War on Autism
Books | Family & Relationships / Autism Spectrum Disorders
Anne McGuire
War on Autism examines autism as a historically specific and powerladen cultural phenomenon that has much to teach about the social organization of a neoliberal western modernity. Bringing together a variety of interpretive theoretical perspectives including critical disability studies, queer and critical race theory, and cultural studies, the book analyzes the social significance and productive effects of contemporary discourses of autism as these are produced and circulated in the field of autism advocacy. Anne McGuire discusses how in the field of autism advocacy, autism often appears as an abbreviation, its multiple meanings distilled to various “red flag” warnings in awareness campaigns, bulleted biomedical ”facts” in information pamphlets, or worrisome statistics in policy reports. She analyzes the relationships between these fragmentary enactments of autism and traces their continuities to reveal an underlying, powerful, and ubiquitous logic of violence that casts autism as a pathological threat that advocacy must work to eliminate. Such logic, McGuire contends, functions to delimit the role of the “good” autism advocate to one who is positioned “against” autism.
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Author
Anne McGuire
Pages
264
Publisher
University of Michigan Press
Published Date
2016-04-28
ISBN
0472053124 9780472053124
Community ReviewsSee all
"This book is a must read for anyone interested in autism advocacy, and for anyone who doesn't understand why the #actuallyautistic community doesn't support most of the mainstream autism "charities." This book connects the dots from the harmful propaganda and misinformation spread by these groups to the violence, including murder that is a DIRECT result of buying into these kinds of narratives. Some orgs run by Autistics that actually work to promote OUR interests include Autism Women and Nonbinary Network, and Autistic Self Advocacy Network"