Credit to Beth Wilson.
I think I would like this better if the ‘group picture’ contained the first two figures. Yes, there are autism stereotypes, but the implication by their exclusion is that these two do not exist in our multifaceted community, when the reality is, they are just as much a part of us as any other. So yes, portray diversely, but don’t leave those autistics who fit the stereotypes out in the cold. I’ve seen this kind of gatekeeping in queer communities, too, often to exclude people who fit the stereotypes about queer people too closely. The moment we tell people they’re letting us down just for existing and living as their true selves, the more we define a rigid idea as to what it means to be autistic, and become hypocrites. We should never make an autistic feel they have to change their movements, their dress, their special interests, stimming behaviours, or speech because they are overrepresented. Don’t make that autistic person feel shame because of who they are. That’s what neurotypicals do to us every day.
So, for the autistics who wear headphones, who love trains, who are ‘little professors’ with encyclopaedic knowledge of baseball stats or vacuum cleaners or planes, who are maths prodigies or synaethetes or have eidetic memories or are savants – YOU ARE WELCOME. YOU BELONG. YOU ARE JUST AS AUTISTIC AS ANY OF US. WE LOVE YOU.
knitting in the dark 