why doesn’t everyone give mary lambert more love tho like
she’s a fat neurodivergent lesbian who sings explicitly sapphic pop songs and writes poetry to girls and songs about loving and reclaiming your body and macklemore used her chorus from one of the most beautiful lesbian songs ever in his fucking shitty ally song and naturally he’s hailed by the straights as a “gay hero” whereas most people don’t even know that mary lambert sang the only good part of the damn song (much less who she even is) and wasn’t even properly credited on the track title. not to mention that she brings awareness to every part of her neurodivergency (even the ugly stuff that nts don’t wanna hear about) while still being confident about herself and i just love her so much she’s helped me a lot
For the uninformed, functioning labels are terms like high functioning autism, low functioning autism, mild autism, severe autism. Other words like moderate or level 1, level 2, etc may be used too.
Functioning labels are extremely offensive because they’re placed on autistic people based on observation from the outside. This is problematic for three reasons.
Functioning labels determine how autistic people are treated. People associate “low functioning/severe” with incompetence or infancy and they end up treating the autistic person like a pet or a baby. High functioning/mild gets stereotyped as people who are just a little quirky and their difficulties get ignored as laziness or intentional stubbornness.
Functioning labels imply brokenness and treat people as if their intrinsic value is determined by what they contribute to society rather than the fact that they are a living being with oxygen in their lungs and blood in their veins like everybody else.
Functioning labels create a dichotomy as if there are differing “levels” of autism or that people exist on different areas of the spectrum. NO, NO, NO, that’s not how it is.
Think of spectroscopy and how the elements create their own signature color lines. Now put peoples’ names in place of the elements: Hydrogen/Harold, Helium/Henry, Lithium/Luke, Oxygen/Olga, Carbon/Carol, Nitrogen/Nadine.
Autism is like that. We’re all on the same spectrum and all that is unique is how we display our symptoms, our sensory issues, our splinter abilities and so forth.
In light of that, I want to change the language. Let’s start pushing for support levels instead of functioning labels.
High support: Anyone who isn’t able to live independently and needs help with some or all of their basic daily living skills such as eating, bathing, basic grooming, putting on makeup, getting dressed and completing tasks. Can be abbreviated online or in writing as HSP for High Support Person or HSAP for High Support Autistic Person.
Usage in speech: Clarissa is a high support autistic person and needs assistance with getting dressed and taking a shower. Abbreviated usage online: I’m a HSAP and I’m really into physics, so the poor sucker who signs me on is gonna hear a lot about it when they hand me my iPad!
Medium support: Anyone may or may not live independently and doesn’t need help with basic living skills, but needs help with other things like cooking, completing some tasks, transportation if unable to drive and assistance for things like grocery shopping. Can be abbreviated online or in writing as MSP for Medium Support Person or MSAP for Medium Support Autistic Person.
Usage in speech: Kevin is a medium support autistic person and needs some assistance to prepare meals and shop for the wood he uses for his carpentry projects. His boyfriend, Max, usually helps him with those. Usage online: I’m a MSAP and I’m looking for info about saws. Any fellow auties know what’s best for cutting oak?
Low support: Anyone who more often than not lives independently and may only need assistance with minor things like balancing a checkbook, getting started on some tasks like organizing a garage sale or arranging to move from one house to another. Can be abbreviated online or in writing as LSP for Low Support Person or LSAP for Low Support Autistic Person.
Usage in speech: Jesse is a low support autistic person and she only needs help keeping her checkbook balanced. Usage online: I’m a LSAP and I’m thinking about moving to Seattle. What’s the weather and traffic like there?
Reasons support levels are better:
They don’t make assumptions about intelligence
They don’t encourage infantilization or pity
They sound more respectful and dignified
Ditch functioning labels and start using support levels. These terms can apply to practically every kind of disability, not just autism.
For the record, I’m a MSAP.
Please reblog this whether you’re disabled or not. Make this viral.
Really love this outline. I think it would need more detailed outlines so see where people fit. Personally, I feel like I’m a LSAP but occasionally need some of the support in the MSAP category. I have a feeling there are other autistic people who fall in the middle ground.
I like this. I probably count as MSP, maybe LSP someday when I’m older.
I feel like this could work for other disabilities too; my sister has Down Syndrome and probably falls between MSP/HSP. It could describe her needs without ignoring the fact that she has wonderful strengths too; she’s super friendly and kind and easy to love!
One thing I hate is how therapists explain coping skills as if you’ve never heard of them before. Believe you me, every mentally ill person on planet earth has been told to take deep breaths and tense and relax their muscles
“now i want you to try something new……. it’s called *breathing* when you are feeling stressed”
I didn’t know that this was still discourse in 2016 but here’s a reminder that if you use neopronouns or it/its pronouns to please provide an auxiliary set for people.
Here’s why:
Neopronouns can be incredibly hard for English language learners and people with English as a second language, and can also be super super hard for people with developmental disorders and learning disabilities. That doesn’t mean they’re bad and you shouldn’t use them, it just means that not everyone will be able to refer to you with them. It can also be hard for those with memory problems who may not easily be able to remember unique sets but can more easily keep in mind more common sets, and I know a number of autistic folk who really struggle with neopronouns despite never wanting to misgender people ever.
It/its pronouns can be very triggering for many trans people, and many nonwhite folk (even cis ones) and even probably some disabled folk (again, even cis ones). They’re used to dehumanize, to other, and have been used as and/or during an act of violence before and to equate marginalized people with animals or inhuman in general. I’ve spoken with trans women who feel like it pronouns are just as hard for them to use as the t slur. Yes, even for others. While you’re 100% allowed to use them, it’s really important to understand the history behind these pronouns and the awful connotation they carry with many.
You can use whatever pronouns you prefer and feel the most comfortable with, but please out of respect for others provide alternate/auxiliary pronouns if you’re using neopronouns or it/itself pronouns. You can specify that you only want those pronouns to be used if someone absolutely has to!
Just a simple note like “I use it/its, but if you struggle with those pronouns you can use he/him instead” or “my pronouns are ae/aer but if you can’t use neopronouns because you struggle with them for some reason they/them is fine.” You can even specify “DON’T call me these pronouns unless you absolutely can’t use the other ones!” or “tell me ahead of time if you need to use these pronouns instead of my preferred ones!”
You can even ask people to simply call you by your name instead of using any pronouns at all if they can’t use those, if that’s what you feel the most comfortable with!
Basically you can use whatever you want for yourself just keep in mind that sometimes other people struggle (like actually struggle, not “just don’t try/don’t want to”) with more uncommon sets and giving them an alternate set to use that’s more common is a really really good thing to do.
