Since I’ve been sitting ‘Autism Month‘ out the past few years, I’ve been watching and taking notes… get ready, this Neurodivergent Rebel is BACK!
It’s been a while since I’ve participated in ‘Autism Month.‘ Something about it never sat right with me…
Actually, there are a lot of things about ‘Autism Month‘ that don’t sit right with me, personally, as one Autistic person – one being that I am Autistic every day, not just in April.
However, with recent events all around the globe bringing up old myths, misconceptions, and sometimes outright lies about Autistic people, I feel called to return (because I know the fuckery will likely be big this year, since current events have emboldened those who once would have kept their ignorance to themselves).
If you’re new to this blog or Autism month, you might be asking yourself, “What’s so bad about having a month to honor Autistic people? Isn’t awareness a good thing?” Which, in itself, brings up one of my biggest frustrations with this ‘special month for autism’:
That ‘Autism Month‘ wasn’t created to honor us at all.
We didn’t create it… It was created by people who saw us as problems or puzzles to be solved.
Originally, the Autism Month awareness campaigns were created to raise awareness of ‘autism‘ (as an epidemic in need of a cure and something the world should fear).
It started as a month created by non-autistic parents and service providers (people with something to sell who profited off making people afraid of ‘autism’). As a result, ‘Autism Month‘ was embraced by many who saw ‘autism‘ as a curse that needed to be cured or prevented.
You know… Nothing major, just casual eugenics against an entire group of people.
Autistic people were portrayed as ‘something people needed to be aware of‘ because it ‘ruins lives and families.’
We often were presented in a way as to create fear that a family could end up with an Autistic person in their home and that would ruin their lives, or a fear that if a parent didn’t get their Autistic child into one of many various ‘treatments‘, so called ‘therapies‘ (many of which were harmful), and countless quack ‘cures‘ as soon as possible (like bleach enemas for ‘autism causing parasites‘ that don’t exsist), ‘things will never get better, and only can continue to get worse‘ if they didn’t… many were guilt tripped by the phrase, “don’t you wan’t what’s best for your child?“
We were not included in our own narratives, as non-autistic people used this month as a time to talk about ‘autism‘ without including, often talking over, or dismissing actual Autistic people when we tried to speak out against the harmful, inaccurate, and stigmatizing rhetoric people spewed about us, or the systemic issues and abuses that actually impact our daily lives.
If we spoke up too much, or shared opinions that were inconvenient, uncomfortable, got involved with Autism legislation, or called out harmful parenting techniques and therapies, parents would tell us we ‘weren’t really Autistic‘, ‘were encroaching on parent’s rights‘ (a phrase the anti-trans lobby adopted years later) or ‘weren’t Autistic enough‘ to have an input on what they were talking about – to which I would often say, “If I, an actual Autistic person is not ‘Autistic enough’ to chime in, and then these non-autistics who refuse to uplift Autistic voices really need to zip it“.
The Autism Wars
Through the lens of ‘Autism Awareness Month‘, ‘autism‘ was treated as something to wage war with, and, as a result, parents called themselves ‘Autism Warrior Parents‘ (which has since been shortened by many to just ‘Autism Parents‘), and Autistic people became the casualties of that war.
A popular phrase in those days for those of us who were ‘in the trenches‘ was “I’m joining the war on Autism on the side of Autism!“
For many of us (myself included), it was a war on misinformation. Still, some people viewed ‘The Autism Wars‘ as Autistic people being at war with the ‘Autism Warrior Parents‘, who treated being called in or gently corrected, or notified that something they were sharing was false or harmful, as an attack.
Knowing we needed allies, I wanted to ‘build a bridge’; that’s why I created the #AskingAutistics hashtag… but the other side was hard to reach, and many weren’t receptive to what we had to say.
Even if we tried to correct the myths and harmful misinformation as gently as possible, we were called ‘aggressive‘ or accused of ‘bullying‘ or being ‘parent haters‘… and the number one, most controversial topic in Autism month was almost always Applied Behavioral Analysis, also known as ABA or Neurodivergent conversion ‘therapy’, (there was always plenty of arguing over symbols and language every year too).
ABA is big business (it is a multi-billion-dollar industry), and ABA providers were among the loudest and most prevalent voices every April (because they treated ‘Autism Month’ like an annual marketing event).
You can read the rest of this one on Substack and Patreon.
This post was written with the assistance of Focused Space (a sponsor of the Neurodivergent Rebel blog).
What is Focused Space?
Focused Space is an ADHD-focused, Neurodiversity affirming, goal‑setting, and online co‑working / body‑doubling platform designed to help people prioritize, stay motivated, and bust through procrastination (and it is something I believe in and personally use every day).
More info:
Learn more about how I use it here!
I get requests (that I mostly ignore) to do brand partnerships all the time, because I don’t want to partner with products unless I actually find them useful and high-quality. I also want to work with brands whose owners and processes align with my personal standards and ethics.
That’s why I’m excited to announce that the Neurodivergent Rebel Blog is officially partnering with Focused Space, and our community members can now get access to Focused Space at a special rate of 20% off forever when you use the code “NEURODIVERGENTREBEL” at checkout via the button below or at get.focused.space/neurodivergentrebel:
Now when you Get Focused Space via the link above you’re getting discounted access to a great tool as while supporting the work I do here at the NeuroDivergent Rebel Blog.
Also, if you ever join a 7am CST wakeup call, or pop into an un-hosted Quiet Owl session on a week day, you might bump into me.
Not sure if Focused Space is for you?
- You can start with a free 14-day trial.
- And because this is an ADHD-friendly app, Focused Space will send you an email reminder 7 days before you are billed, so you can cancel after the first week if it’s not a good fit for you.
Hope to see you over there!
