Calming Stims and Aesthetics

The Boy Squad  ⇩

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of variations on a story that goes “Autistic people love detail, and it makes them naturally well suited for repetitive jobs that most people find intolerably boring.”

This is usually said with great fanfare, and described as a step away from stigma and towards celebration.

But — autistic people don’t all have a convenient love of tedious tasks. Some of us find them as boring as everyone else does.

This model of “autistic strengths” celebrates us doing jobs everyone else hates. It has no room for us to pursue jobs that others want. We’re supposed to stay in a special place for special people, doing the boring tasks the ideology says we love — and making no trouble for the normal people who do the interesting jobs.

a quick thing for Autism Acceptance Day/Month!!

how to support autistic people this month:

don’t support Autism Speaks – it’s an awful “charity” that harms autistic people more than it helps them

do support organisations run by and for autistic people, such as the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network ( @autisticadvocacy​ ) and the Autism Women’s Network ( @autisticwomen​ )

don’t “light it up blue” for “autism awareness” – these things are heavily associated with Autism Speaks, and with the dangerous misconceptions it spreads about autism

do use the hashtag #RedInstead to fight back against #LightItUpBlue

do promote and celebrate autism acceptance (not just awareness!)

and, most importantly: