I love this mic I feel like Beyonce so
cool I was invited here to talk about
autism it’s a topic I know quite well
for two reasons first I studied it
during my PhD in social psychology and
second I myself am on the autism
spectrum since I have Asperger’s
syndrome so I kind of have a double hats
but when I was preparing this speech I
thought it would be even more
interesting to talk about
none autistic people yeah that’s you you
see I’ve been observing you my whole
life and just be told I find you quite
fascinating so yeah you definitely
deserve your own powerpoints no typical
people that’s how we call people who are
not on the autism spectrum so you to
have your own little label what about
symptoms
well neurotypical people love small talk
this is like your national sport you
talk but you say nothing what a strange
custom at first I had no idea why you
did that but I get it now
small talk sells a real purpose because
it enables you to connect with people in
spaces you share like with your neighbor
in the building you live in or with your
colleague in your work space over the
years I learned how to make small talk
but sometimes it’s tricky like the other
day I ran into my neighbor in the
elevator and I was feeling confident you
know because I was wearing my lucky
outfit and this is of course my lucky
out with you case you’re wondering so I
was feeling like the world belongs to me
and so I decided to engage in small talk
and I saw he was carrying bags full of
groceries
so I had this stroke of genius and asked
him this really profound question
oh you did some shopping yeah well as I
said I have a PhD zone and the neighbor
answers yeah I went to the market but I
won’t go there anymore
too many Arabs and I swear it’s a true
story so we went from small talk to
racial slurs
real quick you also have a very special
way of communicating you use sarcasm
double meaning and you often tiptoe
around the truth you have an almost
pathological inability to communicate in
a straightforward way what you say can
have multiple meanings and you always
have to read between the lines I don’t
know how you do it it’s exhausting and
you are so twisted that sometimes you
even ask questions you don’t want to
have the answers to like for example if
one of my girlfriend says I look about
this new foundation the other day and I
am wearing it right now how do you like
it I know by experience that it may be a
rhetorical question
she probably is just trying to start a
conversation or wants to be reassured so
if I give her a straight answer
like any autistic person would and say
well your face is orange and it kind of
makes you look like Donald Trump that’s
no good all those social codes and
social conventions can be particularly
hard to understand for an autistic
person we say what we mean and we mean
what we say to the point of being
brutally honest and I really think that
if you’re ready to put your ego aside so
as not to take everything personally
it’s a much more efficient way to
communicate because you can save a lot
of time and energy you should try it
but we also have similarities like
special interests autistic people tend
to develop an intense interest in one or
more subjects it can be the subway lines
or exotic birds or historical figures
like energy
Davy’s we can accumulate a considerable
amount of knowledge to the point of
becoming experts in our special
interests it’s considered a symptom
because it can be all-consuming but the
truth is special interests are an
important resource for people on the
spectrum and we need them as much as we
need air to breathe but you do have your
own special interests socializing you
spend so much time socializing with your
friends during your coffee break or even
with the bus driver it seems normal to
you
because most people function that way
but if you lived in a world dominated by
autistic people you would be the weirdos
and last but not least your natural
habitat I’m gonna read it for you know
typical people are best observed at
nightfall in a dynamic environment with
their peer group of course as you may
have noticed this slide is a bit cliche
because not all neurotypical people
drink champagne and I hate to be the
bearer of bad news but there is no cure
for the time being so sad but seriously
though what do you think about all this
don’t you feel a bit stigmatized where
you’re not thinking just now that’s a
bit demeaning and simplistic yeah I know
the feeling can you imagine living in a
world where you are the minority where
your way of being is deemed pathological
where people would tell you stuff like
but you don’t look neurotypical
or I know all about neurotypical people
because I saw an entire season of
friends a world where people would try
to standardize you a world where you
would constantly feel like you are not
enough now finally you can understand
the kind of crap I’ve been dealing with
my whole life welcome to my world it
gets on my nerves when people talk about
the causes the symptoms and the
treatments of autism I really think we
are going wrong the wrong way we should
spend more time trying to give people on
the spectrum the place they deserve in
our society trying to empower them and
make them independent autistic people
don’t need a cure but they do need
appropriate educational approaches to
grow and flourish they also need their
rights to be respected in France only 20
to 30 percent of autistic children go to
school and a very small number of
autistic adults have a job I can tell
you how many exactly because we don’t
have the numbers there is not a single
study on the subject we don’t know
either how many of us are currently
locked up in psychiatric hospitals but
you know one is too many we are doomed
to a lifetime of loneliness poverty and
exclusion and it’s even more difficult
for women on the spectrum when you are
at the intersection of autism and gender
you experience unique difficulties
because you are not only the victim of
autism or phobia you are also the victim
of sexism and those two forms of
oppression interact together let me give
you an example we are just now starting
to realize that the diagnostic criteria
for autism are gender biased because
they have been established taking into
account the behavior of autistic men
that and the fact that autism is
expressed in a much more subtle way in
women are the reasons why so many women
on the spectrum go undiagnosed or are
mistake
most kimberlé crenshaw was the first to
come up with the concept of
intersectionality to reveal the problems
faced by black woman and she did an
amazing TED talk about it so you should
watch it but like not now of course this
is my big moment I remember meeting a
researcher a few months ago she was very
excited about the recent discoveries on
the impact of oxytocin as a treatment
for autistic people it seems this
treatment allows people on the spectrum
to socialize better or more I told her
that it raised a number of questions
because if I had been given this
treatment and had been pushed to
socialize I wouldn’t have had time to
accomplish all the things I’ve
accomplished in the past six years I
have a blog a YouTube channel I did my
PhD and I published two books so I don’t
spend time socializing with my friends
but who cares I get things done it
doesn’t make sense to me that people
would want me to be less autistic it is
because I’m autistic that I am extremely
focused resilient hyper sensitive and
thus very creative honest and that I
have many areas of expertise and yes I
know that my experience is not the same
as the experience of autistic people who
are much more dependent but still I
think this type of research raises
ethical issues I’d like to live in a
world where I can just be myself
where my voice matters where I can get
the kind of support I need a world where
I don’t need to be this poster child of
autism in order to be loved and accepted
a world where I don’t have to fight
stereotypes and discrimination every
single day this is the world we have to
build and in the meantime I’d like to
say to my fellow autistic friends and to
all the people who are different out
there
you are not a mistake you are not a
disease that needs to be cured and you
are enough thank you [Applause]
cool I was invited here to talk about
autism it’s a topic I know quite well
for two reasons first I studied it
during my PhD in social psychology and
second I myself am on the autism
spectrum since I have Asperger’s
syndrome so I kind of have a double hats
but when I was preparing this speech I
thought it would be even more
interesting to talk about
none autistic people yeah that’s you you
see I’ve been observing you my whole
life and just be told I find you quite
fascinating so yeah you definitely
deserve your own powerpoints no typical
people that’s how we call people who are
not on the autism spectrum so you to
have your own little label what about
symptoms
well neurotypical people love small talk
this is like your national sport you
talk but you say nothing what a strange
custom at first I had no idea why you
did that but I get it now
small talk sells a real purpose because
it enables you to connect with people in
spaces you share like with your neighbor
in the building you live in or with your
colleague in your work space over the
years I learned how to make small talk
but sometimes it’s tricky like the other
day I ran into my neighbor in the
elevator and I was feeling confident you
know because I was wearing my lucky
outfit and this is of course my lucky
out with you case you’re wondering so I
was feeling like the world belongs to me
and so I decided to engage in small talk
and I saw he was carrying bags full of
groceries
so I had this stroke of genius and asked
him this really profound question
oh you did some shopping yeah well as I
said I have a PhD zone and the neighbor
answers yeah I went to the market but I
won’t go there anymore
too many Arabs and I swear it’s a true
story so we went from small talk to
racial slurs
real quick you also have a very special
way of communicating you use sarcasm
double meaning and you often tiptoe
around the truth you have an almost
pathological inability to communicate in
a straightforward way what you say can
have multiple meanings and you always
have to read between the lines I don’t
know how you do it it’s exhausting and
you are so twisted that sometimes you
even ask questions you don’t want to
have the answers to like for example if
one of my girlfriend says I look about
this new foundation the other day and I
am wearing it right now how do you like
it I know by experience that it may be a
rhetorical question
she probably is just trying to start a
conversation or wants to be reassured so
if I give her a straight answer
like any autistic person would and say
well your face is orange and it kind of
makes you look like Donald Trump that’s
no good all those social codes and
social conventions can be particularly
hard to understand for an autistic
person we say what we mean and we mean
what we say to the point of being
brutally honest and I really think that
if you’re ready to put your ego aside so
as not to take everything personally
it’s a much more efficient way to
communicate because you can save a lot
of time and energy you should try it
but we also have similarities like
special interests autistic people tend
to develop an intense interest in one or
more subjects it can be the subway lines
or exotic birds or historical figures
like energy
Davy’s we can accumulate a considerable
amount of knowledge to the point of
becoming experts in our special
interests it’s considered a symptom
because it can be all-consuming but the
truth is special interests are an
important resource for people on the
spectrum and we need them as much as we
need air to breathe but you do have your
own special interests socializing you
spend so much time socializing with your
friends during your coffee break or even
with the bus driver it seems normal to
you
because most people function that way
but if you lived in a world dominated by
autistic people you would be the weirdos
and last but not least your natural
habitat I’m gonna read it for you know
typical people are best observed at
nightfall in a dynamic environment with
their peer group of course as you may
have noticed this slide is a bit cliche
because not all neurotypical people
drink champagne and I hate to be the
bearer of bad news but there is no cure
for the time being so sad but seriously
though what do you think about all this
don’t you feel a bit stigmatized where
you’re not thinking just now that’s a
bit demeaning and simplistic yeah I know
the feeling can you imagine living in a
world where you are the minority where
your way of being is deemed pathological
where people would tell you stuff like
but you don’t look neurotypical
or I know all about neurotypical people
because I saw an entire season of
friends a world where people would try
to standardize you a world where you
would constantly feel like you are not
enough now finally you can understand
the kind of crap I’ve been dealing with
my whole life welcome to my world it
gets on my nerves when people talk about
the causes the symptoms and the
treatments of autism I really think we
are going wrong the wrong way we should
spend more time trying to give people on
the spectrum the place they deserve in
our society trying to empower them and
make them independent autistic people
don’t need a cure but they do need
appropriate educational approaches to
grow and flourish they also need their
rights to be respected in France only 20
to 30 percent of autistic children go to
school and a very small number of
autistic adults have a job I can tell
you how many exactly because we don’t
have the numbers there is not a single
study on the subject we don’t know
either how many of us are currently
locked up in psychiatric hospitals but
you know one is too many we are doomed
to a lifetime of loneliness poverty and
exclusion and it’s even more difficult
for women on the spectrum when you are
at the intersection of autism and gender
you experience unique difficulties
because you are not only the victim of
autism or phobia you are also the victim
of sexism and those two forms of
oppression interact together let me give
you an example we are just now starting
to realize that the diagnostic criteria
for autism are gender biased because
they have been established taking into
account the behavior of autistic men
that and the fact that autism is
expressed in a much more subtle way in
women are the reasons why so many women
on the spectrum go undiagnosed or are
mistake
most kimberlé crenshaw was the first to
come up with the concept of
intersectionality to reveal the problems
faced by black woman and she did an
amazing TED talk about it so you should
watch it but like not now of course this
is my big moment I remember meeting a
researcher a few months ago she was very
excited about the recent discoveries on
the impact of oxytocin as a treatment
for autistic people it seems this
treatment allows people on the spectrum
to socialize better or more I told her
that it raised a number of questions
because if I had been given this
treatment and had been pushed to
socialize I wouldn’t have had time to
accomplish all the things I’ve
accomplished in the past six years I
have a blog a YouTube channel I did my
PhD and I published two books so I don’t
spend time socializing with my friends
but who cares I get things done it
doesn’t make sense to me that people
would want me to be less autistic it is
because I’m autistic that I am extremely
focused resilient hyper sensitive and
thus very creative honest and that I
have many areas of expertise and yes I
know that my experience is not the same
as the experience of autistic people who
are much more dependent but still I
think this type of research raises
ethical issues I’d like to live in a
world where I can just be myself
where my voice matters where I can get
the kind of support I need a world where
I don’t need to be this poster child of
autism in order to be loved and accepted
a world where I don’t have to fight
stereotypes and discrimination every
single day this is the world we have to
build and in the meantime I’d like to
say to my fellow autistic friends and to
all the people who are different out
there
you are not a mistake you are not a
disease that needs to be cured and you
are enough thank you [Applause]
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