Table Of ContentAutism and Gender
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Autism and Gender
From Refrigerator Mothers
to Computer Geeks
Jordynn JAck
University of illinois Press
Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield
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© 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
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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
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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.
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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.
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Autism and Gender
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