During my search for new and interesting autism-relevant research, I ran across an article talking about the types of stigma experienced by parents of autistic people. It included two types of stigma I'd never heard of before.
I have a psychology degree, a decent amount of experience with stigma, and a general interest in such things, so I did some research... and I found there's a whole bunch of types of stigma. I also hit upon a nice infographic, which I'll repost here. I'll go through each of the types with autism-relevant examples from my experiences and reading.
The charming "Ransom Note" public campaign by New York University is a good example of this.
This is stigmatizing in a few ways. First, social interaction and your ability thereof is a skill... i.e., something that can be learned. So, no, there is no destruction here, it's simply that the child may need extra support to learn those social skills.
Second, do you know why autistic people tend to be more isolated? It's not because we don't want friends, or don't try. It's because neurotypical people tend to reject people different than them. When that happens over and over, the person loses the desire to try again. Saying that's their autism's fault is not only absurd, it's literally the opposite of the problem.
Third, this ad commits the idiocy of assuming you can remove the autism from the autistic. You can ease the ways an autistic person suffers, like providing sensory support, treating depression and anxiety, allowing them to make decisions (and mistakes!) on their own terms. And the results may be that they act less "weird," which is then mistaken for "less autistic." The fact remains that you cannot cure or remove autism, which is a neurologically-based difference, from an autistic human.
This campaign, and others like it, have informed the public opinion of autism. We are, apparently, a disease, threatening, and something to be feared. This was the message given to the general public.
Here's another horrifying ad by Autism Speaks (stupid name; no autistic people are listened to there). And here's the transcript, in case, like me, you can't follow the whole thing.
They've personified autism into some kind of malevolent disease-demon, infecting innocent children and making them have greater challenges than most kids. Autism Speaks is happy to blame disintegrating marriages on this nonexistent entity rather than the actual children, while demonizing what makes those children unique.
Autism, to Autism Speaks (bullshit name), is nothing less than evil. Which they, of course, have set themselves up as the "Good" to fight against. There's a lovely message of universality, with mentions of various countries and religions.
It's a pity it all misses the truth, which is that there is no demon. If autism has a representative, it's your children. It's adults like me. It's the collective community we adults have built. We don't want your marriage to fail any more than we want our own relationships to fail. We don't want you to go bankrupt paying for therapy that traumatizes and stigmatizes us. We certainly don't want you to lose hope.
Mostly, what we want is to be ourselves. To not be rejected for being different. No amount of demonizing autism will make that happen.
Some excellent general examples of the typical public stigma experience can be found in the article here. Highlights include, "autistic people don't have empathy/can't feel emotions," "autistic people are damaged," and how autistic children are all apparently soul-draining, life-destroying monsters (due to how some parents talk about them).
All of these are examples of Public Stigma, the first of seven types of stigma.
I have a psychology degree, a decent amount of experience with stigma, and a general interest in such things, so I did some research... and I found there's a whole bunch of types of stigma. I also hit upon a nice infographic, which I'll repost here. I'll go through each of the types with autism-relevant examples from my experiences and reading.
Type 1: Public Stigma.
This happens when the public endorses negative stereotypes and prejudices, resulting in discrimination against people with autism.
The charming "Ransom Note" public campaign by New York University is a good example of this.
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| Text: We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation. It's up to you now. ~Asperger Syndrome |
Second, do you know why autistic people tend to be more isolated? It's not because we don't want friends, or don't try. It's because neurotypical people tend to reject people different than them. When that happens over and over, the person loses the desire to try again. Saying that's their autism's fault is not only absurd, it's literally the opposite of the problem.
Third, this ad commits the idiocy of assuming you can remove the autism from the autistic. You can ease the ways an autistic person suffers, like providing sensory support, treating depression and anxiety, allowing them to make decisions (and mistakes!) on their own terms. And the results may be that they act less "weird," which is then mistaken for "less autistic." The fact remains that you cannot cure or remove autism, which is a neurologically-based difference, from an autistic human.
This campaign, and others like it, have informed the public opinion of autism. We are, apparently, a disease, threatening, and something to be feared. This was the message given to the general public.
Here's another horrifying ad by Autism Speaks (stupid name; no autistic people are listened to there). And here's the transcript, in case, like me, you can't follow the whole thing.
They've personified autism into some kind of malevolent disease-demon, infecting innocent children and making them have greater challenges than most kids. Autism Speaks is happy to blame disintegrating marriages on this nonexistent entity rather than the actual children, while demonizing what makes those children unique.
Autism, to Autism Speaks (bullshit name), is nothing less than evil. Which they, of course, have set themselves up as the "Good" to fight against. There's a lovely message of universality, with mentions of various countries and religions.
It's a pity it all misses the truth, which is that there is no demon. If autism has a representative, it's your children. It's adults like me. It's the collective community we adults have built. We don't want your marriage to fail any more than we want our own relationships to fail. We don't want you to go bankrupt paying for therapy that traumatizes and stigmatizes us. We certainly don't want you to lose hope.
Mostly, what we want is to be ourselves. To not be rejected for being different. No amount of demonizing autism will make that happen.
Some excellent general examples of the typical public stigma experience can be found in the article here. Highlights include, "autistic people don't have empathy/can't feel emotions," "autistic people are damaged," and how autistic children are all apparently soul-draining, life-destroying monsters (due to how some parents talk about them).
All of these are examples of Public Stigma, the first of seven types of stigma.
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