I read the conversation and debate about hashtags and autism. The pros, the cons. But, something wasn't right in my head. My brain could not process part of it with satisfaction. A piece of the puzzle was missing for me.
As always, I let the subject in the back of my head. I don't even think about it at all. I had a tough week with a lot of sensitivity and socializing. My brain was tired. And I like, I go for a hike in nature and look at my area of interest to energize. This morning I went for a hike going up and down hills listening to music and podcasts.
Often, one or more ideas I let in the back of my head pop out with an explanation, the missing piece of the puzzle for me.
I want first to clear the dx part. Autism isn't attached to a diagnosis. Many of the tools to diagnose are outdated and don't make any sense nowadays. ADI-R is near BS for example.
We are autists as we are born autists and will die autists. This matter, this is important, this is at the center. Outside in the wild world, a lot of people are using the term autism badly to build an industry and make money. It's no secret. People are scaring parents to make money and sell diagnosis and conversion therapies. This is wrong.
Back to the hashtags, I saw multiple proposals. #Allautistic reminds me to "we are all a little bit autistic" which is wrong. I get and understand why and from where it comes. We can't gatekeep the terms autism, autistic or autist. It would not be right. We are all in the same boat with or without diagnosis. For example, I have a diagnosis not to be sure I'm an autist. I have it for the sole purpose of accessing accommodations. It's how my country works based on ableism. It's also hard to access it depending on where the person lives, the financial situation, the mental health, etc.
If we gatekeep the hashtag #actuallyautistic, we would be ableist. We would discriminate against disabled. It makes no sense other than a small minority want to see themselves better than others. This is an ego problem. It's the lack of validation and not being recognized. It's not fine at all. When fighting for our rights, we put our ego on the side.
This is partly true in the opposite direction. The process of acceptance, validation and being recognized is long and hard. This is when the last piece of the puzzle came to me. The issues with all these hashtag dramas are internalized ableism. At the beginning, it was to differentiate to whom the discussion was. What's still true, the simple assessment is that the person is autistic. When it comes to the differentiation of with or without dx, it's internalized ableism. The fact that one group thinks they are oppressed by the other group. This ends with people thinking they are inferior. What is not the case! We are all at the same level.
This is what's happening. A minority thinks a diagnosis makes them superior. Another minority thinks this makes them inferior. And a hashtag crystallizing the tension of both groups.
If you ended here, thanks for reading until the end.
Good points. I will say that autistics who want to gatekeep against the self-diagnosed seem to be a tiny minority. Most of them also like to pathologize autism as a disease.
The term was coined to create safe spaces for all autistics, self-diagnosed or professionally diagnosed, so that non-autistic parents and other family members, or any other non-autistic person who wanted to critisize us, were given boundaries that we wanted them to respect.
For that purpose, #actuallyautistic is a good hashtag. It's also used all over the internet on multiple platforms. If we're going to use it we need to explain often its purpose is NOT to gate-keep against self-diagnosed autistics.
@obrerx@Autistrain@neurodiversity@actuallyautistic
That‘s my experience too. When I „entered the scene“ gate-keeping was much more prominent in social networks that it is nowadays. Most of the loudest (officially dxed) voices were people who were afraid self-dxed autists might „blur the image“ and somehow want to snatch accommodations that ought to be …
I don’t personally have a problem with explaining it. In every field, you constantly have to start over and explain basic terminology to newcomers. This is going to be true for any other term we come up with, I guess.
I actually like actuallyAutistic. It has a good origin and history, and I enjoy the ongoing discussion around it…
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…which clears up so much around the development of the term „autistic“ itself and the meaning a diagnosis had over time (e.g. @dpnash ‘s analysis of identity in „early“ and „late“ „diagnosed“).
These are all very valuable to me, and it’s so great to see how respectful that discussion is. Whichever words…
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…we’re going to use, the thoughts that come up here are good and important. We didn’t all share the same experiences, depending on time and culture and even family history etc., our personal journeys will continue to be very unique, and I love to learn about yours and understand everyone better.
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