I'd like to ask people not to use the word 'Aspie'.

[DavyCrockett]

I find it really offensive.

To me it is like calling someone with Downs Syndrome a 'Downie'.

Am I being unreasonable? I ask as it seems acceptable in a lot of places and I honestly don't think it is.

That's how we use it, PantoBanton. DS has a couple of friends use the term 'Aspie' about themselves and each other. They are currently supporting themselves in adventuring around London as a group. They have very different strengths, and so they work as a team. It seems to give them confidence to think of themselves as 'Aspies'

As a teacher, and in discussion with others, I have never used the term 'Aspie' or 'Diabetic' or any of the other terms that define an individual. I am very careful about the language I use to strangers.

Sorry, PatoBanton.

That's great news Capticorn! Small children who are distressed need to learn not to lash out. Small children with Asperger's tend to get distressed more often. NOT the same as saying Asperger's 'makes' you more violent.

Nowhere did I suggest that all Aspies are the same. We are as diverse as NTs.'

You totally did!

'Our minds work differently and we are proud of how they work.'

'If we "Aspies" don't have a problem with it then why should anyone else? '

Can you not see what you did there?

No Pato - I can't see what I did there. I'm a bloomin Aspie. I have problems with communication.

IMO an Aspie is someone who has Aspergers and chooses to call themselves an Aspie (usually as a part of who they are) - someone who dislikes the term does not have to use it.

The Aspies I've met are generally proud of the way they are although it's not always that way (especially when things get a bit much). I do admit however that I have not been around every single Aspie on the planet and asked their feelings.

If our minds were not different we would be NT.

I've never heard the term and am not offended by it.

I have a son with AS and I don't like it, but if he wants to use it when he is older that will be fine, if he wants me to use it to describe him that will be fine too. I wouldn't use it about anyone unless I was very clear that they were happy with it.

It is always about the way words are used though, isn't it. Not the actual words.
I follow DDs guidelines ...she will say: thats an aspie thing to do! having an aspie moment .... person x is aspie.
I don't believe I have ever heard or used: AN aspie, as in "you are being an aspie"
That actually is derogatory IMO. The difference may be subtle but it is there.

I agree -- it's about how words are used, and what people are comfortable in calling themselves. It really is individual and as long as others' preferences are respected wrt themselves, all is great.

But I want to put my hand up and say that not being on the autistic spectrum doesn't make me "NT" (or worse, "a NT"). I have OCD and severe social anxiety. I'm not sure there is such a thing as neurotypical, but even if there is, I ain't it.

I hold my hand up to being what my DD calls an "almost off the scale NT"
Its been a whole heap of fun finding the mid point between us, over the years!!

I can't see the Aspie/NT argument being valid really. We are wired up differently. Our brains have physiological differences. NT brains are the same. It's personality that makes everybody different, and yes all Neurotypical people are different, just as all people with Asperger Syndrome are different.

I think knowledge of the syndrome is immensely useful in identifying reasons for things we cannot do.

It should never imo be used as a thing to prevent us from doing stuff, or rule out things.

In other words a label like this is a great servant but a terrible master.

ProudAS, I did not intend to sound harsh - I was 'shouting' in a fairly cheerful and friendly way, in my mind at least though it may not have come across that way - sorry.

None of us can speak with any sort of validity for others with the same syndrome, unless we are given that remit by means of a petition or a vote or something.

Perhaps having a label that is easy to access by people who may not understand fully the subtleties involved in syndrome demographics is a less-than-good thing. Perhaps that is why I find it hard to deal with.

And my brain chemistry is different from someone without an anxiety disorder -- in that very concrete respect it is not the same. It's no skin off my nose, anyway, and it's tangential, but I do think it's OK to have a feeling about a label that gets applied to me in this discourse.

Or, you know, what PatoBaton said

PatoBanton, even -- sorry, Pato.

No worries, I am usually known as 'Panto' anyway...

Well, PantoBaton would be a cool name. I was apparently in Spanglish mode and thinking of you as "DuckStick"...

LOL! Is Pato really Spanish for duck, I always thought that was a peculiarity of that wonderful programme the children used to watch.

You know, with the narrator and they were little plasticine creatures.

Pocoyo!

I find the term Aspie offensive - I really couldn't explain why,the word just doesn't "sit right" with me.

I realise that there are people with AS who use the term,but why does that validate it as acceptable terminology ?

As an example, I have a collegue who chooses to describe herself and others as "coloured" my other Afro carribean collegue finds it deeply offensive that this person chooses not to use the correct termanology and anyone using it in the organisatin that I work for would probably be carted off for some diversity training if I they were heard using it.

I strongly suspect the term aspie will eventually go the same way as mongrol,spastic,colured etc.

Don't find it offensive.
Ds1 does. But then he doesn't want anyone knowing he has Aspergers. He wants to be "normal".

Yes, Pato is duck -- in some countries it's also short for Patricio. (Except for in Cuba where it's a disparaging term for gay man.)

See, I'm of a completely different opinion Midlands, I think it's one of those that is here to stay, in the main because it's a very large community using it about themselves.

I think it boils down to use it if you like it, don't use it if you don't.

However the validity given to the word by a wide swathe of Aspie's, for whom it is the term of choice, does mean it is very unreasonable to request that other people don't use it just because you personally don't like it.