Autism and Gender: From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks PDF
Preview Autism and Gender: From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks
Autism and Gender Jack_Text.indd 1 1/31/14 2:32 PM Jack_Text.indd 2 1/31/14 2:32 PM Autism and Gender From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks Jordynn JAck University of illinois Press Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield Jack_Text.indd 3 1/31/14 2:32 PM © 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1 ∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jack, Jordynn, 1977- Autism and gender : from refrigerator mothers to computer geeks / Jordynn Jack. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-252-03837-2 (hardback) isbn 978-0-252-07989-4 (paper) isbn 978-0-252-09625-9 (ebook) 1. Autism—Sex factors. 2. Autism in children—Etiology. 3. Sex factors in disease. I. Title. rc553.a88j327 2014 616.85'882—dc23 2013040756 Jack_Text.indd 4 1/31/14 2:32 PM contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: Autism’s Gendered Characters 1 Chapter 1. Interpreting Gender: Refrigerator Mothers 33 Chapter 2. Performing Gender: Mother Warriors 64 Chapter 3. Presenting Gender: Computer Geeks 105 Chapter 4. Rehearsing Gender: Autism Dads 154 Chapter 5. Inventing Gender: Neurodiverse Characters 181 Conclusions: Gender, Character, and Rhetoric 215 Notes 229 Bibliography 255 Index 287 Jack_Text.indd 5 1/31/14 2:32 PM Jack_Text.indd 6 1/31/14 2:32 PM Acknowledgments this book began in 2009 at the Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute at Pennsylvania State University, where I joined seminar leaders Lisa Keränen, James Wynn, and an august group of scholars in the “Science and Its Publics” workshop. It was Lisa who suggested that my project—then a hodgepodge of case studies of public science controversies—might best become a book about autism. I am thankful to Lisa and James and to the members of my working group, Jason Ka- lin and Kim Thomas-Pollei, for their helpful comments on my project as it stood then. I thank Jack Selzer for the idea of focusing on gender. When he read an early description of this book, he asked where gender fig- ured in. After all, much of my previous research included a gender focus—why not this one? Using gender as a lens proved remarkably helpful in shaping this book, and I thank Jack for his ongoing career counseling, pep talks, and publishing advice. I also thank my mentor and fashion role model, Cheryl Glenn, for her advice and support throughout this project—including her wonderful title suggestions in the eleventh hour. I also received valuable input and support from my colleagues in the field of rhetoric including Peter Cramer, John Duffy, Jessica Enoch, Bernice Hausman, Karen Foss (who read a ver- sion of Chapter 5), Paul Heilker, Jodie Nicotra, Tom Miller, Marika Seigel, Stuart Selber, Scott Wible, and Melanie Yergeau. Jack_Text.indd 7 1/31/14 2:32 PM viii • AcknowledGments At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, I received generous support from the Department of English and Comparative Literature, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH). In particular, the John W. Burress III Fellowship from the IAH allowed me to make final revisions to this manuscript and to prepare it for publication. I am most grateful for the support of my colleagues at UNC, including Beverly Taylor, Jane Danielewicz, Todd Taylor, Daniel Anderson, Darryl Gless, Jennifer Ho, Heidi Kim, Laurie Langbauer, Mai Nguyen, John McGowan, and especially my writing partner, Katie Rose Guest Pryal. The three reviewers of this manuscript provided indispensable ad- vice, which strengthened this book considerably. Cynthia Lewiecki- Wilson and the two anonymous reviewers were most generous in their comments and guidance, and I am grateful to them. Of course, I thank Larin McLaughlin for her faith in this project and the team at the University of Illinois Press for their support. Some material in this book has been published previously in article form, and I have expanded that material into book-length chapters. Parts of Chapter 3 appeared in Disability Studies Quarterly 31, no. 3 (2011), as “The Extreme Male Brain? Incrementum and the Rhetori- cal Gendering of Autism.” I thank Disability Studies Quarterly and the Society for Disability Studies for permission to include this material in Chapter 3. Parts of Chapter 5 appeared in Women’s Studies in Com- munication 35, no. 1 (2012), as “Gender Copia: Feminist Rhetorical Perspectives on an Autistic Concept of Sex/Gender.” I thank Taylor & Francis for permission to include this material in Chapter 5. My family, especially my mother, Barbara Jack, has provided support and a sounding board throughout this project. During the last year of this project, I benefited from the moral support of my new family: my three furry writing buddies, Leo, Ricky, and Cooper, and my husband Ryon Chao. Baby Penelope arrived just in time to provide companion- ship during the final stages of manuscript preparation. Jack_Text.indd 8 1/31/14 2:32 PM Autism and Gender Jack_Text.indd 9 1/31/14 2:32 PM
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