Autism Soccer: Autism, Acceptance and Feminism

Both women and autistic people have fought for equality and acceptance in the modern world

Equity, acceptance, work opportunities with payment and equal treatment; These are only some of the notions that the movement of awareness and recognition by people living with autism have in common with all those progressive women who struggle every day to live in a world where feminism is the norm and not the minority.

Both Autism Awareness and Feminism have had numerous support groups that have been growing progressively over the past decades and have participated in activities ranging from pacific marches to protests, both full of activists committed to a cause they consider fair, delving into that, in the following article we will discuss the similarities between the awareness movement by autistic people and the feminist movement.

Autism and Feminism: Labels, Limitations and Liberation.

There are some complex and intricate interactions between the notions of autism and feminism, which can go in many different ways as we’ll read today. But we can start this article with a simple question.

Does a label limit the possibilities of what you can do?

Answer: only if you believe it does.

There was (not long ago) a time when being a woman was most definitely considered a restrictive thing. Women were expected to “understand and accept their own limitations” (whatever those were) and to never challenge them, thus believing they would never be allowed to do some of the things men did because they simply weren’t capable, it was futile to even trying otherwise.

Women were considered unable to vote, serve jury duty, work while being pregnant and even get a credit card bof their own.

Those alleged limitations were just mental images that people associated with the word “woman” but they really had nothing to do with what women themselves were capable to achieve, but had everything to do with what women were expected to achieve though, and it resulted in society putting so many restrictions on them that it was almost impossible for women to do anything other than cleaning, cooking and raising children for the men that restricted them in first place.

Sounds familiar? Now, Let’s compare these facts with being labeled as an autist; for most autistic people, realising that this society has expectations of them comes with the realisation that the do not conform with them (that’s a common treat in autism, being non-conformant). They may often find it difficult to identify the norms that they’re expected to live up to, and even when they have, if they can’t see the point in following them they just won’t try. Autistic Boys have even bigger shoes to fill in these aspects.

Among some of the things that autistics tend to be no good at conforming to are gender norms (Norms that can be quite strict to young boys). It can be recognised that there is an intriguing correlation between autism and variant gender identities, but this is a far more complex matter.

‘’Normal’’ Boys are expected to be competitive, specially in social games that are often beyond most autistic boys. They are expected to enjoy team sports, when teams are baffling and most of them have proved to be clumsy at the very least. They are expected to be part of a universal boys’ club just by being born males, when for the most part other boys are no less alien to autistic males than females are.

All of this means that the average autistic boy suffers as much from the patriarchy as women in past ages have. Male privilege means something quite different for someone able and willing to dominate others than it does for a socially confused autistic boy who can’t really grasp stereotypical masculinity.

Autistic girls don’t do very different, them having to deal with all the usual issues that the rest of the girls have to handle the best way they can within a patriarchal society, and having to navigate social hierarchies that are quite incomprehensible for them. All this while being frequently baffled by things that their classmates, teachers and parents expect from any other girl.

As you have read, here at Autism Soccer, we care about social issues and we do our best to bring light to them, please follow us on our social networks and don’t hesitate to leave your comments at the comments section below.