…positive Autistic identity was associated with improved mental health and wellbeing. Peer support and/or self-directed support resources may be valuable mechanisms for supporting Autistic people to cultivate a positive Autistic identity.

Autistic identity: A systematic review of quantitative research – Davies – Autism Research – Wiley Online Library

All five studies that examined the association between aspects of Autistic identity and aspects of self-esteem found a significant association. Higher personal self-esteem was associated with higher autism social identity (Cooper et al., 2017), more pride in being Autistic (Corden et al., 2021), higher autism acceptance (Nguyen et al., 2020) and more perceived benefits of autism (Nguyen et al., 2020). Conversely, lower personal self-esteem was associated with higher dissatisfaction with being Autistic (Corden et al., 2021) and higher helplessness associated with being Autistic (Nguyen et al., 2020). Autism pride, perceived benefits of autism, dissatisfaction with being Autistic, and helplessness associated with being Autistic were all significant individual predictors of personal self-esteem (Corden et al., 2021; Nguyen et al., 2020). Other studies also found that higher collective self-esteem was associated with stronger Autistic social identification (Cooper et al., 2017, 2021) and that self-definition (i.e., feeling the same as other Autistic people) was a significant individual predictor of global self-esteem (Ferenc et al., 2023).

Autistic identity: A systematic review of quantitative research – Davies – Autism Research – Wiley Online Library

Identity and Community

Identity is the place to understand what forms of oppression are operating within your own life. From here, coalitions can be built with others who face similar forms of oppression, so long as it is also understood that oppression is not experienced the same across identities. This is where intersectionality, the theory developed by black feminist scholar and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw, is useful. It helps us to understand that class oppression will look different for those who also exist at the intersection of marginalized race, gender, and sexual identities. Any coalition worth forming has to take stock of those differences or suffer an agenda that is insufficient to liberating all people.

What Liberals Get Wrong About Identity Politics | The New Republic

Identity Copia and Bricolage

Language is not a set menu, it’s a buffet.

Spider-Verse, Identity Politics, Leftist Infighting, and the Oppression Olympics – YouTube

The core thesis of the paper is that people construct gender identity from an endless list of more ‘basic’ building blocks that include social messaging, bodily gender dysphoria, how they feel about pronouns, whether they feel interpellated by certain gender norms, etc.

@floral_ashes • The core thesis of the paper is that people construct gender identity from an endless list of mor… • Threads

Autistic writers often invite alternative understandings of sex=gender as a multiple, rhetorical phenomenon. Autobiographies, blogs, and Internet posts show how autistic individuals view gender as a copia, or tool for inventing multiple possibilities through available sex=gender discourses. Four particular discourses emerge through which autistic people understand gender: identification, neurodiversity, performance, and queer identity. 

Gender Copia: Feminist Rhetorical Perspectives on an Autistic Concept of Sex/Gender: Women’s Studies in Communication: Vol 35, No 1

The sources considered here imply not a binary model (masculine=feminine) or even a view of gender as a continuum, but something more like a copia, the rhetorical term Erasmus used to describe the practice of selecting ‘‘certain expressions and mak[ing] as many variations of them as possible’’ (17). Copia provides a strategy of invention, a rhetorical term for the process of generating ideas. To be specific, copia involves proliferation, multiplying possibilities so as to locate the range of persuasive options available to a rhetor. I find the concept of invention fitting to describe the kind of rhetoric in which many autistic individuals engage when they discuss sex and gender, a rhetoric we might consider, following Mary Hawkesworth, a feminist rhetoric, insofar as it seeks to ‘‘call worlds into being, inscribe new orders of possibility, validate frames of reference and forms of explanation, and reconstitute histories serviceable for present and future projects’’ (1988).

Individuals who find themselves engaged in this rhetorical search for terms with which to understand themselves can draw on a wide array of terms or representations, such as genderqueer, transgendered, femme, butch, boi, neutrois, androgyne, bi- or tri-gender, third gender, and even geek.

Gender Copia: Feminist Rhetorical Perspectives on an Autistic Concept of Sex/Gender: Women’s Studies in Communication: Vol 35, No 1

Their diversity does support an expanded concept of autistic gender identity that pushes past a gender continuum toward a copia, in which terms can be tried on and appropriated, discarded, and invented while still being understood as embo- died and constructed. The previous sections indicate five possible ways that gender functions rhetorically: as disidentification, as a resource for ambiguity, as a social code or symbolic order, as performance, or as idiosyncratic. Importantly, any one individual might draw on and enact any combination of these gendered processes at any one time—they are not mutually exclusive. For instance, one person might disidentify with traditional notions of femininity and draw instead on elements of clothing and behavior as resources of ambiguity; another person might consciously perform a traditional gender role as a coping mechanism, even as she struggles to interpret the social codes that make that gender role natural for others. All of these gendered processes function as rhetorical resources for self-creation, in the sense Corder describes as the rhetorical act of creating ‘‘a way of being in the world.’’ 

By generating a range of possibilities, participants can rhetorically constitute possible identities for themselves out of their embodied experiences. While gender theorists might privilege the moment of disidentification—the zero concept, in Weston’s terms—individuals who participate in these discussions seem to want to find a stasis point of some kind. Terms for gender identity seem to offer these points of identification, even if they do not square up with mainstream, binary notions of gender. No one theory of gender accounts for this range of insights; instead, we might draw from autistic descriptions an understanding of gender as identification, as ambiguity, as a social code, as performance, and as idiosyncrasy. Together, these elements might be understood as copia or congeries—a heaping up of theories, names, and qualities that range far beyond simple binaries (male=female; masculine= feminine; nature=culture; symbolic=embodied) or even continuums. 

Gender Copia: Feminist Rhetorical Perspectives on an Autistic Concept of Sex/Gender: Women’s Studies in Communication: Vol 35, No 1

The sources considered here imply not a binary model (masculine=feminine) or even a view of gender as a continuum, but something more like a copia, the rhetorical term Erasmus used to describe the practice of selecting ‘‘certain expressions and mak[ing] as many variations of them as possible’’ (17). Copia provides a strategy of invention, a rhetorical term for the process of generating ideas. To be specific, copia involves proliferation, multiplying possibilities so as to locate the range of persuasive options available to a rhetor. I find the concept of invention fitting to describe the kind of rhetoric in which many autistic individuals engage when they discuss sex and gender, a rhetoric we might consider, following Mary Hawkesworth, a feminist rhetoric, insofar as it seeks to ‘‘call worlds into being, inscribe new orders of possibility, validate frames of reference and forms of explanation, and reconstitute histories serviceable for present and future projects’’ (1988).

Individuals who find themselves engaged in this rhetorical search for terms with which to understand themselves can draw on a wide array of terms or representations, such as genderqueer, transgendered, femme, butch, boi, neutrois, androgyne, bi- or tri-gender, third gender, and even geek.

Gender Copia: Feminist Rhetorical Perspectives on an Autistic Concept of Sex/Gender: Women’s Studies in Communication: Vol 35, No 1

each different construction also brings with it, or invites, a different kind of action from human beings…descriptions or constructions of the world sustain some patterns of social action and exclude others. Our constructions of the world are therefore bound up with power relations because they have implications for what it is permissible for different people to do, and how they may treat others

(Vivien Burr, 2003, pg. 5)

Identity and Gender

Due both to their ability to denaturalize social norms and to their neurological differences, autistic individuals can offer novel insights into gender as a social process. Examining gender from an autistic perspective highlights some elements as socially constructed that may otherwise seem natural and supports an understanding of gender as fluid and multidimensional.

Gender Copia: Feminist Rhetorical Perspectives on an Autistic Concept of Sex/Gender: Women’s Studies in Communication: Vol 35, No 1

In the simplest possible terms, I propose that gender identity is how we make sense of our gender subjectivity, the totality of our gendered experiences of ourselves. Gender identity is constituted by gender subjectivity, but this constitutive relationship is underdetermined. While gender subjectivity may narrow the range of inhabitable gender identities, it is always compatible with more than one. To arrive at a gender identity, we arrange gender subjectivity like building materials. My theory helps us understand how different people offer seemingly incompatible accounts of their gender identity without questioning their authenticity or validity. They simply arrange similar building materials differently.

What Is It like to Have a Gender Identity? | Mind | Oxford Academic, Perma | www.florenceashley.com

Because the psychological synthesis of gender subjectivity into gender identity is particular to the individual, accounts of gender identity that would be stereotyping or bioessentialist if universalized remain acceptable at the individual level— voiding of all exigency the temptation to question the validity or authenticity of anyone’s gender identity.

What Is It like to Have a Gender Identity? | Mind | Oxford Academic, Perma | www.florenceashley.com

These findings suggest a prevalence of nonbinary identities not thoroughly examined in the current academic autism literature. This indicates a need for further focus on definitions of gender outside of the binary in the autistic population. Nonbinary identities are valid, and nonbinary individuals have the right to access care and support, including services initially created based on binary conceptualizations of gender. These findings reveal that autistic individuals hold diverse and nuanced views of their gender identities.

What Category Best Fits: Understanding Transgender Identity in a Survey of Autistic Individuals | Autism in Adulthood

Identity Politics

We realize that the only people who care enough about us to work consistently for our liberation are us. Our politics evolve from a healthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our community which allows us to continue our struggle and work.

This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. We believe that the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity, as opposed to working to end somebody else’s oppression.

The Combahee River Collective Statement – COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE

Identity politics can be employed to simultaneously uplift marginalised members of society and deconstruct the mechanisms of their marginalisation.

Spider-Verse, Identity Politics, Leftist Infighting, and the Oppression Olympics – YouTube

But the term identity politics is a bit more vague. It was coined by Renee Anspach who was describing how disabled and mentally ill people were using their identities as paths to activism.

Anspach observed that the taking up of these stigmatised identities was key in interrupting the process of stigmatisation.

Writing in the 1970s, Anspach talks about deviance theory, the sociological idea that stigmatised ways of being are seen as a personal flaws or deviations.

The label assigned to these groups is designated unidirectionally, the society imposes the label on the person.

Think of how frequently the stigmatised identity gets a name, and the rest of us just get to be called “normal.” Think of how angry some people get when the marginialised group wants a word besides “normal” to describe other people on that scale.

Spider-Verse, Identity Politics, Leftist Infighting, and the Oppression Olympics – YouTube

Identity politics has always been a complex process involving finding ourselves identified as belonging to a particular category (women, blacks, gays), and identifying with these particular “we’s, and constructing our identity through active processes of resistance, of making meaning, through political struggle, through identifications with each other, through creating new narratives, and thereby (re)creating ourselves, and our identities.

Alison Weir, 2008

Identity and Labels

“My whole life has been a process of finding labels that fit.”

“My whole life has been a process of finding labels that fit”: A Thematic Analysis of Autistic LGBTQIA+ Identity and Inclusion in the LGBTQIA+ Community | Autism in Adulthood

But the term identity politics is a bit more vague. It was coined by Renee Anspach who was describing how disabled and mentally ill people were using their identities as paths to activism.

Anspach observed that the taking up of these stigmatised identities was key in interrupting the process of stigmatisation.

Writing in the 1970s, Anspach talks about deviance theory, the sociological idea that stigmatised ways of being are seen as a personal flaws or deviations.

The label assigned to these groups is designated unidirectionally, the society imposes the label on the person.

Think of how frequently the stigmatised identity gets a name, and the rest of us just get to be called “normal.” Think of how angry some people get when the marginialised group wants a word besides “normal” to describe other people on that scale.

Spider-Verse, Identity Politics, Leftist Infighting, and the Oppression Olympics – YouTube

Autistic people / Autists must take ownership of the label in the same way that other minorities describe their experience and define their identity. Pathologisation of Autistic ways of being is a social power game that removes agency from Autistic people. Our suicide and mental health statistics are the result of discrimination and not a “feature” of being Autistic.

A communal definition of Autistic ways of being

By taking up the label and owning the identity, disabled and mentally ill individuals were able to change the conversation and perceive the political processes happening at the root of their marginalisation. This meant that physically disabled people were able to interrupt a nondisabled public’s narrative of pathos and pity, while people with mental illnesses were able to speak without being discounted as hysterical.

Spider-Verse, Identity Politics, Leftist Infighting, and the Oppression Olympics – YouTube

Only when people get to choose their own labels will we get anywhere toward building an equitable culture.

Using “Correct Language” And “People First” by Ira David Socol — Bowllan’s Blog

The label “disabled” means so much to me. It means I have community. It means I have rights. It means I can be proud. It means I can affirm myself in the face of ableists. It means I can be myself and so much more.

@twitchyspoonie

Identity and Interests

Participants reported not identifying with typical presentations of the female gender for a variety of reasons, linked both to autism and to sociocultural expectations. Participants described childhoods of being a tomboy or wanting to be a boy, having difficulties conforming to gender-based social expectations and powerful identifications with their personal interests. 

“I Don’t Feel Like a Gender, I Feel Like Myself”: Autistic Individuals Raised as Girls Exploring Gender Identity

My sense of identity is fluid, just as my sense of gender is fluid [.] The only constant identity that runs through my life as a thread is ‘dancer.’ This is more important to me than gender, name or any other identifying features. even more important than mother. I wouldn’t admit that in the NT world as when I have, I have been corrected (after all Mother is supposed to be my primary identification, right?!) but I feel that I can admit that here.

Taylor

Here, participants spoke passionately about areas of identification related to personal interests. Autism in this context served as an explanation for their personal outlooks, perceived to be at odds with typical nonautistic perspectives. These were accounts of more fluid identity constructions, less constrained by social expectations. 

These accounts, although very different, conveyed a common experience of individuals finding themselves unable to identify with the typical gender expectations within their environments, and their individual struggles to make sense of themselves against these.

Participants in this study provided powerful narratives describing feelings of alienation provoked by the pressure to conform to ‘‘gender-typical’’ and ‘‘neurotypical’’ expectations of them. Gender identity is traditionally perceived in terms of binary categories, which is not useful for those who do not conform to them. 

Autistic individuals have described feeling pressure to ‘‘mask’’ their autism.14,41,42 They often do that by ‘‘performing’’ normative gender roles. In doing so, they are often adopting behaviors that are not instinctive to them and pretending to be someone they are not. For the participants of this project, this attempt to conform stopped as they grew older, but was a practice many of them adopted at a younger age and may have been part of the reason they were uncertain of their gender identity. This may also provide some explanation for the high occurrence of mental health problems in autistic individuals. Participants in this study articulated these challenges and their own efforts to navigate them, de- scribing struggles that persisted over many years. 

Davidson and Tamas16 highlight that ‘‘doing’’ gender as socially expected can be incredibly draining for autistic individuals. Discovering their autistic identity might help autistic individuals process their gender identity as well.

The connection between participants’ interests and gender identity was an important and unexpected finding of this research. Participants’ questioning of their gender identity often stemmed from their interests not conforming to those typically associated with femininity. 

Participants in this study provided powerful narratives describing feelings of alienation provoked by the pressure to conform to ‘‘gender-typical’’ and ‘‘neurotypical’’ expectations of them. Gender identity is traditionally perceived in terms of binary categories, which is not useful for those who do not conform to them. 

“I Don’t Feel Like a Gender, I Feel Like Myself”: Autistic Individuals Raised as Girls Exploring Gender Identity

Identity and Diagnosis

Diagnosis with autism during adolescence results in reconsideration of identity, and for many young people autism becomes a lens through which they view self and their previous life experiences. I wondered how the first two points above might then impact on the language young people then come to use when describing self

How language has the power to shape autistic identity in girls – edpsy.org.uk

Impact of diagnosis? +’s…

• Self-legitimisation, validation, self-understanding
• Adjustment of identity & sense-making narrative; reframing from ‘bad’, ‘naughty’, ‘weird’ to autistic
• Improved sense of belonging
• Positive autism social-identity negatively correlated with anxiety & depression

How do girls diagnosed with autism in adolescence construct their self-concept and social identity? – YouTube

The research supports the view that diagnosis in adolescence has a big impact on self-concept & social identity.

How do girls diagnosed with autism in adolescence construct their self-concept and social identity? – YouTube

Further Reading