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A review by panickedhonking
Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker
challenging
informative
fast-paced
3.0
My opinion of this book slammed shut about 75% of the way through when Walker said with her whole chest "tame autistic" without irony to refer to people like Temple Grandin who gained approval (a dubious claim) from neurotypical society.
I think a lot of the underlying ideas are great, but ultimately Walker hypocritically employs a somewhat prescriptive view of how people are allowed to see autism. I do agree with the premise of neurodiversity as she outlined in the book, however I also think that it's an issue to say that anyone who employs any pathologizing self-identification is simply oppressed and their opinions by extension are invalid.
As a final note, she sure employs race as a comparison a whole lot for a white person while talking at length about who's allowed to speak for autistic people in academia, a category which does not include all autistic people.
I think a lot of the underlying ideas are great, but ultimately Walker hypocritically employs a somewhat prescriptive view of how people are allowed to see autism. I do agree with the premise of neurodiversity as she outlined in the book, however I also think that it's an issue to say that anyone who employs any pathologizing self-identification is simply oppressed and their opinions by extension are invalid.
As a final note, she sure employs race as a comparison a whole lot for a white person while talking at length about who's allowed to speak for autistic people in academia, a category which does not include all autistic people.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism