I Would Cure my Left - Handedness
Sometimes, people say that such and such a disability is not inherently harmful, but only made so particular social arrangements. I often hear this applied to mild autism, but I've also occasionally heard it in relation to deafness and certain physcial disabilities. Often, the disability is compared to left - handedness: left - handedness is just a benign variation, it would be wrong to try to cure it. So with autism or deafness.
This comparison has always been a bit odd to me. Or at least its supposed normative implication has. I am both left - handed and mildly autistic. If given the chance, I don't know if I'd cure my autism — it probably depends on what you mean by that.1 But I would certainly cure my left - handedness.
Being left - handed mostly means that you get in lots of little accidents, it makes it much easier to accidentally cut yourself or burn yourself or drop things. And sometimes you waste money on some tool that can only be used by righties. Occasionally you meet a other leftie and get to commiserate with them, but this is cold comfort. Sure, it's only a problem because We Live in a Society, but it still makes my life harder.
Of course, this doesn't mean you should humiliate left - handed people or try to beat it out them (as happened in less civilized times). That seems very wrong. But, if my doctor offered me a pill that'd mame me a rightie, I'd take it without hesitation.
Some symptoms of autism are important to me. I like having obsessive interests and an overly precise way of thinking, and I quite like Autism Humor. But I wish I didn't have sensory issues or difficulty recognizing faces or trouble making and keeping friends. If I could soup up my social skills until I had Broad Autism Phenotype, I probably would. I've basically been doing this with my noise sensitivity, to some success!↩