shiningknockouts:

i’m early for autism acceptance month but pretend this was posted tomorrow, i want to talk about the negatives of autism and being autistic. those do absolutely exist. i feel like there’s been some erasure of the unpleasant symptoms of autism for the sake of autism acceptance, but if you can’t accept the bad parts of autism, then you aren’t accepting autism.

aggression and aggressive behavior in response to triggers is an autism symptom. antisocial behavior and lack of empathy are symptoms of autism. proprioceptive issues and being unable to move normally is an autism symptom. taking things literally (yes, even to the point where people assume it’s stupidity) is a symptom of autism. being slow to understand new concepts (yes, again even to the point of perceived stupidity) is an autism symptom. autism is disabling for many people, even though it doesn’t disable everyone.

the idea that unpleasant or extreme autism symptoms “aren’t actually autism symptoms” is harmful and counterproductive for autism acceptance. we need to include autistic people who scream and kick and bite when they’re overstimulated in our acceptance. we need to include autistic people who are genuinely bad at interpersonal interaction (as opposed to just being a bit weird or having a few quirks) in our acceptance. we need to include autistic people who take even the most obvious things literally and can’t read cues AT ALL in our acceptance. we need to include people who are disabled by their autism in our acceptance. we aren’t all “different but able”.

accept disabled autistic people. accept autistic people with extreme and unpleasant symptoms. don’t erase our experiences for the sake of autism being more acceptable to allistics. happy autism acceptance month.