Gender Copia: Feminist Rhetorical Perspectives on an Autistic Concept of Sex/Gender

“I Don't Feel Like a Gender, I Feel Like Myself”: Autistic Individuals Raised as Girls Exploring Gender Identity

“…Autistic gender is being discussed at length within autistic communities, which often describe atypical presentations of gender, 16 whereas when discussed in academia, autistic gender expression is often pathologized and framed in traditional binary terms (masculine/feminine). 17 The challenges autistic individuals face consist of a combination of a complex interplay between different aspects of their personal lives and identities. 18 It is imperative, therefore, to investigate them in a meaningful way that takes this into account.…”

The Theory of Intersectionality: A New Lens for Understanding the Barriers Faced by Autistic Women

“…This may be due to the specific difficulty with understanding social norms that individuals with ASD experience (Kunce & Mesibov, 1998, cited by Bauminger, 2002. Because these women are less likely to instinctively understand social (including gender) norms, they are less likely to understand gender expectations or to conceptualize gender in terms of the traditional male/female dichotomy (Jack, 2012). This may explain why they are less likely to be able to identify with neurotypical women (Davidson, 2007), who often do understand and perform these feminine gender roles as the result of societal expectations.…”

“…In the literature, "women who write about their experiences with gender often protest against the assumption that they are "male-brained" " (Jack, 2012, p.6). They express their disagreement with the idea that they are not empathisers, and consider many of their non-typical interests in animals and the environment as 'empathising' pastimes (Jack, 2012). Furthermore, while they Saxe, "The Theory of Intersectionality" CJDS 6.4 (November 2017) 163 may have some interests similar to those with males on the spectrum, Autistic women often have other, more female-typical interests that males do not exhibit, such as interests in human biology and crafting (Jack, 2012).…”

Autism and the ghost of gender

“…6 Further details on the survey can be found below, and in Davidson and Orsini (2013). 7 When quoted in this paper, participants are referred to using the identifying information they themselves provided, in the following form: ('preferred selfidentifier'/gender/age online surveys (Davidson and Orsini, 2013;Henderson et al, 2014) 10 as well as various web postings (also see Jack, 2012), analysis of which reveals that gender looks (and means something) very different from the inside of the spectrum. Not only does gender not constitute the definitive core of autistic experience, but for many, gender is barely present at all; it's a kind of nonsense or nonentity, but one that takes itself far too seriously, in a way that leads many of those on the spectrum to experience intense frustration and in some cases, furious anger.…”