PLEASE NOTE THIS IS COPIED OVER FROM MY FACEBOOK, WHERE I STILL USED THE ANNUAL MODEL OF POSTING, THERE MAY BE SOME REFERENCES TO THIS MODEL, JUST IGNORE THEM.
well, time flies and we have arrived at April 2nd yet again. this year, before I start, I'm going to correct a small error on my part over the last few years. It has recently been decided by & I have recently discovered that the Autistic community decided that the name "Autism Awareness Month/Day/Week" need to go.
They were originally created by the "charity" Autism Speaks and as a community we are trying to disconnect ourselves from them entirely. - the same goes for the "puzzle piece" logo, which was also created by them and should be abandoned, and the "light it up blue campaign" - the correct one is to light it up RED.
The more appropriate title for these periods of time is "Autism ACCEPTANCE Month" and the reasoning behind it is that we aren't looking for people to be aware we exist, we're looking for people to ACCEPT us as human beings and treat us as such.
now, onto this year's topic. Over the last month I have been thinking about what I wanted to cover most this year, and I settled on "Autism in the Media" To do this, I sat through a movie called "Music" which was created by Sia. This movie was the worst representation of Autism I ever had the displeasure to see put to screen and spread false stereotypes of what to expect when dealing with an Autistic child. The Autistic person was basically just a plot point used to bring characters together and frankly the movie left me feeling physically sick.
this encouraged me to ask a few autistic friends to pass on some ideas they had for good representation alongside my own, so thank you JJ Drucker for the help with this.
I personally recommend "The Imitation Game" which tells the story of Sir Alan Turing, widely believed to be Autistic, and while he is played by a neurotypical actor, it is an incredible representation of Autism.
the recommendations given to me were: Community - Abed is Autistic, the writer, Dan Harmon is Autistic
Atypical - commonly regarded as an incredible show about Autism, while I haven't seen it myself I never hear that much bad about it.
there are also plenty of shows with characters widely believed to be autistic and still treated as good representation, an example of this is Steven Universe where the characters Steven, Pearl, and Peridot are all believed to have some level of Autism diagnosis.
I could easily keep going but I know the more I write the less people will read, so I'll leave it to those few recommendations.
I will leave you all with this wisdom, as I have learned it myself through being more active in the Autistic communities on social media for the last month:
Autistic people don't need you to be aware they exist, we need you to accept we exist and treat us as human beings.
Therefore, you should: NEVER act like an Autistic person isn't there, especially just because they're non-speaking. NEVER claim to give a "voice to the voiceless" NEVER correct an Autistic person about Autism (things like neurotypical people correcting the use of "Autistic" to "People with Autism" - people in the Autistic communities generally prefer we just use the word Autistic.) DO accept we exist and treat us as human beings, because that's what we are. DO give Autistic people equal opportunities NEVER make an autistic person feel alone. The suicide rate among Autistic people is higher than any other group, and many Autistic adults will kill themselves because they feel that life has become a repetitive drag because nobody gives them the time of day so they wake up, work, go home, and sleep every day.
so now, I'm finished, and I will leave you with these parting words for 2021. AUTISM IS NOT A DISEASE, IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE CURED, IT CANNOT BE PREVENTED AND NEVER SHOULD BE!
whelp, see you all in April 2022!
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