Read my latest story, "The All-Nighter", at 52|250.

A good example of the ridiculous extent to which parents and caregivers desire to force normative behavior on autistic children can be found in complaints about toe-walking. Walking on your toes doesn’t violate anyone else’s rights (unless of course you believe in an individual’s right not to be exposed to anyone who behaves differently). There may be some concern about potential strain on tendons and muscles, but this seems unlikely to be the primary motivating factor, given that there are far fewer pages online requesting help to convince girls not to wear high heels which force the foot into essentially the same position.

Besides, if children tiptoe because they find it more comfortable, they are fairly likely to stop doing so when it becomes uncomfortable and so avoid the worst strain injuries. Heels represent a far greater threat given that girls are also taught that suffering to be beautiful is acceptable or even desirable.

This gets to the core of the reason for the insistence on enforcing normative behavior in general. Toe-walking, for instance, is certainly not subversive in and of itself, but any time someone insists on doing the unusual because of personal preference or comfort, it becomes subversive (no matter the actual content of the act) by becoming an example of deviation. If that behavior goes unpunished and/or unstigmatized, then others may follow suit, and the rule of the norm (and its enforcers) would be destabilized. Those individuals most insistent on deviation must be labeled diseased in such a way that allows their actions to be considered symptoms, not something to be aped.

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