Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'
Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Understanding Life Experiences from Early Childhood to Old Age by Sarah Hendrickx
3 reviews
crybabybea's review
challenging
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder is a great resource to understand autism as it presents in women and girls. Oftentimes, autism is misdiagnosed or missed completely due to stereotypical views of autism and gender stereotypes and expectations. Women and girls are often silent sufferers of autism which leads to extreme anxiety, depression, and burnout, and can have numbers of comorbidities like eating disorders and suicidal ideation.
This book uses empirical research along with firsthand anecdotal evidence provided by girls and women with autism, as well as parents of girls with autism to show the breadth of symptoms these girls struggle with. The author also connects issues with societal expectations and stereotypes that need to be unlearned so those who struggle with autism can get the support they need. With this, the author gives detailed explanations and instructions on how to better support girls with autism and what needs to change, especially in the medical and educational fields, to make the traumatic experience of autism less on girls and women.
This book is a good introduction to anyone wanting to learn about autism in women, but it is a rather one-sided view of things. I think the truth is that the research on women with ASD is still so new that it comes with its own set of stereotypes, apart from the already harmful stereotypes people hold against autistics in general. I think the author does hold some opinions that are opposite of mine, and tends to use the anecdotal evidence and research to support her views. She particularly is extremely against “typical” female stereotypes; showing a disdain for fashion, makeup, handbags. It would have been nice to see some autistic women who are interested in those things, as I and a lot of other autistic women have developed special interests in fashion and makeup as ways to express ourselves and our creativity.
I felt the author could have left her “pick-me” tendencies out of the book. The idea that all autistic women are tomboys who reject modern femininity is just as harmful as other autistic stereotypes, and could stand in the way of feminine-presenting people getting the diagnoses and support they need. It would have been nice, too, to see some intersectionality and diversity in the pool of respondents. The importance of the book, though, that autism is a spectrum of presentations and symptoms, is important to the research of the disorder and this book presents that in an accessible way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Bullying, Ableism, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Misogyny, Deadnaming, Sexual assault, and Rape
brighidfarrell's review
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
The stories from autistic women and girls were helpful but there was some transphobic language towards Wenn Lawson that I found uncomfortable
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Mental illness
Moderate: Transphobia and Deadnaming
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