Talking and self-expression

 The theme of talking and self-expression stuck out to me in the readings and videos for this week.

In her article, “Clinically Significant Disturbance: On Theorists Who Theorize Theory of Mind,” Melanie Yergeau describes how people try to dismiss her voice: “The experts claimed, I wasn’t talking. God, no. ‘That’s your depression talking,’ they explained. ‘That’s your autism talking. That’s your anxiety talking. Really, it’s anything but you talking” (Yergeau). This idea of “talking” where Yergeau’s self expression is broken into different components of her identity is overly simplistic and generally dismissive. It simplifies an experience of being autistic into one strand of “voice” that does not interact with the many other parts of Yergeau that make her whole. The idea of autism or depression talking in isolated voices detaches these parts of Yergeau from the rest of her and disqualifies them – The “experts” only listen to a voice that fits into the “norm.”

In the article, “Nick Walker’s Notes on Neurodiversity, Autism, and Cognitive Liberty,” Walker describes how austic people are not allowed to speak for themselves: “Regardless of the curriculum, every course on autism that isn’t taught by an autistic instructor implicitly reinforces the pathology paradigm and the ableist assumption that non-autistic persons are better qualified to speak for and about autistic persons than autistic persons themselves” (Walker). 

 I agree with Julia Smith in her blog post and I found the video “In My Language” really powerful. After reading about the constraints and dismissals of autistic voices in theory and academia, it was really amazing to watch this video where Baggs breaks down so many assumptions about communication and self-expression.

I am interested to discuss self-expression for autistic people in theory and practice in class this week.