The “Disability Effect”

I saw this video the other day in a Facebook group I belong to. The group, Cultural Autism Studies at Yale, (CASY) a semi-private Facebook group for CASY/ Cultural Autism Studies at Yale, founded by Roger J. Jou MD, MPH, PhD is a psychiatrist and researcher at Yale University specializing in autism. One of the administrators is Dawn Prince-Hughes, author of Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey through Autism. This book was instrumental in helping me as I learned about the “disorder” my son had recently been diagnosed with over twenty years ago. As I read it, little bells rung in the back of my mind regarding my own experiences, but I paid no attention because her life was so very different from mine.

The description of the group reads that ‘Culture’ is the medium through which groups organize themselves in the context of a larger environment and the dynamic artifacts that grow and interweave as a group of people express themselves in a cultural way.

Autistic people have their own unique kind of culture, and each autistic experience is a vital part of it. we invite you to and join us and our ongoing exploration, development, appreciation, generation, recording. and sharing of autistic self-expression and the culture that grows from it.” CASY hosts free Zoom series and sessions about autism, being autistic, and the culture of autism, which are presented by autistic specialists.

Please take a look at the video, then read on for my thoughts:

Oh my goodness!

Here’s what this brought up for me. Just after second wave feminism in America seemed to release us from the absolute requirement of seeking becoming wives and making us imagine that we had a right to have a real career or whatever, marketing started to target us hard with things like the Enjoli Woman; the woman who can do it all. You know, bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and never, never, never let her heterosexual significant other forget he’s a man…

In other words, giving women a target lifestyle that was impossible, then making us feel short of successful when we couldn’t do it. Add to that what is clearly autism in my own personal experience, it’s almost like a wasted life! I’m not letting the rest of my life go on that way, but it’s not easy.

I’ve thought about the Enjoli Woman effect a lot. I’ve even written about it in a story that I will share at the end of this story. At the time, I hadn’t realized that I was on the spectrum myself. This video really clicked for me.

I don’t know if what I might call the “disability effect” is an intentional conspiracy to keep neurodivergent and disabled folks on the margins, any more than I know that the marketing directed toward women in the 60s and 70s was orchestrated with intent.

However, even as I look back at all the doors that were opened as a result of the Civil Rights movement and the mid-twentieth century Feminist movement, I can hear the slam of heavy doors as they close, clanging like prison gates with the dismantling of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Just as I begin to understand who I've always been, I worry about the effect that the current trend of rolling back history will have on my children and my students. What will happen to the autism community if schools that strive to help them find success are no longer funded? Who will help them to learn how to navigate in general society? Who will advocate for the children and help them learn to advocate for themselves?

I'm beginning to think that the "disability effect" is part of a well-organized effort to keep those who are different, people of color, and women on a never-ending treadmill, trying to succeed on white male neurotypical society's standards.

Call me paranoid, maybe, but it’s all pretty suspish, though, don’t ya think?

Here's a link to the story where I address what I'm calling "The Enjoli Woman Effect"