More on the label.
I am not going to be one of those who hangs on to the Asperger label as I have always embraced the concept of autism and have in fact chosen to call myself Autistic in some realms for political purposes. Autistic is controversial as it flies in the face of person first language. I tend to back away from the diminutive terms such as ‘Aspie’ or ‘autie’ as I feel they are a trivialisation of a complex human state of being and interacting.
Much of our disability as with any disability lies within society’s attitudes toward us and it is not surprising that many people on the autism spectrum internalise these attitudes and develop a spectrum of self loathing that reflects society’s stigmatising stereotypes.
Identities also develop within a movement of resistance to those stereotypes – a point of difference is a point of resistance – Asperger’s has become one such point in a relatively short space of time. There is in fact no reason as to why people cant identify with Asperger’s definition of autism beyond the the time it is officially subsumed.
The danger though is that we risk further fracturing of a community that is already difficult to organise. People with ASD are excellent at excelling in solitary pursuit of ideals but bring us all together and we fumble about – in my experience. I have a very strong sense of the autism community but feel we do rightly resist being organised and homogenised which is why it is hard to have our voices heard and why we are often overwhelmed by the voices of others.
At other times the business of living day to day just takes over. For example I am 36 and I am just learning to drive so I have to decide what is more important – spending hours debating the DSM 5 or clocking up hours on the road so I can reach another level of independence. I did my first night drive tonight before I sat down and wrote this. So you see I am driven to do both – I can’t decide, I can’t prioritise – or maybe its just that some things are equally important. I want my independence but I also want every other person on the autism spectrum to have a chance to meet their goals too.
