2nd April
Autism (Awareness) Acceptance day.
In this post I'm talking about autistic people, but most things can be applied to any neurodivergent person, also will be mentioning and briefly discussing ableism, objectifying of disabled people and inspiration porn.
Today is the day when almost everyone feels the urge to "light it up blue", share some so called inspirational stories showing that autistic people - surprise - are human beings too, show their sympathy to the families "affected" by autism or even better talk about how together we can "beat autism".
All this just makes me want to throw up - meaning today I will avoid social media and won't login into facebook, twitter or any other social media to avoid all the horrible, even if good intentioned, messages these posts are sending.
I already wrote many times about organisations like autism speaks and the only message they are communicating is that being autistic is the biggest burden or having an autistic child is worse than to loose one.
Let me clear it again - groups like autism speaks do not speak neither for me, neither for any other autistic person I know. The only thing they do is talk over actually autistics, silence us and never listen when we raise our concerns.
Autism (Awareness) Acceptance day.
In this post I'm talking about autistic people, but most things can be applied to any neurodivergent person, also will be mentioning and briefly discussing ableism, objectifying of disabled people and inspiration porn.
Today is the day when almost everyone feels the urge to "light it up blue", share some so called inspirational stories showing that autistic people - surprise - are human beings too, show their sympathy to the families "affected" by autism or even better talk about how together we can "beat autism".
All this just makes me want to throw up - meaning today I will avoid social media and won't login into facebook, twitter or any other social media to avoid all the horrible, even if good intentioned, messages these posts are sending.
I already wrote many times about organisations like autism speaks and the only message they are communicating is that being autistic is the biggest burden or having an autistic child is worse than to loose one.
Let me clear it again - groups like autism speaks do not speak neither for me, neither for any other autistic person I know. The only thing they do is talk over actually autistics, silence us and never listen when we raise our concerns.
There is no point even trying to engage with them anymore, as well there is no point engaging with these people who share anti-vaccine bullshit believing vaccines cause autism (irony: what a tragedy!) or these people who feel sorry for the families with autistic children...There is SO much info out there why ideas like these are harmful and how they affect real people in real life, just do your research. I'll put it shorty here anyway: it reinforces the idea that autism is a tragedy, that the world would be so much better place without autistic people in it and contributes to the already existing stigma. It hurts me. It hurts other autistic people. Basically it makes my life more difficult and makes me feel like I have to keep apologising for even existing, taking up space and many other things. You know, everyone should feel sorry for me and I should have never existed in the first place. If you care even a little bit - stop doing it. right. now.
Okay, this time I actually wanted to write about so called inspiration porn as it is another thing that harms actually autistics every fucking day, and as most people seem to care about "beating autism", "finding a magical cure" and just in general "helping autistic people", maybe it's time for them to listen and actually do (or rather stop doing something)?
Okay, this time I actually wanted to write about so called inspiration porn as it is another thing that harms actually autistics every fucking day, and as most people seem to care about "beating autism", "finding a magical cure" and just in general "helping autistic people", maybe it's time for them to listen and actually do (or rather stop doing something)?
The term inspiration porn describes the fact that disabled people are seen as inspirational because they are disabled and/or are here to inspire non disabled people to be better human beings. I can think of a few most common examples:
*Neurotypical person is being friendly and not that shitty to an autistic person. This is seen as SO inspiring!! like wow! this person is basically a hero because they don't hurt, insult or completely ignore an autistic person. Autistic person is used to show that the other person is kind hearted & good, taking away autonomy from an autistic person - nevermind in the end of the day, we are here to please non-disabled people and show how nice they can be, right??
*Autistic person does something random, something most people are capable of, like goes to the school, rides the bike, goes to the shop, etc. etc. and it is so inspiring because autistic people are apparently not capably of literally anything. It is also used to stigmatise and put other people, especially children down (e.g. "look they are autistic and they are able to ride a bike, when will you learn??" or "even that autistic child got an A from an essay, what is your excuse now??").
*Autistic person does something extraordinary, something 99% of people wouldn't be able to do, like discovers a new constellation, goes to space, invents new type of machine, paints a masterpiece, etc. and it is so fucking inspiring, just not because of the actual action, but because the person is disabled.
Let's face it - we exist for our own reasons and not to please, inspire or what-ever-other-fuck to do with non-disabled people. This sort of objectification is really really fucked up. It takes away our autonomy completely leaving us just as objects to please other people needs. We are already enough objectified, and if our needs, aspirations and ideas do not fit into society's concept of us - we are completely ignored...
I want to believe that people sharing these stories are just ignorant and think they are doing good.
*Neurotypical person is being friendly and not that shitty to an autistic person. This is seen as SO inspiring!! like wow! this person is basically a hero because they don't hurt, insult or completely ignore an autistic person. Autistic person is used to show that the other person is kind hearted & good, taking away autonomy from an autistic person - nevermind in the end of the day, we are here to please non-disabled people and show how nice they can be, right??
*Autistic person does something random, something most people are capable of, like goes to the school, rides the bike, goes to the shop, etc. etc. and it is so inspiring because autistic people are apparently not capably of literally anything. It is also used to stigmatise and put other people, especially children down (e.g. "look they are autistic and they are able to ride a bike, when will you learn??" or "even that autistic child got an A from an essay, what is your excuse now??").
*Autistic person does something extraordinary, something 99% of people wouldn't be able to do, like discovers a new constellation, goes to space, invents new type of machine, paints a masterpiece, etc. and it is so fucking inspiring, just not because of the actual action, but because the person is disabled.
Let's face it - we exist for our own reasons and not to please, inspire or what-ever-other-fuck to do with non-disabled people. This sort of objectification is really really fucked up. It takes away our autonomy completely leaving us just as objects to please other people needs. We are already enough objectified, and if our needs, aspirations and ideas do not fit into society's concept of us - we are completely ignored...
I want to believe that people sharing these stories are just ignorant and think they are doing good.
If you are one of these people for goodness sake - STOP! just stop doing it. There is nothing inspiring or nice in participating in these oppressive activities. Autistic people are not your emotional merchandises!! These superficial praises are extremely patronising and nothing else just a tool of oppression silencing us even more, just this time in a less visible way.
(By the way, I'm not saying you shouldn't find disabled people and their work inspiring. But if your inspiration comes from the fact that we are disabled by the society and you are not, that we manage to do things you are able to do too, that we manage to do things you are not able to do and the fact we are disabled surprises you or you feel that having a disabled person as a friend will make you more progressive, better person - you are the part of the problem. If you want to be a better ally, unlearn your ableism and objectification - go for it. Don't expect your autistic friends to educate you, do your own research.
By the way I'm an artist and I actually want people to be inspired by my ideas and artworks, but because they really like them and not just because I'm disabled by this society.
By the way I'm an artist and I actually want people to be inspired by my ideas and artworks, but because they really like them and not just because I'm disabled by this society.
Copyright © Lex Kartanė
All rights reserved.
All works are copyrighted and not to be used without the permission of the author.
All rights reserved.
All works are copyrighted and not to be used without the permission of the author.
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