WEBVTT

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I love this mic.

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I feel like Beyoncé.

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It's so cool.

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I was invited here to talk about autism.

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It's a topic I know quite well
for two reasons.

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First, I studied it during my PhD
in Social Psychology,

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and second, I myself am
on the autism spectrum,

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since I have Asperger's syndrome.

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So, I kind of have a double hat.

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But when I was preparing this speech,

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I thought it would be
even more interesting

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to talk about non-autistic people.

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Yeah, that's you.

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You see, I've been observing
you my whole life,

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and truth be told,
I find you quite fascinating.

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So, yeah,

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you definitely deserve
your own PowerPoint.

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Ta-da!

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"Neurotypical people."

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That's how we call people
who are not on the autism spectrum.

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So, you too have your own little label.

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What about symptoms?

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Well, neurotypical people love small talk.

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This is like your national sport!

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You talk,

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but you say nothing.

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What a strange custom!

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At first, I had no idea why you did that,

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but I get it now.

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Small talk serves a real purpose,

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because it enables you
to connect with people

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in spaces you share,

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like with your neighbor
in the building you live in,

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or with your colleague in your workspace.

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Over the years, I learned
how to make small talk.

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But sometimes, it's tricky.

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Like, the other day,
I ran into my neighbor in the elevator.

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And I was feeling confident, you know,
because I was wearing my lucky outfit.

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And this is, of course, my lucky outfit,
in case you're wondering.

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So I was feeling
like the world belonged to me,

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and so I decided to engage in small talk.

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And I saw he was carrying bags
full of groceries.

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So I had this stroke of genius

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and asked him this
really profound question:

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"Oh, you did some shopping?"

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Yeah, well,

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as I said, I have a PhD, so -

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And the neighbor answers,

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"Yeah, I went to the market,
but I won't go there anymore.

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Too many Arabs."

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"Okay."

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And I swear, it's a true story.

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So, we went from small talk
to racial slurs real quick.

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You also have a very special way
of communicating.

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You use sarcasm, double meaning,

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and you often tiptoe around the truth.

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You have an almost pathological inability
to communicate in a straightforward way.

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What you say can have multiple meanings,

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and you always have to read
between the lines.

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I don't know how you do it!

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It's exhausting!

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And you are so twisted

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that sometimes you even ask questions
you don't want to have the answers to.

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Like, for example,

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if one of my girlfriends says,

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"Oh look, I bought this
new foundation the other day

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and I am wearing it right now;
how do you like it?",

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I know by experience
that it may be a rhetorical question.

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She probably is just trying
to start a conversation

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or wants to be reassured.

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So if I give her a straight answer,
like any autistic person would,

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and say,

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"Well, your face is orange,

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and it kind of makes you look
like Donald Trump,"

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that's no good.

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All those social codes
and social conventions

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can be particularly hard to understand
for an autistic person.

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We say what we mean,
and we mean what we say,

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to the point of being brutally honest.

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And I really think that if you're ready
to put your ego aside

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so as not to take everything personally,

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it's a much more
efficient way to communicate

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because you can save
a lot of time and energy.

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You should try it.

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But we also have similarities,
like special interests.

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Autistic people tend to develop
an intense interest

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in one or more subjects.

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It can be the subway lines,

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or exotic birds,

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or historical figures, like Angela Davis.

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We can accumulate
a considerable amount of knowledge

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to the point of becoming experts
in our special interests.

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It's considered a symptom
because it can be all-consuming.

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But the truth is special interests

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are an important resource
for people on the spectrum,

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and we need them as much
as we need air to breathe.

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But you too have
your own special interest:

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socializing.

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You spend so much time socializing,

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with your friends,
during your coffee break,

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or even with the bus driver.

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It seems normal to you
because most people function that way,

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but if you lived in a world
dominated by autistic people,

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you would be the weirdos.

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And last but not least,
your natural habitat.

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Can I read it for you?

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Neurotypical people are best observed
at nightfall in a dynamic environment,

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with their peer group.

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Of course, as you may have noticed,
this slide is a bit cliché,

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because not all neurotypical
people drink champagne.

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And I hate to be the bearer of bad news,

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but there is no cure, for the time being.

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It's so sad.

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But seriously, though,

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what do you think about all this?

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Don't you feel a bit stigmatized?

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Were you not thinking just now,

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"That's a bit demeaning and simplistic"?

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Yeah,

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I know the feeling.

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Can you imagine living in a world
where you are the minority,

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where your way of being
is deemed pathological,

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where people will tell you stuff like,

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"But you don't look neurotypical"?

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Or, "I know all about neurotypical people

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because I saw an entire
season of 'Friends.'"

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A world where people
will try to standardize you,

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a world where you would constantly feel
like you are not enough.

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Now finally, you can
understand the kind of crap

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I've been dealing with my whole life.

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Welcome to my world.

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It gets on my nerves when people talk
about the causes, the "symptoms"

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and the "treatments" of autism.

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I really think that we are
going the wrong way.

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We should spend more time

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trying to give people on the spectrum
the place they deserve in our society,

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trying to empower them
and make them independent.

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Autistic people don't need a cure,

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but they do need appropriate
educational approaches

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to grow and flourish.

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They also need their rights
to be respected.

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In France, only 20 to 30%
of autistic children go to school,

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and a very small number
of autistic adults have a job.

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I can't tell you how many exactly,
because we don't have the numbers.

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There is not a single study
on the subject.

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We don't know either

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how many of us are currently locked up
in psychiatric hospitals.

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But, you know,

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one is too many.

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We are doomed to a lifetime
of loneliness, poverty and exclusion.

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And it's even more difficult
for women on the spectrum.

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When you are at the intersection
of autism and gender,

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you experience unique difficulties

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because you are not only
the victim of autismophobia;

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you are also the victim of sexism,

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and those two forms
of oppression interact together.

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Let me give you an example.

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We are just now starting to realize

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that the diagnostic criteria
for autism are gender-biased,

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because they have been established taking
into account the behavior of autistic men.

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That and the fact that autism is expressed
in a much more subtle way in women

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are the reasons why so many women
on the spectrum go undiagnosed

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or are misdiagnosed.

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Kimberlé Crenshaw was the first to come up
with the concept of intersectionality

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to reveal the problems
faced by black women,

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and she did an amazing TED talk about it.

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So, you should watch it.

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But like, not now, of course.

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This is my big moment.

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I remember meeting a researcher
a few months ago.

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She was very excited
about the recent discoveries

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on the impact of oxytocin
as a treatment for autistic people.

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It seems this treatment
allows people on the spectrum

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to socialize better or more.

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I told her that it raised
a number of questions

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because if I had been given this treatment
and had been pushed to socialize,

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I wouldn't have had time to accomplish

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all the things I've accomplished
in the past six years.

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I have a blog,

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a YouTube channel,

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I did my PhD and I published two books.

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So, I don't spend time
socializing with my friends,

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but who cares?

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I get things done.

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It doesn't make sense to me

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that people would want me
to be less autistic.

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It is because I'm autistic
that I am extremely focused,

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resilient,

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hypersensitive,

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and thus very creative, honest,

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and that I have many areas of expertise.

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And yes, I know that
my experience is not the same

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as the experience of autistic people
who are much more dependent,

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but still,

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I think this type of research
raises ethical issues.

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I'd like to live in a world
where I can just be myself,

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where my voice matters,

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where I can get
the kind of support I need,

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a world where I don't need to be
this poster child of autism

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in order to be loved and accepted,

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a world where I don't have to fight
stereotypes and discrimination

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every single day.

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This is the world we have to build.

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And in the meantime,

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I'd like to say
to my fellow autistic friends

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and to all the people
who are different out there:

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you are not a mistake,

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you are not a disease
that needs to be cured,

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and you are enough.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)