Autistic Hipsters

I admit that in my first Autistic blog entry to the world, I'm associated with hipsters. My best friends, my closest friends, and even my old roomates are or were hipsters in some form or fashion from Williamsburg to Austin to Silver Lake. I guess that could make me a secret hipster. Where would Autism fit in the picture? by curiosity and a keen interest by those who asked like this thread by professor$1.50. It's one of the few worthy threads i liked that I think would have an impact to them.

http://williamsboard.com/topic/19079

I spilled out my young life story on williamsboard.com. It is a hipster messageboard for all things belonging to Williamsburg, New York (which is a neighborhood in Brooklyn). I'm username "JarvisFox" who doesn't live in williamsburg (I live in Long Beach). Some of my good friends live there. I wanted to point out that despite the pareto principality of seriousness and mocktitude of that thread, i'm actually glad it achieved a conclusive conciousness to the kids on the williamsboard website.

Besides the artists, actors, musicians, poets, writers and scenesters in the hipster spectrum, they're also aware of how autism may be the new "it" spectrum to emulate. This I find puzzling, humbling and troubling at the same time. While it's an amazing social scene (which to me with autism, can be a massive sensynthenasia shock at times), it's also a highly marketable target group of anyone between 18 to 35 because of its appeal for being trendsetters. It's not like I found a crystal ball to find this out, this is a group that popularized wearing kuffiyehs (palestinian scarves) to nightclubs like MisShapes or that supercrowded joint Annex on Lower East Side NYC. When the Arab-American commuities see sites like lastnightsparty.com to find this as a new "it" trend, they voiced it out in disgust like this guy. When I was at NYC during the CMJ music festival on November 06, I haven't seen anyone wear those "peace scarves" yet so i'm guessing it's a sign that it's dying out in progress. They can be trendsetters, even if it's going to cause problems.

It brings me back to Autistic Hipsters as a new possible trend. Why I feel they find autism to be a curious subject is because autistics like myself are a complicated species while finding it hard to grow up in a society of NeuroTypical hierarchies or social structures. We have a history of complicated creativity with analytical perceptions about life and the arts. While in this spectrum, I feel Autistics like myself are lacking in a voice to be heard about our differences with everybody else and NeuroTypicals. In other words, Hipsters and Aspies could go hand in hand by forging ourselves as anti-establishment types.

While I'm all for the support of my hipster friends who would like to help out in Autism Awareness, I'm also puzzled if their ideas to be a part of the Autistic Spectrum by an online test would indicate their coolness to be more open, creative or closed. It's an uncertain road for this anticipated new idea of "hipness", but it's probrably one of the best new groups to push autistic awareness too. I just hope they don't abuse it too much, but if this group praises Gary Neuman, a diagnosed aspie, as a synthpop legend, I couldn't see any harm in it.

Aspies and Autistics can greatly fit in as well if they need to display their artwork, music, poems and talents to hipster social scenes. In my experience, this has actually helped me confront my original fear of social overcrowding in odd environments. The key to having fun and being social for autistics like I have is to know there's comfort with your friends who will be there for you to share the enjoyment of its surroundings.

Groups like Autism Speaks (a group I just recently signed online to volunteer for walkathon fundraising last year) would obviously capitalize on this trend if it comes out. If i'm partly responsible for it, well, I'm greatful for the support I have with my friends who are aware of autism towards Autism Speaks. However, If I do raise money, which I will be doing this year, for autistic causes, It will be for a plea to Autism Speaks to support poor families who have children with autism rather than them spending money on research to "find a cure". A "cure" by their terms would be a mistake. For me, I would reject a notion a cure would ever exist in my lifetime. Which is why for the kids who are born with autism at a growing case, The poorest familes need help too, which I'm guessing by what I see from autismspeaks.org, isn't fully addressed too well. At least they're handling it better than the founders of Cure Autism Now who see a "cure" but can't recover their childhood traumatizations while they have autism.

All I care about now for my fellow autistics in this world is support for their rights and their needs, because it's transparent definition of how governments define 'disorders' would cause nothing more than dramatic panic and more decades of research to find out they're special people that's different than others. In America, it's great, with the ADA and the California Laterman act and all. For the rest of the world, they need some serious help in Autistic treatments and rights for parents to support their autistic kids.