The first autistic person to ...
Over on LinkedIn, my feed is full of people posting headlines like, “She’s the first autistic person to …” Fill in the blank. In the world of social media, everyone wants attention. Everyone wants to elevate themselves and showcase how they are particularly special.
When I see these posts, I always read the comments. What I find there is amazing. The comments are full of people relaying the fact that the author is indeed NOT the first in that particular category, then they list the others who already occupy that space.
For example, there’s a lot of people seeking elected office that are now highlighting the fact that they’re autistic. The comments section of these posts shows us just how many public officials are autistic - including me. We post our words of encouragement, and often offer a bit of advice on navigating the world of politics as an autistic person.
Try this experiment. Type in “the first autistic person” into your favourite search engine. If you’re in a “western” country when you do this, you will likely find that Donald Triplett (aka Kanner’s Patient 1) was the first person diagnosed as autistic. But, if you’re an avid reader of the articles here, you’ll know that this is only partially true. Kanner’s Patient 1 was the first person he diagnosed as “autistic” in the US. Mr. Triplett certainly was not the first person to receive a formal diagnosis as having the traits we now associate with autism. That person was a patient of Dr. Sukhareva in Moscow.
What we take away from this is what we now call autism isn’t new. Mr. Triplett was preceded by many boys and girls from Dr. Sukhareva’s clinic. The fact that these children existed in Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century, and the fact that autism tends to run in families means that these kids likely had autistic ancestors. Reser traces this line back to the dawn of humanity in his Solitary Forager Hypothesis of Autism.
With this in mind, I wonder if these “the first autistic person to …” posts are actually helpful. Do they send the message of hope? Are they a form of inspiration porn? Do they reveal an ignorance to time and place issues of autism and the autistic identity? Do they stop or further harmful stereotypes? What do you think?