I don’t like being referred to as a “person with autism”. I can’t just set it down, it’s not something I can remove. It is fundamental to the way I interact with the world, right down to how stim enters my brain. If my brain has types of inputs no allistic person can even approach, and methods of processing inherently different, it is an existence no allistic person can reach. There is no version of me that is not autistic.
A “cure” is the same as shooting me and replacing me with someone else.
The type of person I am is autistic. I am autistic.
I know it is a big trend in leftist spaces to use person first language, but in many situations that just sounds like eugenics to me. Personhood is not some distinct universal experience. There is no “ideal human mind” floating out there in the aether for them to recognize in me.
I get that person first language helps some people recognize that thoughts happen behind my eyes, but if the only way they can do that is by imagining I’m them, I don’t care.
Certainly an interesting first post to make on Hexbear.
Seeing person first language as eugenicsy feels a bit weird to me. By law, only a person can have rights, protections, and privileges. And I feel like person in no way implies an “ideal human mind”, given that even an organization can be a person (a “judicial person”, though perhaps it’s a silly comparison given how legal and actual uses of terms vary), and even when unconscious people are still often referred to as a “person”. The only entities that usually aren’t considered a person are slaves, and animals, so it feels like refusing personhood would be even more problematic. Adding on to all that, I’ve basically never heard a proponent of eugenics using person first language.
The people first vs identity first debate seems to have a lot to do with the specific identities involved, specifically how “harmful” it’s perceived. Blind people, hard of hearing people, and autistic people often see their condition more as being a part of them. Homeless people, people with drug issues, people with diabetes, people with AIDS, people with cancer, generally see their condition as inherently problematic, and so want to be associated more with themselves than their condition (even when it’s not curable). An autistic person can be at peace with who they are, in a way that no drug addict or cancer patient could be.
All that said, I think identity first language can work better in some situations, mostly because it’s less verbose. “in common usage positive pronouns usually precede nouns” and all that. “Autistic person” rather than “person with autism”, “homeless person” rather than “person experiencing homelessness”. It still gets most of the idea across, but it’s easier to put on a sign or in a headline.
Oh, and like people have said, “autist” is a 4chan word with some not amazing connotations, and it’s often used by people who aren’t necessarily autistic. Perhaps it’s better to avoid that word (unless you have some intention of reclaiming it? I’m not sure it’s reclaimable, or if it’s even worth bothering).