Imagining A Story In Your Head:

“You choose your toppings that fit you. “

..No, you don’t. That’s not how this works.

More specifically, while different autistic people can have different autistic traits, that doesn’t mean that you get to choose what traits you have. This metaphor implies that autism is a choice, that autism is just a bunch of autistic traits mixed together (in reality, like any neurotype, it is much more complicated than that), and that showing a couple of signs of autism makes you autistic (it doesn’t).

Saying that you get to choose which traits of autism you have is incredibly harmful to the autism community. That’s the same sort of argument used by ABA therapists to try to force people out of stimming. It’s also the sort of thing that makes neurotypicals think autistic people are just special snowflakes who are faking for attention.

In addition, many of the items in this sundae bar have little or nothing to do with autism, and in fact the sundae bar includes many unrelated neurotypes. While some of these may be correlated with autism, they are still different neurological differences. For instance, autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, and dyslexia are entirely separate things, and some of them are conflated often enough that this kind of misinformation is very counterproductive.

Fundamentally, you don’t get to choose in what ways you are autistic. Yes, different people will have different “toppings,” but that doesn’t make it a choice. I didn’t choose to be hypersensitive to loud noises any more than I chose to be good at math, or I chose to have green eyes.

tl;dr: Autism is not a sundae bar, and autistic people don’t choose which signs of autism we exhibit.

We need to stop seeing autism as some sort of one-dimensional sliding scale. Autism is not a thermometer. It’s not a rating that is “more” or “less”. High-functioning and Low-functioning do not exist in the real world.

Autism is a collection of symptoms and behaviours. Like a sundae bar. You choose your toppings that fit you.

Are you a bipolar extravert that loves socialising, is good at math and bad at remembering time? That’s ONE way to be autistic!

Are you a socially anxious autistic who has meltdowns when your clothes don’t feel right but a genius knowledge of music theory and is great at scheduling? That’s another way to be autistic!

Notice how both of those examples has strengths and weaknesses? Is one more “employable” or “high-functioning” than the other?

There is no one-size-fits-all category or rating for autism.

reblog if i can message you and awkwardly make conversation with you so we can become best friends

Here, have some recommendations of Advanced Gay literature!

1. Fires of the Faithful/ Turning the Storm by Naomi Kritzer. This duet is mostly a fantasy novel; the protagonist is also lesbian. There are some religious themes, but the protagonist could probably best be described as agnostic-ish. You can find the first one on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Fires-Faithful-Naomi-Kritzer/dp/0553585177

2. Proxy by Alex London. I’m not sure if it quite qualifies as Advanced Gay literature, as homophobia still exists in that universe and negatively affects one of the two protagonists, who is gay. I’m granting it a spot on the list mostly because the main problems are not the result of homophobia. It’s on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Proxy-Alex-London/dp/014751133X

3. The Just City by Jo Walton. This book is about a group of people trying to set up Plato’s Republic. If you don’t like philosophy, you’ll probably find it boring, but if you do, especially Plato’s works, you might like it. Several characters are mentioned to be in relationships with people of the same gender. Although sexual attraction to anyone is discouraged, this isn’t applied any more harshly to the same-gender-attracted characters. I will warn you that there are a few rape scenes, so if that bothers you you should probably stay away. It’s on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Just-City-Thessaly-Jo-Walton/dp/0765332663

Those are just the first few to come to mind; if you want more recommendations message me.

tfw you pick up a Gay Novel TM at the library but upon reading it discover its all about being gay and how hard tm it is but you already graduated this level of beginners gay and youre mad bc you cant find Advanced Gay literature

So I looked at his wiki page, and I was going to say this was Photoshopped because that phrase wasn’t on there, but then I looked at the revision history and, well,

So apparently yes, until 11:37 PM last night, the wiki page for Anthony Ramos referred to him as a “pure angel bean 10/10.”

who did it

WHO DID IT

It’s nice to see this musical go on and on, grow into more of a phenomenon.

@thegrammys @linmanuel

This is fascinating. I kind of wonder why these don’t tend to get as much coverage as murders by men. My first instinct is gender stereotyping, but I’m not sure if the answer is that simple.

I will note that most of these are not related to rejecting romantic advances, which was the point made by the original poster; nevertheless, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a problem.

shocking

How did you become so awesome?

I’m not awesome; awesome people don’t take months to reply to messages. But thank you, Anon!

It depends, if you do it at home and don’t use expensive dye, I’ve heard it’s actually pretty cheap. I'm not really an expert, though, thanks to the aforementioned uniform code.

How should I get my hair cut? send me suggestions!

@johnhocksbur

Completely ignoring the abortion issue, that isn’t the full quote. According to the least biased source I could find, Fox News Insider, the full quote is "Here at Planned Parenthood, we firmly believe that every person has the right to live, work, and raise a family freely and without the threat of deportation or separation.” It’s using “live” in a different sense than the one that excerpt implies. The intended meaning is much closer to “live in” or possibly “live one’s life” than “be alive.”

Zero self-awareness