Autism and Geek Culture

Today’s blog post was written by an American Sign Language public school teacher who has taught children on the Autism Spectrum, including Gemma, who is pictured here.

As we reach the end of April, we are also reaching the end of Autism Awareness Month. At the beginning of the month social media was bombarded with inspirational memes, stories, and puzzle pieces, but by the end of the month it is not at the forefront of our minds. I’d like to give Autism Awareness Month one last hurrah because autism is not some scary epidemic sent to turn our children into zombies as punishment for our unnatural modern-day lifestyle. Autism and geek culture actually share a lot of parallels:

Autism is actually just one manifestation of a number of disorders that fall under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The others are called Aspergers syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD_NOS). Although there are certain factors that a medical professional will look at before making a diagnosis of autism or Aspergers, the differences are ambiguous enough that they all fall under the umbrella of ASD. There are a wide variety of people on the spectrum from people who are non-verbal, to very successful college professors and doctors. Every person is unique and one person with ASD isn’t necessarily like every other person with ASD.

Geek culture also has a spectrum that we divide into three ambiguous “diagnoses”: geek, nerd, and dork. The terms are similar but they all fall under an umbrella and include everyone from small children to very successful college professors and doctors. Every person is unique and has a unique blend of geeky interests, often very different from other geeks.

The trademark of a geek is a passion for something, whether it is Firefly, X-Men, Star Trek, or one of a million other things. People who are on the spectrum also are very preoccupied with certain objects or subjects that are important to them. Geeks and people with ASD are amazing in their capacity for knowledge about a particular subject and I love listening to people talk about their passions!

It’s a common stereotype that geeks don’t know how to socialize. It’s become fairly common knowledge that’s not true, and that geeks just have a different way of socializing. Someone may feel more comfortable at Con than at a club, and that’s ok. People with ASD are the same way; they might not always react to a social situation in a way that society deems “appropriate” but they still want to be around people who like and appreciate them. Everyone needs to connect with other human beings and it is inaccurate to say that people who are on the spectrum don’t need that interaction.

I have a theory that people with autism are actually X-men! Ok, this might actually be a bit of a stretch, and it’s not really a parallel to geek culture, but hear me out. ASD can affect people of any race, and while there are cases of multiple siblings being on the spectrum, most people with ASD don’t have parents with it. The symptoms of autism are usually not present at birth and develop later (usually during the early toddler months). While ASD has probably been around for a long time, it has had a recent surge of people being diagnosed (this probably has to do more with increased awareness than an actual increase of people with ASD). There are many savants in the ASD population and they often show incredible mental abilities. Some people have also suggested that ASD is a step in evolution.

I’m sure you can see all the X-men parallels, but the most important one is that Autism Spectrum Disorders are very misunderstood by the general public and for that reason many “normal” people fear and pity people with ASD. The fact is that we all have something in common with every other person on this planet, regardless of what labels we assign ourselves, so embrace it!

Interested in the ASD spectrum?  Don’t just share inspirational stories or endlessly debate anti-vaxxers on social media; go out and find someone who is different than you are and then find out what you have in common! (That’s how you earn real world XP.)

-by Becky Krantz