aspie rhetor

Archive for January, 2012

I stim, therefore I am [Loud Hands Blogaround]

I’ve become obsessed with my kindergarten graduation. Initially, the video was painful to watch: I am stimming, I am ticcing, I am moving — in ways that visibly differ from my peers. But lately, I am resisting passing. When I teach, I talk through and about my stims. I fire my rubber bands across the [...]

26 January 2012 | Melanie | blog rants | 8 Comments | Read More
Tags: ASAN, autism, autistic culture, autistic pride, Loud Hands, media, rhetoric, stimming, video

But I Never Think of You As Disabled! Accessing Paternalism, Erasure, and Other Happy Feel-Good Theories

I’m currently at the Modern Language Association convention in Seattle. To put it mildly, it’s an overwhelming conference. Yesterday I participated in a roundtable discussion titled “Is Access the New Diversity?” — during which we explored how the field and world beyond thinks about access. What follows is my portion of the roundtable. – My [...]

07 January 2012 | Melanie | blog rants | 8 Comments | Read More
Tags: ABA, access, conferences, erasure, MLA, normalization, remediation, us/them

{ about my blog’s title }

I've had this blog for a number of years. And I've never liked the term aspie. (It sounds like ass pee.) I also detest the dichotomy the term creates -- separating autistic people.

Nonetheless, I initially placed aspie in the title of this blog, in part, to examine the word itself, to examine autism politics, to reform a pathological identity into a cultural one. I've never enjoyed calling myself an aspie -- but a bunch of doctor-types have. Their paternalism angered me, and I created this blog shortly after I'd been officially diagnosed. I've changed a lot in that time, especially in how I perceive myself and my autistic identity.

All of this to say: There's a certain vexed, personal history that comes with this term and my (snarky) usage of it. The title of my blog, though, bothers me -- a lot. I suspect I'll change it to autistic rhetorics, or something similar, in the future. I welcome name-change suggestions!

Archive for January, 2012

I stim, therefore I am [Loud Hands Blogaround]

But I Never Think of You As Disabled! Accessing Paternalism, Erasure, and Other Happy Feel-Good Theories

{ access }

{ about my blog’s title }

{ navigation }

{ recent posts }

{ disability blogs }

{ archives }

{ meta }

aspie rhetor

Archive for January, 2012

I stim, therefore I am [Loud Hands Blogaround]

But I Never Think of You As Disabled! Accessing Paternalism, Erasure, and Other Happy Feel-Good Theories

{ access }

{ about my blog’s title }

{ navigation }

{ recent posts }

{ tags }

{ disability blogs }

{ archives }

{ meta }