Did she pick out the t-shirts and write that quote? Maybe she can not talk but if she can use a bliss board and a computer, she can communicate.
The unfortunate young lady featured in this misleading web site obviously has many more problems than autism alone. One only needs to look at her face to see that she obviously has some kind of genetic syndrome that has had a significant effect on her physical, and probably intellectual, development. This lady is overweight, possibly obese. There's a good reason why obesity seems to be found a lot in association with intellectual retardation. Many genetic syndromes that can cause intellectual retardation also have obesity as a very common symptom. This is because the regulation of body weight and appetite are controlled by a number of different complex systems that involve the brain. Body weight is like intelligence in that it is a thing that can easily be messed up by genetic glitches, as both things are complex and sensitive systems.
I am too apalled for words. What next? "This person doesn't look racially pure/beautiful enough, they can't possibly be representative of autism, because they are not perfect-looking and must have other problems"? :cry:
FYI - many children and adults with autism are either quite under-or overweight, often due to problems in regulating their appetite (not being able to tell when they are full or hungry) or from a limited diet (sometimes consisting of high carbohydrate and fatty foods like junk food, comfort foods like mashed potatoes, or else food aversions etc. leading people to be underweight or refuse most foods).
I am glad not to have this problem most of the time, but I have had both periods where I gained weight because I couldn't tell when I was full, and periods where I lost weight because sensitivity to many textures made me gag or I couldn't tell I was hungry half the time.
If you had bothered to read on, rather than jumping to conclusions based on a few pictures, you might have noticed that the young lady herself describes this very well indeed. In case you hadn't noticed - the site is hers, and apart from the quotes at the bottom, the texts on the site are her words.
Unfortunate? Only because of people like yourself, who prefer to judge others by their looks and other superficialities, instead of treating them with the dignity each and every one of us deserves 
And the notion that this lady looking overweight probably means there must be mental/intellectual impairment is just sickening - I dont know anyone who is particularly overweight but comments like yours must be incredibly hurtful to them. Not that having an intellectual impairment makes anyone a bad person, but to jump from someone's weight to conclusions about their intelligence?
I think this quote from that site sums up my sentiments quite well:
"If autistic people pick up on anything, we pick up that the way we are is considered deeply defective. Stupid-looking. Bad.
Some autistic people would even say that it's bad to publish pictures that look like this. Better to publish the ones that make us look like real people. Those are the better pictures.
I say that plays straight into the hand of people who think there's something wrong with the way we look."
http://www.gettingthetruthout.org/pageb006.html
That website is not misleading if you read past the first few pages. I assume that it was constructed in that way to increase its impact. Like an anonymous newspaper or magazine article about the American led invasion of Iraq which starts by arguing in favour of the invasion, but then argues passionately against it and concludes that it was wrong.
The woman who created that site and who is photographed on it, is not "unfortunate". If I am right in my belief as to her identity, she is a passionate and committed advocate for autistic people and she would vehemently reject any idea that she is "unfortunate". She does not look obese or overweight to me, but if she were it would not matter except to her alone, if it distressed her.
She just looks obese to me...??
I have a very new friend :grin: whose son is in my son's class. this lad has a whole host of other differences as well as the fairly obvious autism. I dont think it disqualifies her (or him) from any kind of autism debate.
You have to read the WHOLE website. ALL the way through. this is not a curebie site!!!
What is the autistic 'look'? i have never noticed any particular look. Particular expressions and mannerisms, yes.
Noetic, If you knew anything at all about genetic syndromes, you would know that the appearance of facial features is an extremely important characteristic that is used to diagnose such syndromes. Here is a list of just a few genetic syndromes which are diagnosed based on characteristic facial features as a "symptom"; Down's syndrome, Fragile X, Foetal alcohol syndrome, Cohen's syndrome, Williams syndrome. A couple of those syndromes also have obesity as a diagnostic feature. I think it is probably true that all or most genetic syndromes can be detected by characteristic facial appearance, including some cases of AS/autism. I know a person in real life who is the living image of an aspie author, who's photo I have seen in one of their books. But I don't believe the lady pictured in that web site has a very aspie-looking face. I think there could be some other gene involved with her condition. None of this has anythig at all to do with race, and this isn't racism, it's well establised medical science.
Quite frankly, I'm pretty fed up with seeing people who have genetic syndromes in addition to autism held up as examples of autism. It's simply misleading and it confuses the issues.
Lili Marlene, quite frankly, since you think she is an unfortunate young lady, I'm guessing you did not read all the way to the end of her web site. I do not know the woman personally. Her facial features are similar to the facial features of people who have Cornelia deLange syndrome, but that's not the point. The point is that whether or not the woman has a genetic syndrome does not make her any less worthy to be held up as an example of an autistic person.
Here is something she wrote on her web site that is particularly appropriate:
http://www.gettingthetruthout.org/paged003.html
Here are the words that should go with any pictures of me.
I am not an empty shell. Nobody is.
I am not a walking automaton devoid of anything inside me. Nobody is.
Nobody kidnapped me. I am right here. As are all of us.
As we are now, all of us are people and always will be people.
We may learn things or not learn things or forget things.
We may learn things without looking like we have.
We may look like we've learned things without doing so.
You will call us Kanner's and Asperger's.
You will call us high-functioning and low-functioning.
You will call us regressive and early infantile.
You will call us genetic and poisoned.
You will call us *** and genius.
You will call us an epidemic.
According to your rules, not the rules of reality.
Throughout, we will remain at the deepest level people.
We will throughout remain who we are meant to be.
We speak with as many kinds of voices as there are autistic people.
We speak with our mouths. With our fingers. With our behavior. With our being.
In ways that may conflict or you may find hard to understand.
But our voices form a chorus, dissonant and harmonious alike.
That is more the voice of autism than anyone else will ever be.
We're here whether you see us or not.
We're real people whether you see us or not.
Our existence, our worth, and our personhood are not dependent on you.
They're not dependent on being rescued.
They're not dependent on being brought back from somewhere we never went in the first place.
They're not dependent on you putting us on your false pedestal as holy fools or inspirations.
They're not dependent on you pretending we're exactly like you in a misplaced effort to make us comfortable.
Our place in the world is not always where you or we intend it to be.
Our place in the world does not always make sense.
Our place in the world exists as we are now.
Don't ever forget that many of us are saying this to you with actions.
Every moment of the day.
Just as loud as we would if we had the words I have now.
This site was posted about in the general section, its a 'trick site' if you will.
It gives a parody of another site which is curebie, the problem is that you have to ge through quite a few pages before the 'truth' is revealed.
I think the point can be lost because a lot of people wont keep reading something they find objectionable.
I think that this is not intended to be for autistics but for "curebies"(one more term for the aspie dictionary) who would swallow up this sob stuff eagerly. It's a good site, I wish all NT whould read it.
Yes, so far no-one has commented on the site.
I can just see them, nodding to themselves in agreement... and never bothering to actually read what it really says :lol:
Noetic, If you knew anything at all about genetic syndromes, you would know that the appearance of facial features is an extremely important characteristic that is used to diagnose such syndromes. Here is a list of just a few genetic syndromes which are diagnosed based on characteristic facial features as a "symptom"; Down's syndrome, Fragile X, Foetal alcohol syndrome, Cohen's syndrome, Williams syndrome. A couple of those syndromes also have obesity as a diagnostic feature. I think it is probably true that all or most genetic syndromes can be detected by characteristic facial appearance, including some cases of AS/autism. I know a person in real life who is the living image of an aspie author, who's photo I have seen in one of their books. But I don't believe the lady pictured in that web site has a very aspie-looking face. I think there could be some other gene involved with her condition. None of this has anythig at all to do with race, and this isn't racism, it's well establised medical science.
Quite frankly, I'm pretty fed up with seeing people who have genetic syndromes in addition to autism held up as examples of autism. It's simply misleading and it confuses the issues.
We all have a genetic syndrome, it is our genes that describe us, yes all of us, Aspies, NT's the lot, I wonder what you know or don't know, who you advocate for or do not. If we start hiving off some sections of the community as not worthy of attention, who then are we speaking for at all ?
Laurentius
Hi Laurentius, and welcome.
Not sure if you are asking Lili, or addressing the site in general.
Do you think NTs would concede that they too have a 'genetic syndrome' or would they be affronted by it?
Not sure what you meant by 'hiving off'.
I was refering to the Lili post that rather annoyed me.
Autism has genetic causes and therefore is a genetic syndrome, and the absence of autism is as much a genetic syndrome as having it.
What I really meant is that none of us can help our genes, and to decide that some particular gruop is less worthy of our attention because they have some additional genetic syndrome on top of autism is essentialy to concede that NT's are justified in using the same arguments against us, you cannot draw lines in the sand and say you don't want to hear from some other disadvantaged group of be associated with them for that is ableism.
Besides I think it is bad form to speculate on additional disabilities of the author of a site based upon there appearance, or whether they appear to be obese or whatever, that is bordering on all manner of prejudice and discrimination.
If we want equal opportunities for ourselves we must fight in a common spirit for equal opportunities for all, else we will rapidly lose the argument.
Laurentius
The unfortunate young lady featured in this misleading web site obviously has many more problems than autism alone. One only needs to look at her face to see that she obviously has some kind of genetic syndrome that has had a significant effect on her physical, and probably intellectual, development.
Marlene, did you read the whole thing? It isn't fair to say something like that unless you read it all the way through. She is overweight, sloppily dressed, and has her hair cut very short. Um, and, she has a unibrow that hasn't been plucked. We auties sometimes do neglect our appearances. <shrug> I know personally, having unfortunately seen myself on video or in pictures, that I sometimes look extremely bad, zoned out, stupid, and yes, maybe even *** or defective somehow. It defintely doesn't follow that I am unintelligent simply because I am ungraceful and have facial expressions that don't reflect me very well.
Lili is entirely correct that many genetic conditions include facial adn other characteristics, .
So you woud diagnose me by my third nipple to be a witch would you?
Lombrosos ghost stalks the land, the phrenologists ride again..
To look at a photograph of someone and make a complex diagnosis is just not possible and to make assumptions on that basis is wrong, the site as I understand it stands against all that presumption.
Laurentius