“The 3 basic political roads one can go in the autism world,” an opinion piece by Donna Williams

Written by admin2 on March 19th, 2009

Filed under: Regular Contributors, Donna Williams, Themes, Auties & Aspies

A portrait illustration of Donna Williams

Political Correctness in 3 Different Autism Worlds

An op-ed by Donna Williams

I see there are three basic political roads one can go in the autism world:

There’s the ‘Militant Curists’ who do the sympathy/pity/tragedy thing and they use words like ‘handicap’, ‘disorder’, ‘disability’, ‘abnormal’, ‘pathology’ and are geared toward charity and overuse the word ‘help’. This group see themselves as ‘normal’ and the goal to ‘normalise’ those who are not like them, or eradicate them. There are eugenicists in this camp currently trying to find the genes so they can breed out autism. These people confuse pity with love. They refer to ‘The autistic’ and often see autism as pitiable, embarassing, broken, an obstacle to selfhood and a burden to society and families.

There’s the ‘Militant Culturalists’. This group sees autism as a shared culture. It includes those who do reverse predjudice (i.e. ‘Autistics’ are all linked to Einstein—they think he’s on the autism spectrum along with most of the highest achievers in history) and most in this group refer to ‘non-autistics’ as NT (’neurotypical’ and they use this to mean ‘mundanes’ and call non-spectrum people ‘muppets’ and ‘breeders’). The militant culturalists staunchly drive the Autistic Pride movement and link it to Gay Pride and Deaf Pride. Most militant culturalists are anti treatment. Some are even against adapatations. For them ‘Autistics’ are ‘perfect’ just as we are. These guys don’t use the word ‘disabled’ or ‘disability’. They use ‘neuro-diverse’, ‘differently abled’. They see ‘normality’ not only as ‘relative’ but some see non-spectrum people as having become so superficial and false they are not ‘normal’ nor do they see it as desirable or moral to be ‘like them’. Militant culturalists claim to be diversity-friendly but among them are also supremacists who see themselves as morally superior to non-spectrum people. Many militant culturalists are ’self diagnosed’, sometimes once their child has a diagnosis. Militant culturalists often refer to themselves as ‘Autistics’ and see this as integral to their selfhood. Some go so far as to say that if any aspect of their autism were reduced it would be the same as eradicating their selfhood.

Then there’s Moderates (like me, my husband Chris and those on the spectrum and beyond who hang with us). I have gut, immune, metabolic disorders, a mood, anxiety and compulsive disorders, visual and verbal agnosias, dyslexia and I’m challenged in the info processing and learning departments BUT I’m a master of adapation and I don’t go for cure but I do believe in treatment and management for severely disabling or limited health or sensory perceptual disorders. So with me ‘normality’ is relative. You can use the word ‘disability’ and I don’t think it defines all I am. But I’m more comfortable with ‘disAbility’ and ‘disAbled’ which emphasise that I have many abilities as well as—sometimes because of—my disabilities. I also use ‘diffabilities’, ‘differently abled’ and prefer to use the term ‘challenges’ rather than ‘disabilities’. When refering to those not on the autism spectrum I avoid calling them NT (I hate that reductionism). I use the term diversity-friendly as encompassing ALL diversity, not just those with labels (i.e. gay, deaf etc). Moderates on the spectrum are content to refer to themselves as ‘on the autism spectrum’ (happy to see ALL humans as having some elements of autism at least at some time) without seeing this as a ’sell out’. They tend to see their autism as part of, intertwined with but not the whole of their selfhood. I use words like ’support’ rather than ‘help’ (because support is egalitarian not paternalistic). Militant Culturalists often see moderates as undecided, weak or selling out in the battle to advocate and educate about autism.