Representing Autism: A Sociological Examination of Autism Advocacy
Anne McGuire, Assistant Professor in the Introduction Equity Studies Program, New College, Autism is widely understood in con- University of Toronto, conducts her research temporary times as a biomedical disorder in from a critical disability perspective to analyze need of order (Kanner 1943). In contrast to contemporary cultural representations of this conventional understanding of autism, disability and the production of normative acts of this paper looks at autism as a socially violence against disabled people. Her re- constructed phenomenon that might teach us search has been published in journals such something about how contemporary social as Disability Studies Quarterly and the Journal relations are ordered. I examine how the of Educational Philosophy and Theory. This phenomenon of autism is being organized in article is drawn from her SSHRC-funded contemporary times by dominant discourses doctoral research project, "The war on autism: within autism advocacy. According to the On normative violence and the cultural pro- Autism Society of Canada, our country has duction of autism advocacy" (2011). witnessed a 150% increase in the number of reported cases of autism in the past decade Abstract (Autism Society of Canada 2004). With these This paper explores how the cultural phenom- growing statistical facts, autism advocacy enon of autism is being structured by autism groups have taken on a more prominent and advocacy work in the contemporary West. powerful role in North American society and Drawing on recent work in the field of thus have been influential in shaping public disability studies, I analyze critically the social understandings of autism through awareness significance and productive effects of campaigns, fundraising appeals, and so on. I advocacy campaigns that represent autism look to these everyday textual representations as a life-threatening pathology. of autism, produced and circulated by autism advocacy groups, as a way to reveal the Résumé making of the meaning of autism today. Cet essai explore comment le phénomène I analyze the social significance and culturel de l’autisme est structuré par le material effects of two high-profile autism travail militant effectué dans les sphères awareness campaigns originating from the occidentales contemporaines. En se basant United States (US)—Autism Speaks’ “Learn sur les travaux récents effectués dans le the Signs” campaign and the New York domaine des études sur l’invalidité, j’analyse University (NYU) Child Study Center’s de manière critique la signification sociale et “Ransom Note” campaign—that rely on and les effets productifs des campagnes de produce dominant biomedical understandings plaidoyer, qui représentent l’autisme comme of autism as a pathological disorder in need une pathologie mortelle. of a return to (normative) order. To perform my analysis of these campaigns, I draw on a sociological tradition of interpretive textual analysis, an approach that begins with the assumption that we cannot separate the production and circulation of representations from the production and circulation of cultural knowledges and understandings about that which is being represented (Hall 1980). Following disability studies scholar Tanya Titchkosky (2007), I treat texts as social
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actions that make up the meaning of people. tical importance of understanding disability as She writes: “Texts appear to people, and with a social identity category, recent work in critical real consequences, texts enter our lives. In disability studies theorizes disability as neither a the context of our lives, texts come to life. singular, fixed, nor trans-historical construct, This life reflects, if only in a flash, the but as a nexus of embodied relations (Corker meaning of the being of that which the text and Shakespeare 2002; Titchkosky 2007; speaks...” (Titchkosky 2007, 26). Autism is Michalko 2002). Adopting this orientation to made intelligible to us via multiple discursive disability and thus to autism, I contend that, con-texts (e.g., the ways in which autism gets while particular bodies are made more vul- written about in the newspaper; what images nerable to material inequities, autism is not we are presented with in awareness campaign simply in some bodies and not others; it is materials; what aspects of autism get tracked always being made in the social spaces by statistics; how these statistics are between bodies (Titchkosky 2007). This analytic presented to the public). These contexts work orientation works to trouble any quick or easy to give autism a particular and contingent understandings of what autism is, for “what shape and structure; they allow autism to autism is” is always changing in relation to appear as it does. In turning toward some of changing times, changing spaces, changing the taken-for-granted representations of diagnostic criteria, changing attitudes, and so autism that are being produced and circulated on. As I make use of such designations as by advocacy groups, this paper seeks to disability and non-disability, autism and non provoke greater and more nuanced autism, I am not intending to use them understandings of the risks and possibilities oppositionally. Rather, I acknowledge that these inherent in relating to and across difference. It designations are complex and messy. Under- is necessary to begin this analysis with a brief standings of autism and non-autism are discussion regarding the interdisciplinary historically, geographically, and—particularly perspective of disability studies. This allows in relation to contemporary understandings of me to situate my research and myself: both an “autism spectrum”—relationally constituted. as a researcher and—insofar as this paper, With this in mind, autism can and must be too, is an act of representing autism—as an theorized as an interactional social process advocate. that unfolds in the spaces between us. One way I enter into this space of The Spaces Between Us autism and participate in its production is as a My work begins and ends with an non-autistic person theorizing autism and understanding that autism is, among many autism advocacy. Insofar as autism advocacy other things, a social identity category and, as in North America is largely dominated by non- such, a viable and valuable way of being in autistic individuals charged with advocating the world. This work is theoretically located in for and supporting autistic people and, insofar the field of disability studies, which considers as autistic people are often excluded from or disability through a social model (Oliver are limited in their participation in mainstream 1990). Instead of understanding disability as advocacy work, my work is risky (Dawson a medical condition located in individual 2005). Indeed, my work represents the risk bodies, the social model locates disability in with which all relationally non-autistic advocates the physical and social environments and in are faced as we find ourselves in autism’s inter-subjective relations that work to disable midst: the risk of speaking, writing, representing, impaired bodies. Disability becomes politicized defending, condemning, protesting, champion- as a category of social oppression and material ing, fighting, and supporting difference from disadvantage. In the social model, disability within relational systems of power. To say that shifts from being what someone has to who advocacy is risky, of course, is not to say that someone is. we should stop engaging in acts of advocacy; Acknowledging the strategic utility of it is rather to bring into focus the necessity for such distinctions as social model/medical critical engagement with the historical, geo- model and impairment/disability and the poli- graphical, and political dimensions and power
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relations that invariably structure what it fashion designer or an NFL quarterback— means to advocate and what it is that we are others offer statistics about the probability of advocating for. If to speak up, speak out, physical harm occurring to a child—the speak-on-behalf-of is one crucial (if not chances of getting hypothermia, the baby- inescapable) function of living with others— sitter needing to call 9-1-1, and so on. The and I believe it is—it becomes necessary to campaign materials contrast these statistics, trace acts of advocacy along the lines of our whether they describe the odds of fulfilling a (power) relations, to attend to the ways in dream or realizing a nightmare, with one which advocacy work is producing and statistic that reflects the number of children governing ourselves and others. diagnosed with autism in the US: 1 in 150.1 In Looking White People in the Eye, Below, I will analyze two print posters from Sherene Razack explores the complicity of this campaign. the relationally non-disabled advocate in Figure 1 depicts what appears to be sustaining ableist systems of oppression by a mother and her son in an entranceway to a way of a paternalistic “politics of rescue” home. The mother is helping her son get (1998, 132). The non-disabled advocate, she dressed for what the viewer can only imagine argues, is often recognized only as doing the is a frigid afternoon of playing in the snow. work of advocacy when s/he is actively The boy, perhaps five or six years old, is a working to save a vulnerable disabled individual round and puffy, bright red bulb of winter (1998). As we shall see in the examples that clothes, complete with layers of woollen follow, this is a familiar trope within discourses scarves, a wool hat (with a pompom), fuzzy of autism advocacy. Razack’s observations mittens, a jacket, snow pants, and tall green provide an entry point for critically engaging the risky terrain of autism advocacy. And so, I move now to examine, in greater depth, some of the ways in which power relations are structuring contemporary autism advocacy work. I approach my analyses of the examples below with the belief that, following Razack, “if we can name the organizing frames, the conceptual formulas, the rhetorical devices that disguise and sustain elites, we can begin to develop responses that bring us closer to social justice” (Razack 1998, 16). To glean the “organizational frames,” “conceptual formulas” and “rhetorical devices” at work in the field of advocacy today, I turn now to an examination of Autism Speaks’ “Learn the Signs” campaign.
“It’s Time to Listen” In April 2006, Autism Speaks, a US- based organization that describes itself as the “world’s largest autism research and advocacy organization” launched its “Learn the Signs” campaign (autismspeaks.org). The posters, banners, billboards, and television spots that came out of this campaign each follow a similar template: each presents statistical in- formation about the probabilities of something occurring. While some provide statistics about the probabilities of a child fulfilling a FIGURE 1 Autism Speaks Poster, Ad Council, dream—the chances of becoming a top 2006. Used with permission.
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boots with thick yellow laces zigzagging up scattered about the girl’s bedroom—a jacket their front. The boy’s head is tilted upwards, has fallen atop a white rocking horse, a white eyes partially closed, as his mittened hand teddy bear lies against a white rocking chair. adjusts the bulky folds of his scarves. The The poster’s text reads: “Odds of a child mother is crouching before the boy, her hand becoming a top fashion designer: 1 in 7,000. carefully reaching out with the boy’s other Odds of a child being diagnosed with autism: mitten, about to slip it on his hand. The 1 in 110.”2 poster’s text reads: “Odds of a child getting At the bottom of both posters, hypothermia: 1 in 66,000. Odds of a child information appears: “Some signs to look for: being diagnosed with autism: 1 in 150.” no big smiles or other joyful expressions by 6 The second poster, Figure 2, depicts months; no babbling by 12 months; no words what appears to be a mother and her by 16 months. To learn more of the signs of daughter in a sun-splashed pink bedroom. autism, visit autismspeaks.org.” Lastly, the The mother is sitting on the floor looking up at Autism Speaks blue puzzle piece logo her daughter, who is perhaps seven years appears with the organization tagline: “It’s old, with braided blond pigtails and is playing time to listen.” If now is the time to listen, dress-up. The daughter is decked out in an what might we hear in this poster? If autism explosion of different patterns and colours: speaks via these representations, what might hot pink beaded necklace, matching polka- it be communicating, or how is it being dot tights and t-shirt, blue and white striped communicated? Surely these posters raise skirt, pink jacket and belt, a striped tie, and our awareness, but what do these posters brown high-tops with undone fluorescent urge us to become aware of? orange laces. Discarded clothes and toys are Representing Pathology Autism is made to appear in the “Learn the Signs” posters in a variety of overt and covert ways. Perhaps the most explicit way is as a list of non-normative red flag behaviours, actions or ways of interacting. Autism, the poster tells us, is a checklist of its disorderly characteristics: it is no words, no smiles, no babbles. This interpretive leap leaves us with several things to consider. First, by depicting autism as a list of pathological signs to be looked for on the bodies of children, the posters reaffirm autism as, simply, something one has (a disorder, a series of symptoms). Such a depiction removes any possibility for conceiving of autism as someone who is (an identity, a perspective, a viable way of being in the world) (Sinclair 1993). This understanding of autism works to discursively split the autistic body in two, conceptually separating what autism is from who autism is. The second thing to consider is how the pathologization of autism works to organize understandings of autistic ways of being not only in medical terms but also in moral ones. The posters not only instruct the FIGURE 2 Autism Speaks Poster, Ad Council, advocate where to look (a medical im- 2006. Used with permission. perative), but how to look (a moral
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imperative), not only how to see autism’s threatening chubby fingers and tiny noses: signs, but how to read them. The posters “Bundle up—you’ll catch your death”; “Make direct the viewer to read autism not only as a sure your ears are covered”; “Put on your series of medical pathologies, but also as a mittens, or your fingers will fall off.” collection of moral deviancies and deficiencies. “Hypothermia,” the poster text warns. For example, a 16-month-old child’s use of The mother in this image slips the non-verbal communication is deflated of any mitten overtop of her son’s hand. This act agentive possibility and is re-inscribed as, puts her in touch with her son: a gentle touch, simply, a pathological absence of words. The a cautious touch, the touch of a mother’s understanding that non-normative (autistic) fierce protection against the cold and the ways of being are nothing more than signs physical harm it could cause in the absence pointing to disorder works to morally encode of vigilant protection. Mothers—good these ways of being as non-valuable and, mothers—are wary when little boys venture even, as non-viable. Understood in medical/ into the frigid outdoors. Mothers zip up moral terms, autistic difference becomes, to jackets, lace up boots, tie scarves tightly. borrow from Michalko, “useless difference”; Hypothermia is something to beware of; 1 in difference that “makes no difference” at all 66,000 is still 1 in 66,000. Your child could be (Michalko 2002, 99). the 1. But worry more about autism. Be Autism’s medical/moral deviancy is aware of the statistics. 1 in 150. The 1 of further highlighted as it appears within the hypothermia is close, but autism’s 1 is closer. confines of the posters as a risk ratio. Mothers worry about the freezing outdoors, Although it is nowhere mentioned explicitly, but, odds are, the poster whispers, that the there can be little doubt about the moral chill will take hold from within: no big smiles, meaning of the 1 in 150 ratio. The poster no signs of joy, no babbling, no words. appeals to the viewer’s implicit understanding In Figure 2, recall a different scene. that the relative high “odds of being diagnosed This scene, too, unfolds in the home. with autism” are not good odds. If, by con- However, no doors appear in this scene, no trast, a school were to advertise that 1 out of immediate threshold awaits. The only portal every 150 of their graduates went on to to the outside world in this scene is a window become top fashion designers, aspiring ablaze in light. Brightness and openness— fashion designers everywhere would be lining possibility—lie outside the home, but not up for admission. In this way, the “Learn the today. There will be no venturing into the Signs” posters work to forcefully reframe unpredictable outside for this young girl. Her autism as not only something to be aware of, layers of clothes are for inside play; her but something to be wary of, something to shoes on, but not tied up. beware. As moral and medical understandings The young girl takes centre stage in of embodied difference mingle, autism is this poster, and, indeed, the scene looks as if (re)presented in the posters as a threat. it may be the end of a performance. The girl—head down, knee bent, toe touching the Representing Threat floor—assumes a position somewhere between Recall Figure 1 where we see a striking a pose and a curtsy. The mother mother crouching before her son in the leans back and gives audience to the per- threshold of a doorway, helping him prepare formance. Unlike the scene in Figure 1, no to take leave of the safe and orderly sphere protective mother’s touch is needed, for no of the home and venture outside into the immediate threat looms. It is a time for trying always-possible perils of the snowy cold. The on dreams in the safety of playrooms; a time boy appears with layers of clothes— for easily slipping into and out of clothes and protective armour against the unpredictable, roles—a skirt, a tie. While the gaze of the hazardous winter weather that, presumably, mother in Figure 1 looks down, attentive and lies on the other side of the closed door. Like focused directly on the immediate task at this mother, we might know of the dangers hand—a mother’s task of protecting—the that creep outside in the dead of winter, gaze of the mother in Figure 2 looks upward
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almost in astonishment. Perhaps she sees, With normalcy as the only possible/ as we see, a girl before her who (despite the permissible way of being and as advocates pigtails and the child-like face) seems take up the work of vigilantly policing the precocious, a girl who is changing from boundaries of normative life, what happens rocking horses to fashion statements, a girl when the signs of autism are noticed? What full of possibility. The good mother watches happens when the borders of the normal are as her daughter dreams; she supports her as not only threatened, but are also breached? she grows up, grows new ideas, aspires to As a way to address these questions, I will, success. Being a fashion designer is a for the remainder of this paper, examine, a competitive business—1 in 7, 000 make it to trend within contemporary autism advocacy the top. But the odds of her achieving her that has been dubbed by many in the popular dreams are far slimmer than the odds of her media as the “war on autism” (Fitzpatrick dreams being threatened: the odds of a child 2009; Broderick and Ne’eman 2008). being diagnosed with autism are 1 in 110. Both “Learn the Signs” posters—in The War on Autism and its Casualties very different ways—tell the story of autism In December of 2007, the NYU Child as a threat to life. In Figure 1, autism is Study Centre launched an advocacy cam- implicitly likened to the life-threatening chill of paign—known as the Ransom Note hypothermia and, as such, is discursively Campaign—that was aimed at raising aware- framed as a pathological state that threatens ness about the predominance and effects of physical harm. In Figure 2, autism ominously so-called “childhood psychiatric disorders.” looms over a child’s future, threatening her Autism was included in this campaign. One life dreams. Lennard Davis (1995) argues umbrella ad for the campaign depicts a that, in dominant western culture, disability rectangular billboard featuring what appears often appears as a memento mori—a to be a large ransom note. The note’s text— memory of death. The disabled life often is composed of letters cut from different print held in an imagined association with death. sources—delivers the message: “12 million As autism is presented in the posters as a kids are held hostage by a psychiatric threat to life, the autistic life is represent- disorder.” Another poster from this campaign ationally encoded as a life to be avoided, a features a typed note that reads: “We have life to be protected from, a life, in other words, your son. We will make sure he will not be that is “not quite a life” at all (Butler 2006). In able to care for himself or interact socially as the Autism Speaks posters, non-autism is, long as he lives. This is only the beginning.” thus, discursively transformed into an ab- The note is signed: “Autism.” At the bottom of solute imperative. The only possibility for the poster, we find the following statement: securing possibility (life) itself—to be “Don’t let a psychiatric disorder take your recognized and authorized as “fully” living—is child. The NYU Child Study Center is to dwell within the confined parameters of the dedicated to giving children back their child- normal (to show joy in normative ways, to hood by preventing, identifying, and treating babble within a normative timeframe, and so psychiatric and learning disorders.”3 on). Autism, once again, is represented as With normative (non-autistic) life cast a threat to life—a state of dis-order that simultaneously as valuable and as at stake, afflicts the body of the individual, causing (or the posters work to portray it as vulnerable at least threatening to cause) untold physical and in need of protection. Enter advocacy. harm. In the “Learn the Signs” campaign, The tying together of metaphor-laden stories awareness of autism is an awareness of its of autism’s inherently threatening nature and potential threat to the life of normalcy–‒an the sense of immediacy that is evoked by the awareness of an abstract and intangible repetition of bad odds works to produce the “what if” or “could be” danger that could strike role of the advocate–‒the mother in the two anybody at any time. The “Ransom Note” posters–‒as one that takes up the work of campaign, in contrast, tells us what autism protecting normative (non-autistic) life. is—what happens when the threat of autism
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becomes real. In the NYU campaign, we are The language of war, which includes the confronted with an autism that is actively metaphors it draws on, does not simply hold a preventing the integrity and security of the mirror up to the enemy. It does not reveal a clear, body. We see a morally maligned ‘autism’, objective, or pre-existing image of what we fight. personified as an abductor, taking an What is reflected in language is not reality but innocent body and holding it hostage. One construct, something conditioned and assembled, way of reading this hostage-taking scenario is put together from fragments of information and as an act of war. observation...In this sense, we really do, through Significantly, and not coincidentally, the metaphors we choose and reiterate, “make” this poster of an unseen aggressor appears enemies. The mirror of language thus ultimately in a contemporary, western/ized context that reflects back to us both the constructed image of consistently uses war as a descriptive and the other and, also, something of ourselves prescriptive metaphor for how to orient to any (Steuter and Wills 2008, xv). and, it seems, every perceived threat. Following George W. Bush’s now infamous declaration, As we have seen, the mirror held up after the events of 9/11, that the US was to by dominant versions of autism advocacy wage a war on terror, hundreds of similar war commonly reflects the image of autism as a metaphors have emerged in popular dis- (pathological) thing, separate from an otherwise course. While war metaphors are nothing new, normal person; a thing, moreover, that threatens the post-9/11 era has witnessed a notable (normative) life and, thus, a thing that can and explosion of these metaphors in everyday should be battled and eliminated (Broderick and talk: we might hear of a “war on guns,” a “war Ne’eman 2008). on obesity,” a “war on the middle class,” a It is this version of autism that is “war on science,” and so on (Steuter and reflected in the NYU campaign. Everyday Wills 2008). And, insofar as it is commonly representations that depict autism as nothing represented as a threat to (normal) life, more than a series of pathological symptoms autism is embroiled at the centre of this and thus as a thing some people have, work discursive quagmire. In 2006, for example, to discursively split the autistic body into two following considerable pressure from autism parts: autism gets uncoupled from the per- advocacy organizations and parent advocates, son, simultaneously coupling the person to the the US Congress passed Law 109-416, potentiality of non-autism. The NYU cam- officially named the Combating Autism Act. paign poster takes this split quite literally: it The Law was referred to by advocacy groups presents us with a malicious abductor and the media as the US “war on autism.” (autism) and its vulnerable victim (your son). Indeed, we find ourselves in the midst of a In no uncertain terms, the ransom note contemporary social context where we can organizes the moral character of these walk, run, row, fish, or take a cruise to “fight figures. “We have what is yours,” writes autism,” a social context that includes the Autism. And, the note tells us, this is more Autism Research Institutes’ 15th annual “Defeat than a simple theft; what has been taken is Autism Now!” conference. As well, celebrity not a wallet or a watch, but a part of you: “We advocate Jenny McCarthy—author of the have your son,” a faceless and indeterminate New York Times bestselling book on autism says. The poster tells the story of an parenting autistic children called Mother enemy that is withholding a piece of you from Warriors–‒is teaming up with World Wrestling you. It is keeping strange that which ought to Entertainment on prime time television for an be the same, that which ought to be familiar “autism smackdown” (defeatautismnow.com; and familial: your child. Dunn 2008). The ransom note narrates this lack of In their book, At War with Metaphor, sameness—a lack of normalcy characterized Steuter and Wills (2008) highlight the crucial as an inability to care for the self and socially role language and metaphor play in shaping interact—as an absence. Desirable parts of our orientations to others and to ourselves. your son, the note implies, have been taken They write, and are now held hostage by a violent
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aggressor. And, this is only the beginning. child hidden behind the autism. Autism is a way of Over time, the ransom note promises, other being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, aspects of your son’s (normative) life will be every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and taken. Conversely, his autistic life, complete encounter, every aspect of existence. It is not with autistic ways of being in the world— possible to separate the autism from the person— autistic ways of socially interacting, for and, if it were possible, the person you’d have left example—is conceived of as non-valuable would not be the same person you started with. and non-viable, if conceived of at all. Again, (Sinclair 1993) the life of normalcy is installed as the only possible existence, the only livable life, and Sinclair teaches us that orienting to autism as an inherent threat to life. autism strictly as a problem in need of a While the typical purpose of a ransom solution implies that autistic difference (that is note is to make demands, autism appears in to say, autism as autism and not as, say, the context of the poster as only making autism on the way to non-autism) is neither threats. Ironically, it is the Child Study Center valued nor valuable in our collective life. that issues the demand: “Don’t let a Moreover, it even works to produce and psychiatric disorder take your child.” As sustain harmful conceptions of the autistic life Steuter and Wills suggest, the mirror of as a life that—in and of itself—is not quite a language and metaphor reflects the image of life. In this way, if autism resists treatment or (advocacy’s) enemy and, in doing so, reflects if its disorder cannot be returned to order, if back a particular image of the (advocate) self. the autistic life does not, cannot or chooses In advocacy’s threatening and violent image not to conform to what normalcy looks like, of autism, the good advocate is reflected as acts like, thinks like, it is made ever more s/he who is engaged in the work of rescue— vulnerable to violence. the work of policing, preserving or recovering I end with an extreme example of this a lost normalcy, “giving children back their violence. In 2006, Dr. Karen McCarron killed childhood” by lessening or eliminating autism, her three-year-old autistic daughter, Katie. In “preventing, identifying, and treating psychiatric a videotaped confession, Dr. McCarron spoke and learning disorders.” In keeping with (and, of wanting to “help” her daughter by attempting indeed, shaped by) the war metaphor, the to “crack” autism’s shell. McCarron’s account role of the good advocate is that of someone of life with Katie is punctuated by failures— who must, as Razack suggests, engage in Katie’s failure to become more normal and saving a vulnerable body. However, with McCarron’s own failure to secure this normalcy. respect to contemporary autism advocacy McCarron confesses, “Everything I tried to do work, the vulnerable body that is seen to be didn’t help her... [Katie] was a tough nut to in need of saving is not the disabled body. crack” (McDonald 2007). McCarron stated: “I The body deemed worthy of saving is the loved Katie very much, but I hated the autism valuable and viable body of normalcy. so, so much...I hated what it was doing to This dominant story of autism and her....I just wanted autism out of my life” advocacy is premised on the understanding (Sampier 2008). Hating her daughter’s autism, that autism is separate (and thus separable) McCarron testified that she had intended to from an otherwise normal person. This dis- kill it and not her daughter: cursive split is not merely troublesome, but dangerous since, as many autistic advocates (Defence lawyer) Wolfe: When you were have fiercely argued, autism is a way of being suffocating your daughter, did you think you were (Baggs 2007; Dawson 2005; Sinclair 1993). killing her?” In the midst of these metaphors of violence and war, autistic self-advocate Jim Sinclair McCarron: No. reminds us: Wolfe: Who did you think you were killing? Autism isn’t something a person has, or a “shell” that a person is trapped inside. There’s no normal McCarron: Autism. (Sampier 2008)
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McCarron’s words, at first blush, seem that this campaign has generated to work simply non-sensical; then, the chilling logic together so that we do not lose one more day that makes it all too sensical—autism is in the lives of these children” (Koplewicz separate and thus separable from the child. 2008, emphasis added). Even as the campaign This version of autism, perhaps more than posters were taken down, the underlying autism itself, renders autistic people vulnerable conception of autism as that which takes to acts of violence and, indeed, threatens their away life remains. It is also worth noting that very lives. the “Ransom Note” campaign is one example It is we—the autistic and non- of a whole genre of advocacy campaigns that autistic—who must remain vigilant to how frame autism as an aggressor, violently common, everyday conceptions of autistic threatening the lives of children with autism difference as pathological and inherently and their families; e.g., the Autism Society of threatening produce a kind of logic that America’s 2005 “Getting the Word Out” makes it possible to move to violence. We campaign. (ASA 2005) or Autism Speaks’ must begin to engage critically with advocacy 2009 film “I Am Autism” (Cuaron 2009). work as a political project laden with complex and risky power relations. It is only with this References beginning that we can imagine advocacy Autism Society of America (ASA). “Home,” otherwise. Alternative versions of advocacy Getting the Word Out.
Endnotes Baggs, A. “In My Language” (video), 2007. 1. New statistical data released in December
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Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, 2009. McDonald, K. “Tapes Played in Murder Case:
Dawson, M. “The Word Is Out About Autism: ———. Untitled photograph, NYU Child Canada in the Era of Autism Advocacy,” No Study Center website. December 11, 2007. Autistics Allowed: Explorations in Discrimination
Kanner, L. “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Steuter, E. and D. Wills. At War with Contact,” Nervous Child. 2 (1943): 217‒50. Metaphor: Media, Propaganda, and Racism
in the War on Terror. Maryland: Lexington Koplewicz, H. “A Message Regarding the Ran- som Notes Public Awareness Campaign.” The Books, 2008. New York University Child Study Center. Jan- uary 2008.
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