mathematicaltardistime-blog asked: Hello! In your "about me," why do you specify that you wish to be referred to as "Autistic" rather than "person with autism?" I just graduated as a rec therapist, and using "person first language" was always a huge thing I was taught in school. I was curious about your perspective since I've never heard from any one who thinks such language is not ideal.
Because person first language is hated by the autistic community. It’s taught to professionals because they literally don’t give a fuck about what autistic people want.
The autistic community as a whole prefers identity first language. There are no good reasons for insisting on person first language against a communities stated preference, it just enables curebie attitudes and shows that you really don’t care about us. The enforced person first language is a giant slap in the face the the autistic community, and using nothing but person first language for the autistic community is offensive.
You need to be listening to actual autistic people. If you’ve never heard from anyone who doesn’t like person first language then you are not listening to enough autistic people.
Why do you feel the need to endlessly emphasise our humanity? Seriously, if you can say someone is black, blonde, gay, american, without needing to go PERSON! PERSON! why do you feel the need to do this with autistic people? Do you think autism makes us less human than you?
Autism isn’t an appendage. It isn’t something that’s separate from who I am. How could you possibly separate the way I think from who I am as a person? Why are you trying?
Person first language tends to support the idea that you could take the autism away and you’d still have the “person” bit. Which isn’t true. You’d be turning me into an entirely different person. I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t autistic.
If the phrase “she’s tall” doesn’t make you want to go “no, no, she’s a person” but the phrase “she’s autistic” does, you really, really need think about your attitudes to autistic people.
Being autistic is part of my identity. It’s part of who I am. You don’t need to distance it from me. You don’t need to constantly emphasise my humanity, because the fact that I’m a person should go without saying.
Continued use of person first language and nothing else states very clearly that you don’t care about the autistic community.
Here’s some links about why the autistic community uses identity first language
http://autisticadvocacy.org/identity-first-language/
http://www.autistichoya.com/2011/11/identity-and-hypocrisy-second-argument.html
“i”ve never heard from anyone who thinks this language is not ideal” says a neurotypical about a type of language disliked by almost the entire autism community