Fuck you, Autism Speaks. Not even scared. I’m painting my nails red in protest, for the entire duration of April, but unfortunately will still have to wear things that are blue because 1) work uniform and 2) turquoise is my favorite color, so I have some tops containing it.
Autism isn’t all about you — and, thanks to COVID-19, nobody is going to pay much attention. I don’t see clothes flying off the racks and tables as much as I do the groceries and paper products off their shelves. You’re not water. Autism “awareness” is not a necessity.
Love is always necessary.
So is kindness and compassion. They’re uncompromising. If you feel the need to choose one over the other for your cause, you should check yourself before you fucking wreck yourself. Because raising awareness is something you do for diseases, not for the way someone is.
Raising awareness for autism is akin to raising awareness for existence of other races, different eye/hair colors, and LGBTQ+ people — and then encouraging the world why we need a cure to eradicate them. Because that is precisely what Autism Speaks is about. They raise money to perpetually harm actually autistic people — but, oh, it’s okay, because they also give iPads to families “affected by autism” because of some ableistic bullshit regarding verbal communication and eye contact? Hard pass.
When you support Autism Speaks, you support shit like this:
It’s morbid, but some good may come of COVID-19 after all.
Probably not, but I’m hopeful. I have seen so little advertising for Autism Speaks’ money-grabbing Autism Awareness Month. No one cares. Finally. But why did it a global pandemic to make this shit happen? Why couldn’t allistic (non-autistic) people listen to actually autistic people?
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Comments on this post
Why I need autism acceptance | Freya J.
[…] I need autism acceptance because “autistic” is still viewed as a bad word, “autism” is viewed as a negative business trait, and non-autistic parents of autistic children still get upset at autistic adults advocating for autism acceptance instead of awareness. […]
Gayathri
That is definitely annoying and absolutely stupid. One thing doesn’t have to stop another at all. I am sorry, Jane!
Jane
Wait, what are you sorry for?
Autism Awareness Month should be cancelled. It is, essentially, a celebratory post in favor of autism acceptance.
Jenn
Wait…how does one CANCEL an entire month devoted to increasing awareness about a particular issue? Who makes that call? Geez…
Jane
There is a difference between awareness and acceptance, and the autistic community has been consistently fighting against raising awareness and for raising acceptance. It’s minor differences in the wording that contribute in major ways towards how the autism community treats the autistic community. The communities are different, in that non-autistic people are not part of the autistic community regardless of whether someone they care for is.
My post was, more or less, a bold statement towards Autism $peaks for their shittiness and the people who don’t raise up the voices of actually autistic people — or listen to actually autistic people — during the fugly Autism “Awareness” Month. It was not meant to give anyone fluffy feelings of any kind.
Raising autism awareness ≠ promoting autism acceptance, because autism awareness stems from hate, however it’s done.
Recommended reading:
- F*ck autism awareness.
- This is what [allistic] privilege looks like.
- How to be an ally of autistic people
- Acceptance vs. Awareness
- Autism Acceptance Month is here. For autistic advocates, that’s not a good thing.
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