Have you ever heard a friend or someone you know say another person is being ‘so autistic’? Or that their quirky friend is ‘special’? Should these terms have become so mainstream? After all, autism awareness is what we’ve been fighting for. Growing up autistic, but not finding out until late high school, I still felt singled out by my peers by the way they would refer to me with these terms.
A short history lesson for some context. The term autism was introduced by Eugen Bleuler in 1911, originally referring to what was thought to be a kind of schizophrenia. You may have also heard of Aspergers syndrome. Named after Hans Asperger and added to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders) in 1994, a type of autism that included an above average IQ and little language delays. This was removed from the DSM in 2013, now just referred to as ‘high functioning autism spectrum disorder’. Now, most of us have probably called someone an idiot or a moron at some point, right? Well, these words were once a medical classification for cognitive/intelligence levels, used by eugenicists. But those words have a completely different association today, when you hear ‘imbecile’ you don’t think of nazi eugenics, you just think of someone who isn’t very smart.
Now back to the modern day. When you hear someone referred to as special, I personally hear it used to ‘politely’ say that someone is different, and below the speaker. Almost as if the person they are referring to would not be able to understand the backhanded compliment. This could be because we started associating special needs education in schools, as being lesser to non-disabled students. Summer Heacock was diagnosed with ASD in her late 30’s. She says, “My high school teacher would say the special needs classes do not learn anything academic, or important, they are just meant to grow up and make tires in a factory.”
I’ve noticed a bit of a pattern. A term that refers to people on the spectrum, however neutral, over time becomes derogatory. The R word; once a medical term for delayed intellectual abilities, now a slur that hurts people deeply. Idiot, another medical term that is mainly used as a joke, or an insult. Moron, now an insult. The R word has become less and less socially acceptable to say, which I see as progress. But of course, people online will say ‘restarted’ as a kind of synonym for the R word. Another online trend I’ve seen was during autism awareness month, people would use an audio that said, “Autism awareness, let’s all be aware of *someone’s name*”, and then show a clip of their friend doing something weird, or commonly associated with being autistic. This seems like a harmless way to normalize autism through humor, which I thought it was at first too. But nonautistic people saw the trend and ran with it, making it no longer about the ASD community and into a joke. The autistic community will have something, and nonautistic people will take it and turn it against us.
When you hear someone say ‘autistic’, what do you think of? Do you think of a medical condition? Do you hear it as an adjective? If you hear it as a descriptor, I don’t blame you. So many mental disorders have become adjectives.
“Omg, I’m so OCD about keeping my room clean”. “My mood changes so quickly, I’m so bipolar”. “Ugh I failed my quiz, now I’m depressed”. “Wow, you really know a lot about this, are you autistic or something?”. “I’m such an idiot”. “Dude, you sound like a moron”. “You absolute imbecile!”. “Thats so dumb”. “You’re so r*****ed”. It feels like history keeps repeating itself, can you see the pattern? Who says this will not keep happening as new words and terms come about to describe the autistic/disabled community.
What change needs to be made to break this pattern? Is it even possible to change societal ways? We can start by being as kind as we can to anyone and everyone we meet, no matter who they are.
