Please Do Not the Puzzle Piece
I probably should have put this into the Appropriate Terminology post but you know how it is with the best laid plans of mice and people with executive functioning disorders. Or maybe you don’t, and that’s why you’re here!
The history of autism is rife with ableism - that’s not specific to autism, actually, it’s true of all disabilities. People tend to Other and Infantilize folx with disabilities, even when they are intended to be equitable. It’s okay to have to unlearn ableism - I’m still unlearning it myself and I am disabled. We can all internalize our own oppressions, and we are all raised in a world in which stigma is very present. But what it means is that nearly every organization which is intended to help a disabled community, is operating from a problematic space. And we’ll never gain equity until we unlearn that ableism and eradicate it from all allyship.
And that’s where the puzzle piece comes from: ableism. Here is an excerpt from a document in which a founding member of the first society for autism talks about how they decided upon the puzzle piece. The choice was made in 1962 and This was written in 1987 so the language is… atrocious. Eek. (Found this quote through this post which you may find interesting as it goes into a little more detail on this.)
The puzzle piece is so effective because it tells us something about autism: our children are handicapped by a puzzling condition; this isolates them from normal human contact and therefore they do not 'fit in'. The suggestion of a weeping child is a reminder that autistic people do indeed suffer from their handicap.
But looking beyond the archaic language, the concepts themselves are just as atrocious. They chose the symbol because we were confusing.
But why were we confusing? In truth, because they weren’t listening to hear us. Even non-speaking people communicate. And even some autistics with higher support needs can speak. We should have been involved with learning about autism from the very beginning because you simply cannot know what is going on in our minds without asking and our thinking is quite literally by definition, fundamentally different from that of an allistic (non-autistic). I’ll be writing about autism from the inside out versus outside in later this month, but my point here is that they chose a symbol for us that signifies our otherness because they were not actually interested in learning about us from us. It’s erasure. It’s talking over us, drowning out our voices as they cried allyship.
SIGH.
From there in London in 1962, other groups for autism began to form, each adopting the puzzle piece.
And then we get Autism Speaks. *insert dramatic chipmunk gif*
And, yes, I’ll have a whole post about them, too. But for now, just know that this organization was fundamental to bringing the puzzle piece to the common symbol we know today, alongside language that indicated that autism was stealing children and was an epidemic that must be cured. Because there is no cure for neurotypes, this was all eugenicist language. So, you know, a symbol made famous by a group trying to exterminate a group of people is not something that tends to be loved by the people once they know the history (and if you know autistics, you know we love to research shit).
As always, there are some autistics who identify with the puzzle piece. That’s okay!
But as a group, we ask that you use the rainbow (for spectrum) or gold (because the periodic symbol for the element gold is Au) infinity symbol. Using this symbol shows the autistic community that you are listening and you are an ally.
There’s no one agreed-upon design. Just pick any rainbow or gold infinity symbol you like best!
And let’s real quick talk about why “Red Instead.”
Because the Light it Up Blue campaign was from the aforementioned problematic (at best) organization Autism Speaks. There are many critiques on the concept:
Blue symbolizes boys/men and for a long time girls/woman/people socialized as women were left out entirely or mostly from autism research and diagnosis so this feels like a continued erasure of our existence.
Blue also symbolizes sadness and grief and the concept of a parent needing to grieve their child after an autism diagnosis is hurtful and dangerous.
A puzzle piece alone indicates something is missing (presumably from autistics), or that we do not “fit.” Both ideas are frankly rude as well as incorrect.
We don’t trust Autism Speaks and frankly the autistic community wants nothing to do with them.
You can read more here.
Thank you for being an ally!
