Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Melanie Yergeau

Quote by Melanie Yergeau

“I do not subscribe to functioning labels because functioning labels are inaccurate and dehumanizing, because functioning labels fail to capture the breadth and complexity and highly contextual interrelations of one's neurology and environment, both of which are plastic and malleable and dynamic. Functioning is the corporeal gone capitalistic -- it is an assumption that one's body and being can be quantitatively measured, that one's bodily outputs and bodily actions are neither outputs nor actions unless commodifiable.”

Quote by Melanie Yergeau

Book:Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness
Create image

Work

Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Melanie Yergeau

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Melanie Yergeau. more

You May Also Like

“What is of essential importance is the impact that being autistic has on a person at any given time. This can range from horrifically negative right through to sublimely positive -- and sometimes both can be found in the same individual. So, if this dramatic difference can be seen at different times in the same person -- what 'grade' is that person? Clearly, this is where the whole notion of 'autism severity' crumbles.”

AutismAutisticSeverityFunctioning LabelsPersonal Impact
Book:Autism and Asperger Syndrome in Adults
Create image

“Our brokenness is our greatest strength. I've been broken all my life, for my life is one on the spectrum with OCD to make things worse. But have you ever heard me whine about my brokenness - no – never! For no matter how broken you are, till you give in to your brokenness, it can never break you.”

BrokenMental HealthBrainy QuotesMental IllnessAutismBraveheartBrokennessAutisticAutism Spectrum DisorderObsessive Compulsive Disorder
Book:Mucize Insan: When The World is Family
Create image

“It's meaningless to question whether a trans Autistic person would have "still" been trans had they not been born neurodiverse, because Autism is such a core part of who we are. Without our disability (or our gender identity) we'd be entirely different people. There is no separating these aspects of ourselves from our personhood or personality. They're both core parts.”

AutismTransgenderTransAutisticNeurodiversityGender Diversity
Book:Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity
Create image

“What's strange is that small changes upset me immensely and always have done. A tree trimmed outside my house, the reorganization of a supermarket aisle, a new haircut, an updated app format. I cried for hours when they "new and improved" the recipe for the mashed potato I eat every Monday night. But the big stuff? The deaths, the tragedies, the life-changing shifts that rock everyone else to their core? That's when I'm cool, calm and collected. It's why I had to give three speeches at my own parents' funeral, and also--I'm assuming--why I heard my great-uncle Joseph call me an "empty robot" under his breath when I sat back down again. I don't understand it, but there's just something in me that knows how to stand still when the earth shatters.”

AutismChangesAutistic
Book:Cassandra in Reverse
Create image

“Maybe I'm not overthinking it. Maybe I've been told I'm overthinking it so often, by so many people, I've convinced myself it's all I'm capable of. But what if they're wrong? What if I'm thinking it exactly the right amount? What if everyone else is simply underthinking it, continuously, and the deficit is actually theirs? Because something tells me I'm not in the wrong here: my instincts are spot-on.”

AutismAutisticOverthinking
Book:Cassandra in Reverse
Create image