Autism culture is playing YT videos/films that you’re really familiar with in the background while you’re doing something else, because you need some sort of auditory input and these won’t distract you from what you’re doing, because you already know what they’re going to say.
being autistic 95% of the time is just "am i reacting the right way to this?" "did i make the right face?" "is this an appropriate time to say that im hungry?" "what am i Supposed To be doing right now?" "am i making people upset/uncomfortable right now?"
Autism culture is being queer and attracted to all genders, yet specifically hyperfixating on that one man. Short or long term, that man is a comfort to you, a source of pleasure, and the best companion to stim with or to.
ngl I'm not a fan of how the very necessary discussion of how autistic girls (and many poc for that matter, not that we usually remember this) often end up masking hard due to the pressure to "be ladylike" or "not be too angry" and therefore end up being seen as "very polite" and "mature for your age" and so on and so forth is morphing into being less about how social pressures may impact how autism presents and more about saying "so there's Girl Autism and there's Boy Autism and Girl Autism makes you nice and polite and pleasant but Boy Autism makes you gross and annoying and rude and offputting and no it's not ableist at all to say that being overly excitable or trying to get a turn to talk when you don't know when your turn is or struggling with arbitrary rules is rude and annoying because Girl Autism exists uwu"
Hey btw if you have an autistic person in your life pls know that they do care about you. They're bonding with you by sitting near you, by sending you memes, by liking your posts, by info dumping to you. We have weird ways of showing we care but trust me we do.
my heart goes out to you if you're a disabled person who has a complicated or negative relationship with sleep. if you need to sleep a lot but can't due to life circumstances, or sleeping extra causing other symptoms to flare up. if you can't sleep enough due to pain, or nightmares, or psychosis, or bipolar, or depression. if you sleep way too much and find it hard to stay awake. if you can't fall or stay asleep. if you need medication in order to be able to sleep. if you don't feel rested from sleep. if you wake up a lot in the night. if you have bladder or bowel accidents while asleep. if you twitch or convulse or move too or get injured in your sleep. if you can't control your sleep schedule no matter what. if you can't sleep during "normal" sleeping hours. if you can't sleep for 8+ hours straight but can sleep for shorter amounts of time. if sleep is what you need but for one reason or another you just can't or refuse to do it.
i care about you. your disabilities deserve to be seen and acknowledged
i want casual, everyday autism in shows. i want autistic characters who need sensory symmetry, who casually mimic anyone's touch on one side of their bodies on the other (or who have friends who do it for them). i want a friend with flashcards or signals for when their friend loses speech. i want people on video calls and body doubling when they do jobs. i want people having conversations without eye contact. i want excited stimming. i want to see someone getting really excited about the tiniest thing thats related to a safefood or a special interest. i want casual, everyday autism.
(edit: october 22, 11:04am - "nonverbal" -> "nonspeaking")
(edit: october 24, 9:44pm - "nonspeaking" -> "loses speech")
i think we should reclaim the phrase “autism won today” from those weird moms and instead use it whenever we decide to buy that fidget toy we’ve been wanting or engage in our special interest(s) a little too much™️ or literally anything else positive about the autistic experience
here’s your daily reminder that cringe culture is dead.
read/write fanfic, identify as xenogender, use neopronouns, have a complex gender identity, get completely obsessed with things, stim noticeably, kin characters, watch kid’s shows, draw fan art, wear funky earrings, and enjoy what you do.
(is this post mostly just for reassuring myself? yes, yes it is)