it because being bluntly asked to stop feels like a slap in the face. Often we might not notice we've started infodumping to begin with.
On which note, if you're autistic: find yourself another autistic friend to mutually infodump to/with, it's the best thing in the world it rules it's very exciting and fun.
Anyway, I hope this was all helpful! It's a bit of a mess topics-wise because I didn't know exactly where I wanted to go with it but hopefully it covers the important parts. If you think there's anything (related) that's worth addressing, or that you think I forgot, feel free to let me know. Thank you for reading o/
General content warning for ableism in this post, mostly in reference to things allistic people say about us. Additional warning for mentions of nazis in the second section.
Covered in this post: "autistic person" terminology, the issues with the term "asperger's", the issues with functioning labels, descriptions/explanations of stimming and special interests.
Disclaimer: this is written by an autistic person, primarily for the benefit of other autistic people but also as general information for allistic people. Some of the information in this post is sometimes a source of disagreement or debate in the autistic community, because there's a lot of us. If you are autistic and disagree with some of my points, sorry but I don't feel like arguing about this. If you are allistic and disagree with some of my points, tough luck because I will block you if you try because this is an intra-community matter that you have no part of.
In general, I'll try to cover which terms fall under "seriously, don't use this even if people claim it's fine" (usually due to causing harm to other autistic people if you do), "only use this if you know the person wants you to", and "this is generally fine to use".
Autistic person, etc
tldr: unless someone specifically asks for something else for themselves personally, use "autistic person"
This one is going to be a freebie for most people, but step 1 is "what's the best way to refer to an autistic person overall?"
And by "freebie", I mean that some people will disagree on this, but most people are fine with "autistic person" and the general use of "autistic" as an adjective (using it as a noun is super rude, so don't do that). If someone prefers something else, then it's good to respect that for that person, but the use of "autistic person" (or "autistic woman", etc) is generally considered to be the most appropriate way to use it.
Some people are also fond of the noun "autist", but that's going to be a lot more personal and I would recommend against using it without being asked to. Same with "person with autism", which, while some people like it, most find it very dehumanizing and it has a lot of ties to anti-autism groups such as Autism Speaks who try to push that language as "the only correct one" at our detriment.
"Asperger's"
tldr: very bad don't use it
While this term was reasonably common as a diagnosis for a time, I strongly strongly recommend avoiding it for a variety of reasons.
First off, it's named after Hans Asperger, who was a fucking nazi. I don't think much else needs to be said on that front but he's also specifically responsible for starting/giving momentum to a lot of harmful stereotypes against autistic people (if, again, the fact that he's a fucking nazi isn't a big enough deterrent on its own).
Secondly, "Asperger's" isn't really a thing. What I mean by this is, it's not actually a coherent category. It does not have any description that can clearly draw a line between itself and the rest of the autism spectrum. This is due to it being primarily described from the point of view of an allistic person assessing what they see of an autistic person, as opposed to any form of self-description.
A lot of the attempt at separating between "asperger's" and "autism" also came as an attempt to harm the community as an alternate way of using functioning labels (see below).
Thirdly, and hopefully if neither of the above somehow convince you to avoid it hopefully this will: the term "asperger's" is now increasingly frequently used by neo-nazis to try to groom autistic people into the alt-right, as an attempt to convince them that they're "smart and not like the other, dumber autistic people". An increasing amount of people who keep "asperger's" in their bios/etc are doing so knowingly and it functionally acts as a dogwhistle.
As with other dogwhistles, this does not mean anyone who identifies as such is necessarily associated with the alt-right, but it does mean that should you wish to identify as such, you now do so knowing these are the type of people you risk others associating you with.
"Okay but what do I call myself then?" You can just use "autistic" and "autism" and "autism spectrum" like everyone else! It's a spectrum for a reason we're all in similar boats here.
Functioning Labels
tldr: very bad don't use them
If you've never heard of them, "functioning labels" corresponds to using the terms "high functioning" and "low functioning" to describe autistic people. These terms don't have precise definitions because as with the above section, they don't actually constitute any coherent categories. They're basically a shorthand for "can an allistic person pretend you aren't autistic in certain situations". If the answer is yes you're "high functioning" and if the answer is no you're "low functioning".
As you can imagine, this is a crock of shit. Not only because, as always, an external person describing you (especially you under specific circumstances) is not going to get the full picture, but also because there's no actual use to this description in the first place other than to cause harm to all autistic people regardless of category.
So, first off, "high functioning" typically means that allistic people will think you can communicate "just fine" (though they will probably tell you off for stimming and/or "speaking weird") and that as a result any difficulties you may have, either related to communication or anything else, is something they can dismiss. They are going to ignore any and all things you may have trouble with and refuse to give help, and often claim that you're just doing this for attention. If you ever have opinions related to autism or its community, allistics will dismiss them as "okay but you have an easy time being autistic, not like the low-functioning ones, so your opinion is moot".
On the flip side, "low functioning" means that allistic people either think you have too much trouble communicating, or you're not doing so in a way/speed that they like. This is overwhelmingly autistic people who are either non-verbal or speak in a way that is "noticeably autistic" to allistic people, whatever that may mean (it's always arbitrary). As a result, literally everything you do or think is going to be belittled by them because they'll insult your intelligence and speak for you because they think you know better. If you ever have opinions related to autism or its community, allistics will dismiss them as "you're too stupid to know what's good for you, so your opinion is moot".
You may have noticed that both of these end in "your opinion is moot". That's because when those terms are used (especially by allistic people) they're basically just a way to prevent self-advocacy. This has become slightly less of a problem in recent years, but every once in a while the terms pop up again and people who aren't familiar with them don't understand why they're an issue when they aren't actively being used to dismiss people.
And the answer to that is that even if they aren't actively used as such (though occasionally they still are), they provide absolutely no benefit. There's nothing any autistic person wins from being arbitrarily sorted into two nonsense categories and pitted against each other. We can describe our own experiences on the (very vast!) spectrum with our own words and whatever granularity we want, and a pair of labels does nothing but attempt to get in the way of this.
This also ties a little into the previous section because often, this is used interchangeably with the "asperger's" label (= "high functioning") to separate the "smart/good autistics" from the "stupid/bad autistics" when that's absolutely not how any of this works. Depending on which aspects of myself I describe to people, they won't sort me in the same category, because that's how useless these labels are.
Now, for more positive stuff! Some explanations of some words that don't require whole disclaimers and that might hopefully give some more context sometimes.
Stimming
"Stimming" is short for "self-stimulating [behavior]" and it basically boils down to "bring your own stimuli". It can be things like making noises with your mouth, chewing on things, specific movements (such as flapping arms or leaning back and forth), or listening to certain specific sounds, etc. There's a LOT of things that can count as stimming.
Technically all humans stim (tapping fingers, etc), but autistic people tend to do so more frequently and often more deliberately, and "stimming" typically refers that experience specifically. Stimming can be a conscious thing, but doesn't have to be. It can be done for fun, but it's frequently related to strong emotions, either to "let them out" (such as happy stimming, where you stim because the happiness has to go SOMEWHERE and sometimes that somewhere is your arms), or to keep them under control (such as anxious stimming, which is a way to keep the anxiety in check and prevent it from getting worse).
Most stims come naturally (though a lot of are taught to repress them, which is bad for our health!) but it's possible to discover new stims by just trying them out and realizing they fit. Stims are real neat.
Special interests and infodumping
Special interests are a unique experience to autistic people. Not all of us experience them, but a large majority do. People with ADHD can have a similar experience (called "hyperfixations" iirc) but they're a little different even if there's some overlap, and I'm not going to go into that here.
A special interest (or SI) is basically something an autistic person is interested in VERY VERY MUCH. I don't know how to get across the intensity of this very much. I can go a whole 24 hours while doing NOTHING but indulging my special interests. And I mean nothing, no breaks, no sleeping, no food, no nothing. And I will not realize it's been 24 hours because of how engrossed I am in it. I will drop everything else I'm doing it as soon as the special interest is mentioned because OH SPECIAL INTEREST?? It's intense.
Special interests also don't have to be about something someone likes. Interesting, yes, liked, frequent but not necessary. Some of my special interests are terrible video games that suck to play and that I strongly dislike. It's kind of like a curse but a fascinating one that I can spend 24 hours talking about.
Related, infodumping is the act of dumping a lot of information onto someone very fast. Example: this entire post. It's a very frequent form of communication from/between autistic people and while a lot of allistic people find it rude it really isn't! It's an attempt to share something very exciting with other people. While I can understand it gets a bit overwhelming sometimes, if you ever had to ask someone to slow down a little or give you a break, please be understanding and compassionate about it because being bluntly asked to stop feels like a slap in the face. Often we might not notice we've started infodumping to begin with.
On which note, if you're autistic: find yourself another autistic friend to mutually infodump to/with, it's the best thing in the world it rules it's very exciting and fun.
Anyway, I hope this was all helpful! It's a bit of a mess topics-wise because I didn't know exactly where I wanted to go with it but hopefully it covers the important parts. If you think there's anything (related) that's worth addressing, or that you think I forgot, feel free to let me know. Thank you for reading o/
