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Autism and Gender:

From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks

ISBN-13: 9780252038372
Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Imprint: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
By Jordynn Jack
Price: AUD $271.00
Stock: 0 in stock
Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 14/06/2014
Format: Hardback 320 pages Weight: 0g
Categories: Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ]

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Google Preview: The reasons behind the increase in autism diagnoses have become hotly contested in the media as well as within the medical, scholarly, and autistic communities. Jordynn Jack suggests the proliferating number of discussions point to autism as a rhetorical phenomenon that engenders attempts to persuade through arguments, appeals to emotions, and representational strategies. In ''Autism and Gender: From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks,'' Jack focuses on the ways gender influences popular discussion and understanding of autism's causes and effects. She identifies gendered theories like the ''refrigerator mother'' theory, for example, which blames emotionally distant mothers for autism, and the ''extreme male brain'' theory, which links autism to the modes of systematic thinking found in male computer geeks. Jack's analysis reveals how people employ such highly gendered theories to craft rhetorical narratives around stock characters--fix-it dads, heroic mother warriors rescuing children from autism--that advocate for ends beyond the story itself while also allowing the storyteller to gain authority, understand the disorder, and take part in debates. ''Autism and Gender ''reveals the ways we build narratives around controversial topics while offering new insights into the ways rhetorical inquiry can and does contribute to conversations about gender and disability.; ''''Autism and Gender'' is the book I was waiting for someone to write, and Jordynn Jack's insightful treatment of this timely, complex topic is a joy to read. Among its many strengths are its beautiful, well organized, easy-to-read prose, its breadth of coverage of the topic, and its careful, judicious tone.'' --Anna Kirkland, author of ''Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood''; Google Preview content

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Autism and Gender:

From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks