Tired reminder that is not inherently dehumanisation or infantilisation to headcanon autistic-coded or autistic characters as aro-spec, ace-spec or a-spec.
Autistic a-specs get to exist, and given that most canon or coded portrayals are usually written by allistic allosexual/alloromantic people who don’t have a clue about how to positively write autistic, ace and aro characters (never mind autistic and a-spec characters), we absolutely get to exist in headcanons. We need to exist in headcanons.
It’s not like we get to exist much of anywhere else.
Do some people headcanon an autistic character as aro, ace or aro-ace so they don’t have to ship them? I’m sure it’s happened. How is it the fault of a-spec people, though, that our identities are being used to justify or allow someone else’s ableism? Why should a-spec autistics be told that we’re not allowed to exist in someone else’s headcanon just because some folks are ableist?
Why are we erasing autistic a-specs instead of addressing the ableism?
I’m finding it increasingly hard not to see this ongoing conversation as a simple statement that you don’t want to have complex discussions about autism, ableism, asexuality and aromanticism.
I’m finding it increasingly hard not to see this ongoing conversation as a simple statement that you want to do only the minimum work possible in disability activism.
I’m finding it increasingly hard not to see this ongoing conversation as a simple statement that you don’t care if a-spec autistics are collateral damage.
I’m finding it increasingly hard not to see this ongoing conversation as a simple statement that you are happy to create an artificial division between my autistic and my a-spec identities, one that in no way benefits me as an a-spec autistic.
I’m finding it increasingly hard not to see this ongoing conversation as a simple statement that you don’t care if a-spec autistics don’t exist.
I’m finding it increasingly hard not to see this ongoing conversation as a simple statement that you are a terrible activist.
I have words for this conversation that keeps on happening even though many, many a-spec autistics and a-spec disabled people have spoken up over the last six months and called this hate for what it is.
They’re words like “ableism” and “acemisia” and “aromisia”. Words that should never describe something that is ostensibly an activist conversation.
This is erasure dressed up in the language of social justice, and I’m done with it.
















