Major
English
Anticipated Graduation Year
2022
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
The ratio of males to females diagnosed with autism is three to one. Medically defined as a neurodevelopmental disorder, common traits of individuals with autism include difficulty in social functioning, communication, and sensory processing. Autism has been conceptualized as a diagnosis that upholds gendered assumptions of only impacting men and boys. I argue that Feminist Standpoint Theory (FST) is an epistemic resource to better understand women and girls with autism. Epistemic injustice and FST uncovers distortions in peoples’ knowledge of autism, which contributes to its construction as a social form of identity.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Dr. Jennifer Parks, Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics Minor Program Director, Loyola University Chicago; Dr. Hanne Jacobs, Tilburg University
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Autism and Identity: Standing at the Axis of Oppression
The ratio of males to females diagnosed with autism is three to one. Medically defined as a neurodevelopmental disorder, common traits of individuals with autism include difficulty in social functioning, communication, and sensory processing. Autism has been conceptualized as a diagnosis that upholds gendered assumptions of only impacting men and boys. I argue that Feminist Standpoint Theory (FST) is an epistemic resource to better understand women and girls with autism. Epistemic injustice and FST uncovers distortions in peoples’ knowledge of autism, which contributes to its construction as a social form of identity.
Comments
Presented at the 2022 Health Humanities Consortium Conference and the Great Lakes Philosophy Conference