I Posted a Poll on Twitter

[Joshua the Writer]

I posted this poll on Twitter asking if the word "Autist" is a slur or not. If you have Twitter, can you go answer it?

 

[4gottenLoreKali]

I answered "depends". I'm a firm believer that context is everything. And there are both benign and malevolent contexts for the word "autist".

In my experience most of its usage several years ago was by undesirable 4Chan types against any individuals or behavior they deemed "cringe", because we all know that the autistic are a necessarily cringe-worthy people and to be autistic must be synonymous with cringe and therefore vice versa, riiiiiiiight?! (To be fair, 4Chan itself has a well-earned reputation as an online space for autists to congregate in its own right.)

But in recent years I've seen a lot of fellow autists reclaim the word in reference to themselves and our community. I actually prefer it over "autistic" as a noun since that reminds me too much of how people with cerebral palsy are called "spastics" in the UK. The suffix "-ist" also evokes a mental image of an activist or partisan fighter, someone who takes a proactive stand in the interests of our people.

However, "autistic person" will always be my preferred descriptor... I favor identity-first language, but not identity-only in this case. And to tell you the truth, I think the whole person- vs. identity-first debate is getting a liiiiiiitle played. As crucial as language choice is, I think we all can admit that arguments over semantics are some of the most exhausting and unproductive discourse out there.

Thanks for putting this poll out there and getting the community engaged!

 

[OkRad]

I do not think it is pejorative.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

No. Not offensive. These days, people get too butt-hurt about non issues.

I recently heard a song, and one of the lyrics were: "We all grew up watching South Park. How are we offended?"

 

[Major Tom]

I thought it was someone from a foreign country misspelling artist.. haha

I'm not one for titles or labels, but I do prefer person with autism, son with autism, and so on and so forth, as it putting autism or autistic first, puts the main focus on autism and not that the main point is that it's a person who is afflicted with autism.