This is an interesting thread. I say that with respect to the general topic of autism and its possible markers, and not Hypatia, as I've not interacted with her and couldn't comment.
I'm on the spectrum, and was not diagnosed until adulthood. I'm currently trying to figure out whether I think there's a stigma, and I have conflicting thoughts about it. I think people generally are trying to be more and more accepting of the label, and there's been a lot of improvement there societally speaking. That said--and speaking purely for myself here--I very rarely feel listened to as someone on the spectrum. So from my perspective, there's not a stigma so much as a failure on the behavioral level. There have been people for example, acquaintances and low-level friends, that I've told my diagnosis to and it made no difference in their interaction with me, when I expected it would have. Like they "heard" me but didn't really hear me. I recently left a good chat group that I'd at one point hoped to be a meaningful member of, in fact, because I'd opened up to them about this and there was no meaningful change in their interaction with me as a result--even from one who was married to someone on the spectrum, so you'd think she'd know better, which is ironic and kind of sad. This is typical, in my experience.
Cerebrum is right about "autistic" being used as a quasi-insult, e.g., "autistic screeching" memes. Strangely, these actually don't bother me at all and I don't really know why. Maybe they should.
Just some random thoughts of mine, since the subject is close to my heart.
I'm on the spectrum, and was not diagnosed until adulthood. I'm currently trying to figure out whether I think there's a stigma, and I have conflicting thoughts about it. I think people generally are trying to be more and more accepting of the label, and there's been a lot of improvement there societally speaking. That said--and speaking purely for myself here--I very rarely feel listened to as someone on the spectrum. So from my perspective, there's not a stigma so much as a failure on the behavioral level. There have been people for example, acquaintances and low-level friends, that I've told my diagnosis to and it made no difference in their interaction with me, when I expected it would have. Like they "heard" me but didn't really hear me. I recently left a good chat group that I'd at one point hoped to be a meaningful member of, in fact, because I'd opened up to them about this and there was no meaningful change in their interaction with me as a result--even from one who was married to someone on the spectrum, so you'd think she'd know better, which is ironic and kind of sad. This is typical, in my experience.
Cerebrum is right about "autistic" being used as a quasi-insult, e.g., "autistic screeching" memes. Strangely, these actually don't bother me at all and I don't really know why. Maybe they should.
Just some random thoughts of mine, since the subject is close to my heart.
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