CW: use of functioning labels to “call in” exclusions of less visible forms of functioning hierarchies, patronizing mainstream media “autism think pieces”
https://rewire.news/article/2018/02/09/siri-love-problem-neurodiversity-lite/
http://highlysensitiveperson.net/hsp-autism-aspergers/
Preface: I am *NOT* advocating for anti-neurodiversity here! I am proud to be part of the neurodiversity movement. If you are against us, have a seat.
I’m starting to wonder if the late 1990s was not just a step forward in terms of self-advocacy, but also a partial setback, despite best intentions. There’s a way of looking at neurodiversity that emerged as being “differently abled”, which is not everybody on the spectrum’s experience. Some of us *are* disabled. It’s like people are missing the “crip liberation” component of self-advocacy. It’s also true that the press has been very condescending and dismissive (even when being disparagingly pro-neurodiversity ), some of which has spilled over into our familial relations. In contrast, I had a close friend tell me that I was “sensitive” somewhere back in the 90s, and referenced HSP as “something that’s a thing now”. It was basically the opposite of what Astrid’s dad did – asserting something as being good, while also not factoring in autistic traits and life experiences. It was an honest mistake, and I don’t blame her for trying to help, but it probably delayed me seeking a diagnosis.
It can also mean that only the most “shiny”, “maps to high functioning”, “personality typed” of us get a seat…well, not at the table as much as under it, but still. Saying “neurodiversity means that we just have different kinds of brains than NTs” can erase how some us have other disabilities, how many of us have co-morbidities, and not all of us are autistic to the same level or degree, including within the same day! That’s definitely not always the intent, but it can have that sort of “impact”, so to speak.
“You’re not including the *real* people with autism!” is the one trump card autism parents, curebies and aspie supremacists have, and they twist that into whatever toxic balloon animal suits their needs on a regular basis, because they have nothing else to base their shitty assertions on – other than “I <3 torture, gaslighting, and copping a patronizing attitude”. This is something we need to be critiquing in our own community, rather than leaving to adversaries. People who get labeled as “low-functioning” *do* get ignored or otherwise not included in community-based needs assessments on a regular basis, as Julia Bascom and Amy Sequenzia have pointed out. From what I can gather as a relative newcomer to the Autistic community, it’s not that people are willfully ignorant, indifferent or ill-intentioned (although that happens too), as much as not always working in consort and solidarity across the spectrum, as autistic liberationists.
I remember all too well what it felt like to be a terrified 10 year old, watching adults trying to decide if I was “enough of a problem” to escalate their attempts to assess and “convert” me (both cisnormatively and neurotypically). Thankfully, that passed (although the aggressing against me, including in physically violent ways, did not). I’ve never been fully accepted in society, even in marginalized spaces. I see similar things happening in the more relatively privileged corners of the neurodiversity movement as well, my gratitude and indebtedness to some of those corners notwithstanding.
I’ve been in activist spaces enough to know how this can wind up. It sounds…familiar. It’s assimilationist, harms the most oppressed members of our community directly, and eventually harms all of us as well. It needs to be replaced with liberation-focused approaches that include all of us. Not just “Nothing about us, without us” — although definitely that as well! — but “All of us or none of us!”, too.