Missy Cooper (Sheldon Cooper’s twin sister): I’ve lived my whole life dealing with the fact that my twin brother is, as Mom puts it, one of God’s special little people. Sheldon Cooper: I always thought I was more like a cuckoo bird. You know, a superior creature whose egg is placed in the nest of […]
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Wrestling with our white ignorance
Content warning – This piece describes the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. —-//—- George Floyd was a Black man murdered by a white police officer. The officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes while Floyd struggled and called for relief and mercy. A teenager named Darnella Frazier recorded the event, and […]
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Announcing session two of neurodissent
The first session of the neurodissent theory circle will end in June 2022. During our first session, I posed the question “Who are WE to theorize neurodivergence and the neuronormative world?” to a group of 25 neurodivergent scholars. We read texts that affirmed the value of and need for our neurodivergent perspectives. They also challenged […]
“Are you disabled?” my therapist asked me, during one of our sessions several months ago. Her question came in response to something I said that, in hindsight, sure sounded like I thought I was disabled. The question made me immediately uncomfortable, and I backed away from the label “disabled”, saying something like, “I wouldn’t go […]
Content warning: In this essay, I discuss transphobia and ableism. I also write about a serious car accident I was involved in. —//— “There’s been a great pressure to affirm these children as trans… without appropriate exploration,” said David Bell, a psychiatrist from the United Kingdom, in an April 2022 appearance on the BBC. He […]
I am excited to announce a new project: neurodissent, an online community of neurodivergent scholars theorizing against neuronormativity. I invite neurodivergent scholars to join the new neurodissent theory circle. I use the phrase “theory circle” as a nod to the work of critical education scholar Paulo Freire, who used “cultural circles” as a form of […]
Several months ago I started seriously exploring the possibility that I was autistic, and I found myself struggling to find information about autism that I could relate to. I wanted to know if my struggle with mental and emotional health was similar to other autistic people’s struggles. (I now know the answer is yes.) When […]
Content warning: This post contains a discussion of sexism, racism, and eugenics within autism research and advocacy —//— I’m a weirdo. That’s what everyone says. Sometimes, I don’t know what people mean when they say things, and that can make me feel alone even when there are other people in the room. And all I […]
Content warning: This post contains a discussion of police brutality —-//—- I have recently learned that I am autistic. For me, this word – autistic – provides an explanation for a lifetime of confusion about the mismatch between my and others’ perceptions of the world. I am aware, however, that there is profound misunderstanding about […]