Thoughts by the pool...

I was thinking about some of the negative sentiments that are offered in regard to autism and mental disabilities posted at Autismvox by some commenters and by John Best at HatingAutism (a disgraceful website if I've ever seen one--"hate speech" if there ever was a more fitting example) and I've been thinking today about the different meanings for "autism," "mental retardation/disability," and "pervasive developmental disorder." I don't read articles referring to the "epidemic" or militaristic metaphors of "armies of mentally disabled children" like I've seen in print before. There are no committees and trials investigating the links between mental retardation and mercury or toxins.

Why "autism"? What about "autism" as a term, a medical diagnosis, leads to the rhetoric of "cure," "intervention," and "harm"? Why do we accept someone as "mentally disabled" but argue that a "normal" person exists somewhere beneath the surface of the autistic person? Maybe because those with Fragile X, Down Syndrome, or FAS, for instance, show some physical representations of their mental retardation? After all, I haven't found any "HatingDownSyndrome" websites dedicated to eradicating those with extra chromosomes. No "Hatingthementallydisabled."

I wonder if the difference between the mentally disabled and the autistic individual is that many individuals with autism don't really "look" any different than anyone else? If an autistic adult was not gazing at the ground and was making eye contact, he or she might "look" like any other "normal" person... There are no definitive "visual" markers of an autistic individual to differentiate him/ her from the "normal" population. Perhaps, this is why it's hard to believe that there isn't a "normal" child inside the autistic one? After all, he/ she looks "normal."

Not to mention the fact that "autism" seems more acceptable than "mentally retarded." (Roy Grinker discusses this in his book Unstrange Minds.) Media representation of autistics as "geniuses," perhaps? After all, "Rain Man" could do cool "tricks"--an interesting oddity--but if someone is just "mentally disabled," what's "cool" or "interesting" about that? (God, how many times have I heard someone ask, "What talent does Tobey have?" "Is Tobey really good at math, too?" Pu-leaze. Try explaining why 2 + 2 = 4 for the 100th time.)

I suppose this discussion might fit in my chapter on the "gaze" and definition of autism...