00:00
I haven't told manypeople this, but in my head, I've got thousands of secret worlds allgoing on all at the same time. I am also autistic.
00:11
People tend todiagnose autism with really specific check-box descriptions, but inreality, it's a whole variation as to what we're like. For instance, mylittle brother, he's very severely autistic. He's nonverbal. He can'ttalk at all. But I love to talk. People often associateautism with liking maths and science and nothing else, but I know somany autistic people who love being creative. But that is astereotype, and the stereotypes of things are often, if not always,wrong. For instance, a lot of peoplethink autism and think "RainMan" immediately. That's the common belief, that every singleautistic person is Dustin Hoffman, and that's not true.
01:00
But that's not justwith autistic people, either. I've seen it with LGBTQ people, withwomen, with POC people. People are so afraid of variety that they tryto fit everything into a tiny little box with really specificlabels. This is something that actually happened to me in reallife: I googled "autistic people are ..." and it comes upwith suggestions as to what you're going to type. I googled"autistic people are ..." and the top result was"demons." That is the first thing that people think whenthey think autism.They know. (Laughter)
01:44
One of the things Ican do because I'm autistic — it's an ability rather than a disability— is I've got a very, very vivid imagination. Let me explain it toyou a bit. It's like I'm walking in two worlds most of thetime. There's the real world, the world that we all share, andthere's the world in my mind, and the world in my mind is often so muchmore real than the real world. Like, it's very easy for me to let mymind loose because I don't try and fit myself into a tiny littlebox. That's one of the best things about being autistic. You don'thave the urge to do that. You find what you want to do, you find away to do it, and you get on with it. If I was trying to fit myself into abox, I wouldn't be here, I wouldn't have achieved half the thingsthat I have now. There are problems, though. There are problems withbeing autistic, and there are problems with having too muchimagination. School can be a problem in general, but having also toexplain to a teacher on a daily basis that their lesson isinexplicably dulland you are secretly taking refuge in a world inside yourhead in which you are not in that lesson, that adds to your list ofproblems. (Laughter) Also, when my imagination takes hold, mybody takes on a life of its own. When something very exciting happens inmy inner world, I've just got to run. I've got to rock backwards andforwards, or sometimes scream. This gives me so much energy, andI've got to have an outlet for all that energy. But I've done that eversince I was a child, ever since I was a tiny little girl. And myparents thought it was cute, so they didn't bring it up, but when I gotinto school, they didn't really agree that it was cute. It can bethat people don't want to be friends with the girl that starts screamingin an algebra lesson. And this doesn't normally happen in this day andage, but it can be that people don't want to be friends with the autisticgirl. It can be that people don't want to associatewith anyone who won'tor can't fit themselves into a box that's labeled normal. But that'sfine with me,because it sorts the wheat from the chaff, and I can findwhich people are genuine and true and I can pick these people as myfriends.
04:01
But if you thinkabout it, what is normal? What does it mean? Imagine if that was thebest compliment you ever received. "Wow, you are reallynormal." (Laughter) But compliments are, "you areextraordinary" or "you step outside the box." It's"you're amazing." So if people want to be these things, whyare so many people striving to be normal? Why are people pouring theirbrilliant individual light into a mold? People are so afraid of varietythat they try and force everyone, even people who don't want to or can't,to become normal. There are camps for LGBTQ people or autistic peopleto try and make them this "normal," and that's terrifying thatpeople would do that in this day and age.
04:50
All in all, Iwouldn't trade my autism and my imagination for the world. Because I amautistic, I've presented documentaries to the BBC, I'm in the midstof writing a book, I'm doing this — this is fantastic — and one ofthe best things that I've achieved, that I consider to haveachieved, is I've found ways of communicating with my little brotherand sister, who as I've said are nonverbal. They can't speak. And peoplewould often write off someone who's nonverbal, but that's silly, becausemy little brother and sister are the best siblings that you could everhope for. They're just the best, and I love them so much and I careabout them more than anything else. I'm going to leave you with one question: Ifwe can't get inside the person's minds, no matter if they're autistic ornot, instead of punishing anything that strays from normal, why notcelebrate uniqueness and cheer every time someone unleashes theirimagination?
05:48
Thank you.
05:50
(Applause)
中文翻译如下：
我并没有跟很多人说过这个， 但是在我的脑海中， 有成千上万个神秘的世界在运转 在同一时间涌出。我同样是一名自闭症患者。
00:23
人们在诊断自闭症时倾向 都会有很详细的描述。 但是事实上，自闭症患者是非常多变的。 例如，我弟弟， 他是一个非常严重的自闭症患者。 他不讲话，完全不能跟人交谈。 但是我就喜欢交谈。 人们通常将自闭症与 和只喜欢数学、科学联想在一起。 但是我知道很多自闭症患者 喜欢创新。 但那只是一个很刻板的印象， 而所谓的刻板印象 大多时候都是错误的。 例如，很多人 提到自闭症，就会马上想到“雨人” 这是一种普遍的观念， 觉得每个自闭症患者都是达斯汀·霍夫曼 但那却不是真的。 （笑声）
01:12
而这种现象不仅仅发生在自闭症患者身上。 我在非异性恋者， 妇女和有色人种中都发现了这种现象。人们都害怕自己跟别人不一样， 所以他们试着让自己符合那些 有着明确特征标签的选项小方框 这是一个 在我生活中发生过的事情： 我谷歌了“自闭症患者是…“ 然后出现了一些 可供选择的输入提示。 我谷歌了“自闭症患者是…” 然后最上面的一个提示是 “魔鬼” 。 那就是当人们提到自闭症时 首先想到的东西。 他们居然知道了。 （笑声）
01:56
我有一种能力， 正是因为我有自闭症—— 与其说这是一种障碍，不如说是一种能力—— 就是我有非常非常生动的想象力。 让我给你解释一下。 就像我很多的时间都游走在两个世界。 其中一个是真实的世界， 是我们所共有的世界， 另一个是存在于我脑海中的世界， 而我脑海中的这个世界经常 要比真实的世界更真实。 就像我很容易让自己的心灵放松， 因为我不会尝试着让自己去适应那些小选项框。 这是成为自闭症患者的最大的好处之一。 你没有那样去做的欲望。 你会找到你想做的事情， 找到做这件事的方法，然后就去做了。 如果我试着让自己去适应一个小选项框的话， 我就不会在这里，我也不会 取得今天一半的成就。 尽管会有一些问题， 自闭症患者会有一些问题， 并且想象力太丰富也会引起一些问题。 从整体上说，上学是一个问题， 还有就是得跟老师解释-- 每天都如此-- 他们的课程莫名其妙的无聊， 同时你却秘密地 在那个你脑海中的世界里避难， 而在这个世界里你并没有在这个课堂上， 这就使你被列进了问题学生的名单。 （笑声） 同样地，当我的想象力在脑海中扎根时， 我的身体也就有了自己的生命。 当一些激动人心的事情发生在我的内心世界时， 我会奔跑。 我会前后摇晃身体， 或者有时会尖叫。 这给我太多的能量， 所以我得找到一个方法去释放这些能量。 但是我从很小的时候就这样做了， 从我还是一个很小的小女孩的时候。 我父母觉得那样很可爱，所以就没说什么， 但是当我上学后， 他们就不再觉得这种行为可爱了。 可能是因为大家都不想跟一个 在数学课上突然尖叫的女孩做朋友。 这种事情现在已经不常发生了， 但是可能人们还是不想跟一个患有自闭症的女孩交朋友。 可能人们不想于 任何不想也不会把自己 贴上正常人标签的人交往。 但那对我来说都没关系， 因为就像把小麦从谷壳中挑出来一样， 这样我可以找到那些真诚和忠实的人 然后挑出这些人做我的朋友。 但是如果你细想一下，什么才算是正常？
04:18
正常是什么意思？ 想象一下如果这是你听到过得最好的称赞。 “哇，你真的很正常。” （笑声） 但是通常称赞都是， "你真是与众不同。" 或者是“你的想法很新颖。” 是“你真的让我大吃一惊。” 所以如果人们想要成为这样的人， 为什么还有那么多的人挣扎着成为正常的人？ 为什么人们要将他们闪耀的 个人光辉装进一个模具里去？ 人们太害怕与众不同， 所以他们尝试并且强迫每一个人， 甚至那些不愿或不能正常的人，去变成正常人。 有一些专门针对非异性恋者 或者自闭者患者开展的夏令营， 尝试着让他们变成所谓的“正常人” 这使这个时代里这样特别的人们感到恐惧。 总之，我不会这个世界交易我的想像力和自闭症。
05:07
因为我是一个自闭症患者， 我曾向BBC提交过纪录片， 我现在正在写一本书， 我正在做这个， 是很了不起的事情。 还有我做成的最美好的事情之一， 一件我认为我已经做成了的事情， 是我找到了 跟我的弟弟妹妹沟通的方法， 他们正如我说过的他们不讲话， 他们不能跟人交谈。 人们经常对那些不讲话的人 不报有任何希望， 但是这很愚蠢，因为我弟弟妹妹 是你会一直期望得到的的最好的兄弟姐妹。 他们是最棒的，我很爱他们， 我在乎他们超过任何事情。 我接下来要给你们留下一个问题： 如果我们不能走进一个人的内心世界—— 不论他是不是自闭症患者—— 如果不惩罚那些脱离常规的行为， 为什么不去为那些 “与众不同”庆祝 为人们每一次的想象力的释放而欢呼呢？
06:00
谢谢。
06:01
（掌声）
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