4th of March
Have you ever been told you’re weird?
Did it feel like an insult?
You are invited to Weird Pride Day!
Most autistic people are told that they’re weird at some point in their lives. Sometimes it’s meant as an insult; people often hate and fear folk who are different from them, or different from what they expect in the world. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong though: in my experience neurodivergent people are pretty weird, as a rule. Which is okay.
#WeirdPride
We’re different from most people – idiosyncratic in ways that many don’t understand. It doesn’t do people much good to tell them they’re not weird when all the evidence points to them having ways of understanding the world and expressing themselves that are out of sync with most of the population.
So the only thing to do about being seen as weird is to own it. The things that make people weird are often the things that make them interesting, anyway! All the most fascinating people are pretty weird. Where would we be without people who don’t think like other people, who see things from angles that others miss?
When people have a problem with others being weird, that’s usually their own problem. They are missing out! We should be encouraging people to embrace their quirks and their eccentricities, as long as they’re not harming anyone else. Apart from anything, most of us live in diverse societies – racially, culturally, sexually, genderwise, and neurologically. The only way we can live together peacefully is to embrace each other’s differences.
A Day for Weird Pride
My dream is for everyone to embrace their own differences – to be proud of the things that make them weird, and to reject ‘normality’ as a goal to aspire to.
So from now on, March 4th is Weird Pride Day. A day to tell that world that you’re not ashamed of being weird, and why.
Because seeing other people stand up and say that they’re proud to be a bit like you is a powerful thing.
You could make yourself a Weird Pride badge, flag or t-shirt. You could write about the things that make you weird, here or somewhere else. You could do a dance about it. Make art about why it’s mostly good to be different. Give people some tips on how to make the most of being weird. Make of it what you will – just be your own weird self.
Check out Autistamatic’s Weird Pride Day Promo below:
Likes to infodump about autism.
- March 4th is Weird Pride Day - March 1, 2021
- TV Review: Pablo - August 10, 2020
- Autistic Skill Sets: A Spiky Profile of Peaks and Troughs - July 5, 2019
6 Responses
Thank you for introducing me to Pablo! I watched an episode on youtube and have subscribed to the channel, it’s a delightful show indeed. I’m a 31 year old woman on the spectrum and I really appreciate the calming animation and variety of autistic representation in the characters. What a great find!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! Slightly puzzled that your comment is on my Weird Pride post though!
Oops! Let me add that comment to the right article, thanks!
https://youtu.be/_cYSO5ewsHg
A quietly weird film to celebrate the first ever Weird Pride Day x