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Stims and Social Acceptability

china autie

friend to dogs and frogs and cats
Who gets to decide what stims are "socially acceptable" and which ones aren't?

Does the answer change when we are talking about autistic kids stimming?

Autistic adults?
 
With adults I think 'group think' mainly comes into play. Whatever the group thinks unusual is likely to be thought unacceptable.

I don't know, but suspect very primitive instincts are at least partially at play.
 
Who gets to decide what stims are "socially acceptable" and which ones aren't?

Does the answer change when we are talking about autistic kids stimming?

Autistic adults?

Did you know that one mad guy in anaasylum submitted most of the words for the oxford-english dictionary?

I was hoping they could adopt the same system for this.

I'll put myself forward.

You can't do that.
That's fine.
Depends who you're with.
Only in your bedroom.
Once you get dressed it won't be a problem .

See? I'm a natural :)
 
My answer is nobody gets to tell me what is socially acceptable and what I can or can't do. As long as I am not physically harming somebody it is really nobody else's business or place to try to impose their will upon me.
 
I would imagine it would involve an attempt to compare the deviations of each stim from commonly seen behavior, as well as its level of visibility, disruption, volume, and probably others.

For example, tapping your foot repeatedly may only deviate from what others are used to by its frequency and speed.

But pulling on your ears and making your cheeks big is not something seen everyday and so is more likely to be socially unacceptable by the arbitrary, sub-conscious standards of the "socially" here referred.

Anything that calls attention to itself by its involvement of loud sounds or large gestures is also less likely to be accepted.

Maybe a piece of blue paper can be imagine. A blue dot will blend in just fine. A different shade of blue will blend in quite nicely. A purple dot will stick out, but not as much as a yellow dot. If you want to be behave in a socially acceptable manner, you would stick to behavior as close to that shade of blue possible.

Assuming you don't opt out and have no dot at all. :)
 
I resent it when someone tells me I shouldn't be doing something just because they don't like that what I am doing is different. If I am genuinely annoying someone, then that's fair enough, but not just because it is different... I won't accept that it's ok for people to play with their pens or the worry beads, but not ok for me to bounce my leg or rock from side to side when I'm waiting in the queue. I resent it because I'm expected to tolerate so much from them, yet they can't tolerate even a little bit from me.
 
I’m imagining the self decides it isn’t acceptable or there wouldn’t be an issue.

Granted, our ideas about stimming May come from social feedback, parents, carers and so on to begin with but ultimately they are our ideas.

We live by our own self imposed rules off the back of any negative reactions towards us.
(Or if you grew up late 60s, early 70s, there were plenty of acceptable physical punishments around to curb unsightly behaviour)

Who decides?
We do.
 
Societal norms have always been the deciding factor in what is socially acceptable. It is true throughout the animal kingdom. But, just because something is considered socially acceptable doesn't mean that you have to adhere to that norm. However, there is a trade off for going against societal standards. You just have to decide if it's worth it.
 
Out of all of the people in the world, I'd rather be me than anyone else. And that includes my autistic neurology and my stimming.
 

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