As somebody with ASD, April is a rather interesting month for me as it's now referred to in many circles as 'Autism Awareness Month'. As someone who's proud to acknowledge the fact they have ASD, I'm mostly pleased that such a month exists. After all, if there can be a week commemorating the humble sausage, why shouldn't there be a month in which Autism gets a look in?
This said, it is also a point of contention among many. For the past year and a bit I have been involved in many Facebook pages related to ASD. Some of them are...interesting...to say the least but a lot of them do raise very good points about having ASD in the 21st Century. Here are some things I've learnt being on these pages.
- There's a strange civil war-esque situation going on between various ASD groups. It also appears that, in some groups, there's a strange hierarchy and a messiah-esque figurehead leading the group. This concerns me slightly as it appears cult-esque. And Autism is not a cult.
- There are a lot of people who want people with ASD eradicated from the planet.
- We all harbour a similar hatred for anti-vaxxers who solely blame vaccines for their child having Autism. (But this is a whole different blog post).
- But we all have the capacity to share our experiences and help each other out when we can like a community. And it's usually by way of humour and slight poking of fun but it's all in jest so it makes it fun to be around.
While I enjoy being in some of these groups, it has led me to question certain things about the overall perception of ASD in Western culture. And this can be seen in some of the groups I've either been in and left or come across.
Firstly, there are a worrying number of groups on Facebook that advocate the use of a Chlorine Ennema as a cure for ASD. These groups not only advocate this, but they are also full of parents who have subjected their children to these, frankly, horrific happenstances. I can't even begin, or want to, imagine what that must be like for a child, who finds the world scary enough as it is, to be betrayed by their parents and have what can be a dangerous chemical inserted into your rectum in the hope it biologically changes the very core of who you are as a person. I get that parents want their children to have the best in life and want to be accepted into society but there is a line and I personally feel that these activities majorly cross that line.
Secondly, there are certain people in the world and on Facebook who declare themselves as a kind of messiah figure for people with ASD. Now, this bothers me for a number of reasons. To start, no one person has the right to claim to speak for everyone in a certain group unless they have been democratically elected. I understand that there needs to be a voice for people with ASD but it should be done by committee, not by one single individual who claims that they have the right to do so.
Furthermore, Autism should not be politicized by any company or any individual. To have a single representative for people with ASD either in all or just on social media is, in a way, politicizing us. By doing this, you run the risk of having a faction of people with ASD who act like so-called-'Feminazis' who take the idea feminism so far it becomes male hating. These people piss me off as it is without having it in the context of ASD.
What would be the point of having a group of people with ASD who decide that they hate people who are, for lack of a better term, "neuro-typical"? There isn't a point. And if you have one person claiming to speak for everyone it becomes ideological, as with mainstream politics globally.
In doing this, it also makes ASD look like some kind of cult which it most certainly is not. This is where divisions get created. Remember the civil-war-esque situation I mentioned earlier? If this continues then it will cause massive divisions in these groups like, to be honest, it already has. There are a number of conflicts and divisions within these groups, many of which are frankly petty. You'd have thought that a group of people going through similar experiences would find some common ground in a larger playing field but you'd be surprised. We get enough division as a result of the Autism Speaks brand as it is without it festering at ground level.
In my experience in these groups, I've met some people who are frankly brilliant. But there are other people in these groups who just completely miss the point of what they are set up for and just cause trouble for the sake of causing trouble. Which wouldn't bother me so much if there weren't "alliances" being made.
Trust me, I know how ridiculous that sounds.
I know this sounds slightly strange but there are examples of where one person has caused a lot of trouble and people have joined their side while others have completely disagreed. (I'm not going to mention names in this as I'm sure you've already worked out). This then causes a lot of miscommunication among these groups and pits one against another. Which is not what should be happening.
This is why I welcome Autism Awareness Month and I also dread it at the same time. At a local level, I'm happy to promote Autism and promote further understanding of it as a number of people I've grown up with are now being identified as Autistic. In fact, recently, one of my friends illustrated a book and attended a convention in the North of England in relation to it. But I fear that Autism Awareness Month could become exploited by companies such as Autism Speaks and certain individuals who appear to have some kind of God Complex about themselves and manipulate it for their own means. I'm not saying they will but, if it were to happen, April every year would be the opportune moment to do it.
This said, this is only my opinion so it should not be taken as gospel truth as there will always be certain things I don't know about individuals and I'm only going off what I've experienced about them in the past. And I'm not trying to bash anyone by writing this piece which is quite important to me, But I can't help but worry about what could happen if this battle of egos gets out of control...
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