Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT Strips 3941-3945 (18-22 February 2019)

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Tova:

--- Quote from: Drunken Old Man on 24 Feb 2019, 04:22 ---Now, if the distinction between an asthmatic and a person with asthma still seems negligible to you, then I have to question whether I was equally unsuccessful in making that point to the literally hundreds of people I trained over the last 20 years.  Were they really all just nodding and smiling to move things along?  Disquieting thought...yet I explained it to them the same I have here...

--- End quote ---

This isn't the first time I've heard of it, just to clarify. You're explaining the concept perfectly well, I assure you.

OldGoat:

--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 24 Feb 2019, 09:06 ---I know I've seen "person with ..." recommended in circles concerned with inclusion.

--- End quote ---
"Person with diabetes," "diabetic," "waffle syrup pisser," or "metformin popper" all mean the same thing, but I really prefer to be called "diabetic" 'cause it conveys all the necessary information with one word.  Unless I'm playing it for laughs - then #3 works best.

mikmaxs:
To add my observations to the discussion:
"Person with autism" tends to be preferred predominantly by parents and caretakers of autistic people.
"Autistic person" tends to be preferred very predominantly by autistic people.

(And when I say "Preferred very predominantly by autistic people" I mean "In polls where we're asked to decide between the two options presented above, "Autistic person" votes tend to be in the range of 80-90%.)

The reasoning is that autism is not simply an addition to our personality, but is in fact, foundational to who we are. In the same way that I am male, straight, etc., I am autistic - These are core parts of who I am, not baggage that I carry around with me and which could be discarded in the right circumstances.

If an autistic person requests to use person-first language I'll of course respect that, but I default to identity-first because that's (in my experience) what the vast majority of autistic people prefer.

mikmaxs:
To add on to the last thing I said, which gets away from observation and more into my opinion:
There's a concerning and harmful trend in the mental health field and amongst allistic parents of autistic children to try and eliminate, or at least cover up, autistic traits/identity. Autistic behavior is stigmatized and seen as both aberrant and in need of "fixing", even when that behavior is completely harmless. In worst-case scenarios, it's seen as subhuman and in need of complete elimination.
Autism isn't seen as a part of identity, it's seen as a boogeyman that's coming to steal away your children, to change who they "really" are, as though they had some kind of pre-autistic personality that their diagnosis stole away.
(If you need any convincing that this mentality exists, look up the "I am autism" commercial published by Autism Speaks from about a decade ago, in which autism itself is personified as a sinister predator who says such gems as, "If you were happily married, I will make sure your marriage fails" and "I will rob you of your children and your dreams".)

It's my opinion that the push for person-first language has a lot of strong connections to this mindset - Because professionals and parents often don't see autistic traits as even being human, they have to then distance the autism from the person in order to see any humanity at all. It's hard to use the words "autistic person" to describe a loved one when you think that "autistic" is a subversive corruption of who the person really is.

Tova:
Thanks for that insight.

Just to add more weight to this perspective, I'd like to quote the late Stella Young.


--- Quote from: Stella Young, writing a letter to her 80-year-old self. ---I started changing my language. To jog your memory, back when you're still thirty there are all kinds of fights about whether we are allowed to say 'disabled people' at all. It's 'people with disabilities' that's all the rage. 'Cause we're, like, people first, you know? And if we don't say that we're people, folks might get confused. But I've never had to say that I'm a person who's a woman, or a person who is Australian, or a person who knits. Somehow, we're supposed to buy this notion that if we use the term disabled too much, it might strip us of our personhood. But that shame that has become attached to the notion of disability, it's not your shame. It took a while to learn that, so I hope that you've never forgotten.

I started calling myself a disabled woman, and a crip. A good thirteen years after seventeen-year-old me started saying crip, it still horrifies people. I do it because it's a word that makes me feel strong and powerful. It's a word other activists have used before me, and I use it to honour them.

--- End quote ---

You left us far too soon, Stella. :,(

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