Dominant Culture and Autism Culture

Yo, Mick Here.
I’m the blue-eyed redhead on the left with the toothy grin.

We spent the past week doggy sitting our friend here Sammy the blue heeler.
We had a lot of fun together hanging out, taking additional walks and getting extra treats.

Sammy has an annoying behavior though.

He came into our home and decided that there needed to be more of him in it so he lifted his leg and peed.

The first time Mum noticed she scolded Sammy who immediately curled up and rolled over on his side peeing as he went. Mum tried to get him to go outside and instead he ran around the room and leapt onto the couch. She tried to pick him up but he started peeing again.

Eventually she got him up and carried him outside. Mum, Red and I cleaned up all the messes. Yuck. He’d been here before so we weren’t expecting any misbehavior like this.

Then Sammy peed in more places. Over the week he peed on the corner of the living room, the family room, the hall corner, in the hall, on the door jam of the bathroom, a kitchen cabinet, a leg on each of the tables and on every plant in the backyard.

Sammy’s a good dog and very loving which is why his behavior was so puzzling, I sure didn’t have any urges to pee everywhere (except outside!), but I got a chance to ask him why he did it.

Sammy was confused about his own family leaving without him and us driving him back to our place. He felt insecure and Sammy was just trying to fit himself into our already established culture.

In the canine word peeing is a way to mark a territory and also cover over another’s mark.

Then it struck me, Mum and Sammy’s behavior is not unlike one culture covering over other cultures. The act may not be intended to be vicious but it does tend to feel that way. Sometimes the act of dominating another culture is deliberate.

Neuro-typical people tend to deliberately and inadvertently dominate other cultures, to make them fit into their perceptions of “acceptable” or “normal” behaviors.

Mum was trying to get Sammy to understand that peeing all over our home was unacceptable. Sammy was just trying his best to fit in, by peeing.

Now, I’m not saying that people with autism go around peeing where they shouldn’t, but seriously, neuro-typical people do a lot of culture squashing (peeing) and such trying to get people with autism to act “normal” or replace behaviors that they just don’t understand.

Grant peeing in one’s home outside the toilet is unsanitary and gross and should probably not happen, but just how offensive is a culture constantly trying to change other cultures to be more like them?

Can you imagine what type of world we could live in if cultures would better respect each other’s?