I once spotted an article in my feed with a TW for autism. What a sure way to perpetuate the stigma of being autistic.
This will set efforts for autism acceptance back a few giant steps.
This is the only trigger warning I’ve seen for autism, but I’ll bet there’s a lot more out there.
How will Autism Spectrum Disorder ever reach full acceptance status if writers are giving it a trigger warning?
The article was on Medium.com. This was a few years ago, so it may not even still be up.
But I just couldn’t believe the author would’ve put a “TW” ahead of the subtitle.
That’s just WONDERFUL, painting autism as something to be warned about! (Sarcasm)
You won’t find ME warning anyone about autism!
Autistic self-advocates are working hard to overturn the “awareness” into an “acceptance” and even an embracing of this alternative operating system of the human brain.
Yet here comes along a trigger warning.
While I’m on the subject of trigger warnings for articles, I want to point out that over the past several years, many writers have gone overboard with the TW.
I’ve seen the TW for the topics of race, gender, religion, body weight, body image, dieting, mental illness and substance abuse.
The authors who go overboard with TWs presume some sort of mental fragility in their readers.
But now, to see a TW for autism? What on earth is happening here?
Why would anyone need a warning that an article is about autism?
Is autism supposed to be a scary or upsetting thing to read about?
Autistic people are not frightening or something to be warned about.
Though there are Autistics who can be physically aggressive during a meltdown, this doesn’t mean an ARTICLE about autism should get a trigger warning.
Furthermore, not all Autists have meltdowns. I don’t have meltdowns. It’s just that this particular topic comes up a lot among autistic writers who have meltdowns.
That said, we absolutely do NOT need a trigger warning for autism.
Why is autism something to be warned about in an article?
