Autism: Myth vs. Reality (please share, even if you are not autistic)
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Myth:
High-functioning autistics are superior to low-functioning autistics.
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Reality:
High-functioning autism is characterized on at what point the autistic child is verbal. Most "high-functioning" autistics appear more neurotypical (from here on out I will use the abbreviation "NT" to detonate someone whom is not on the autism spectrum) than "low-functioning" autistics. It does not indicate how intelligent, successful, or independent the person will be.
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Myth:
All high-functioning autistics are Aspies (people with Asperger's)
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Reality:
Nope, though all Aspies are higher functioning. That logic is not unlike saying, "All women are people, therefore all people are women".
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Myth:
Autistics are mentally retarded
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Reality:
On the contrary, autism is associated with genius. Most autistics have high IQs- and if someone is classified as mentally retarded, they cannot be diagnosed with Aspergers, NvLD, etc. as the two are mutually exclusive. In other words-autistics are not intellectually impaired in the least.
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Myth:
Shouldn't you say "person with autism" rather than "autistic"?
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Reality:
The vast majority of autistics hate person-first language. We see our autism as a fundamental part of our humanity, not a disease. A gay person does not want to be called a "person with homosexuality" nor does a woman want to be called "person with womanhood", so why call an autistic a "person with autism"?
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Myth:
Autistics are incapable of learning social rules.
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Reality:
We can learn them! It's a bit like learning a foreign language without formal instruction-it's difficult, but doable. We do it all the time. Like a non-native speaker of a language, I know I personally make mistakes from time to time, but am overall pretty fluent and can pass off as a native :)
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Myth:
Autistics are all pretty much the same.
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Reality:
Nope, not at all. Autism is a spectrum-much like the colors you see. Pink, red, blue, purple, green, black, etc. are all on the same color spectrum. So saying all autistics are the same because they are on one spectrum is a bit like saying green is the same as black because they are on the same color spectrum.
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Myth:
Most autistics require lifelong special care and cannot speak.
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Reality:
Nope, not at all. Don't get me wrong-some do, but the majority of us aren't so different from you. In fact, many people on the autism spectrum are never diagnosed!
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Myth:
Autistics who don't seem autistic are clearly faking.
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Reality:
Not at all! If you can't tell that we're autistic, it means we worked really hard to learn to look NT. Autism is a spectrum-some appear close to NT. "Charities" like Autism Speaks have perpetuated an image of us all as being hopeless burdens on society whom cannot do anything, but that is far from the case.
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Myth:
Autistics cannot feel emotions.
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Reality:
Hell no! We feel the full range of emotions, yes that includes empathy, but some of us have trouble expressing them properly. So an autistic may feel tremendous empathy but not know how to express it, and appear cold because he is just standing there.
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Myth:
Autistics cannot understand sarcasm nor figurative language.
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Reality:
Many of us have to painstakingly learn these things, but we certainly can. Look at all the analogies I made in this article alone if you don't believe me.
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Myth:
Autistics are burdens on society and should be "cured"
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Reality:
Most of us don't want a cure. There is likely no way to cure autism without eliminating the unique skills the autistic has. For example, I am hyperlexic-if I were to be "cured" I would lose my hyperlexia and be devastated. For some, becoming NT would be as devastating as becoming autistic would be for you.
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As for burden on society- Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Henry Ford, Gary Numan, Daryl Hannah, Archimedes, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson, and Andy Warhol, just to name a few, are/were on the autism spectrum. So how useless are we?
![deidiva:
> > > STOP ART-EDITORS WEEK < < <
[september 30th - october 6th]
The beginning week of October will be dedicated to raising awareness about art editing and the results it has on artists and the artist community.
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WHY ART EDITING IS BAD:
To give a brief definition, editing art is taking another person’s hard work and tweaking it to please the editor, to make it ‘more interesting’. Artists spend SO much time on their work, making it exactly fit their artistic vision, and when they’re ready to share their work with the world, people think it’s okay to take their hard work, spend two minutes ‘fixing’ it up in photoshop and get credit for it. Because that’s what art editing is— editing another person’s artwork and recieving credit and praise for it. Think about the real artist’s feelings before you even think about editing.
Most editors get their work from pivix, a japanese art website. So with the obvious language difference, editors are unable to ask permission to edit work in the first place. So if you don’t have permission, nor are you able to ask for it, why would you think it’s okay to edit and post another persons art?
Another point is that pixiv artists aren’t dumb. A lot of them know what tumblr is. Hell, even some of them have tumblr blogs. They don’t miss what you’re doing to their work, and that is why a lot of them take down their work and some of them never post their art again, which is a shame to lose great artists over something so stupid.
Think of it like this— say I went downtown to New Orleans, down to the French Quarter where many artists line up on the street to display their art. Now an art editor comes around and takes a painting from one of the vendors and pulls it aside, whipping out their paintbrush and adding their own little details. The vendor watches in horror as the editor places it back, shrugging off the vendor. “It looks better doesn’t it?”
Don’t say it’s not the same thing because it is.
Art you find on the internet does not belong to you. Unless you are the original poster, you have no right to take and edit another person’s work. It does NOT and will NEVER belong to you. Just because it is easier to access on the computer does not mean it is not as valuable as tangible art. What this all boils down to is respect.
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SOME COMMON EXCUSES:
‘I can’t draw, this is my way of expressing myself artistically!’
Learn how to draw! Drawing takes time, hard work and practice. And if you’re still not finding that drawing is your thing, and hey, maybe you enjoy editing images! If you really want to edit, try editing official work. This art is made to be mass produced, and the artists are aware of this. Another alternative is stock photos— deviantART, for example, has plenty of stock photos for you to use! That’s what they’re there for!
‘We’re celebrating the artist by making tributes to their work!’
No. You’re butchering their hard work and effort by cropping, adding saturation and uneccesary textures. Ask permission, and if they say yes ( which is very rare ), then you have the green light to do so! Permission is key here.
’But we provide sources!’
That’s not the point. The point is that editing art without permission is wrong and dumb, and it goes against most artist wishes. Crediting them does not suddenly make it a-ok for you to edit their work.
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SOURCING ART:
ZEROCHAN IS NEVER A SOURCE.
NEITHER IS WEHEARTIT.
NEITHER IS PHOTOBUCKET. Stop linking art there.
The internet is really handy for these kinds of things, and thats what reverse google image search and websites like SAUCENAO are for! When in doubt, keep it out.
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Don’t let editors think that what they are doing is acceptable. Here’s what you can do to help stop this:
1) DON’T REBLOG EDITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LITERALLY CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. If you like the picture, repost it as original with source to actual ARTIST. We need to stop supporting editors.
2) If you know someone who edits, kindly inform them or link them to this post. Speaking up about this is essential. If you don’t let them know what they are doing is terrible, they will NOT stop.
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THANK YOU FOR READING and reblog to spread the word!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_max7o3atbF1rwo3rno1_500.png)
