Before recommended reading

I feel hesitant about linking things that are related to the state of being a geek or school outcast. I really don't like the equation of mainstreamed ASD people with these roles. (This is a very unorthodox use of the word mainstreamed but I try to avoid words like "high-functioning" because I'm not actually talking about how good the person's life is or how accomplished they are. When I say mainstreamed I mean people who aren't immediately socially categorized as "disabled" and can be fit into other social roles such as space case, manic pixie dream girl, geek, stoner, unstable artist, etc.) The thing is that ASD isn't considered to be something that manic pixie dream girls are always self-diagnosing themselves with, and people aren't always responding to a description of Asperger's with, "Oh, that just sounds like a manic pixie dream girl." So when I write about my use of or identification with the MPDG social role, I don't feel that it's undermining my identity as a disabled person. I do feel that way about the geek and social outcast roles because they are so often invoked to create a slippery slope where milder forms of ASD are not "real."

But, okay: most mainstreamed ASD people are some kind of geek, and are or have been some kind of school outcast. (I'm actually not a geek, I don't think. To me being a geek means your social life is based on your interests. My interests, like my religion and the fact that I'm disabled, are an important part of who I am but not something I have in common with most of my friends.)

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that FWD/Forward does "Recommended Reading" posts, and I love FWD/Forward. And. Sometimes I see stuff and want to link it. But some of the stuff is not actually Disability Stuff but it feels like that to me, because it relates to social roles and experiences that I think are more common for ASD people. But I don't want to do the ASD = geek thing. But it feels related!

So. I'm going to do some "Recommended Reading" posts sometimes and some of the posts are going to be things that were written about weird, non-ASD people. But I'm still disabled, okay?