Hello and welcome to my new blog!
All of you whom know me well and are thinking to yourselves “Oh gods – not another one – shouldn’t you be concentrating on actually keeping a blog alive rather than just creating new ones all the time?” you can find tea and biscuits to your left and are asked politely to shush. I’ve not abandoned my blogs on Quora or my other word press blog (Hawk Vs. House), this is just something a little more general and a little more free to express myself on. Here I’ll be talking about my autism, autism in general and just my daily life – less focused or restrictive in subject and more free flowing.
To the rest of you, whether you are new or know me but not ever so well (and even if you know me well but are willing to read anyway) let us begin.
Why is the name of the blog: “An Autist Human”?
Shouldn’t the fact that autistic people are human be so obvious that it can go unsaid?
You’d think.
The painful fact however is that frequently members of the autistic community are having to remind people that we are in fact human beings. Not robots and not wild animals.
As I sat in the car talking with my grandmother (or more closely – at my grandmother and occasionally letting her speak – I tend to dominate conversations with my loved ones not because I don’t want to hear what they want to say but because there’s so much I want to share with them going on in my head I just blurt it all out), I mentioned to her how there had been a falling out between autistics and self-proclaimed “martyr moms” on a online community page and how the “martyr moms” had stated that even if ABA was abusive, which given the number of autistic people left traumatized or with long-term PTSD due to their experiences with ABA I’m inclined to say that it is, it was necessary because they needed to control “animalistic behaviors”.
My grandmother and I came to an agreement.
We are in fact animals. In the sense that all human beings are animals and all autistics are human beings (exactly the same as the “martyr moms”). The problematic aspect of having ones behavior be classed as animalistic and being described as animals by “martyr moms” is that they do not mean human animals and they are asserting distancing language that tries to imply that we do not have the same rights or characteristics to be able to identify ourselves as human. “Martyr moms” are trying to give the impression that autistics like their children and the adults with autism that they find all over the internet are not of the same species by virtue of perceived behavior.
They, and a vast swathe of the public, need to be reminded repeatedly – that the only animal autistics are – is human. Just like them.
This is why I chose the title of the blog that I did. It is to act as a constant reminder for as long as anyone is on this page and reading my words – that I am in fact human.
And that really needs to be ever present in people’s minds when we discuss topics. Because it’s important.
An Autist Human 