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essay

No body’s robot boy: Against aspie supremacy

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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essay

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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news

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 […]

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essay

My disability and the monotropic fire in me

“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 […]

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essay

“Gender is a big itchy sweater”: An autistic man’s reflection on the itchiness of masculinity

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 […]

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news

neurodissent, a neurodivergent theory circle

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 […]

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review

Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker, an essential toolkit for theorizing neurodiversity

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 […]

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essay

The answer I wish I’d found when I first searched “What is autism?”

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 […]

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essay

Me and my nervous system against the world

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 […]