Against cure, against backlash: neuroaffirmative responses to antifeminism and the war on autism

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Metadata sources used for this reference

OpenAlex Crossref BibTeX OpenCitations
Learn more about the sources used

Serra, R. & Dickinson, A. (2026). Against cure, against backlash: neuroaffirmative responses to antifeminism and the war on autism. Frontiers in Political Science, 7, Article 1736909. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1736909

Publication date: 7 Jan 2026 Added to AutiHub: 24 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Rita Serra *
  2. Andreia Dickinson

Abstract

children's autism by unconsciously rejecting the role of maternity (Bettelheim, 1967;Douglas & Klar, 2019). Autism was the perfect metaphor for the social problems attributed to working women and feminist ideals, who were accused of sickening their children and disordering their families and the nation. Yet again, the category was kept white (Maddox, 2025). As one mother recalls in the documentary Refrigerator Mothers (2003): "my son could not be autistic. I was not white, it was assumed that I was not educated and therefore he was labeled emotionally disturbed (...) You can't even be a refrigerator mother (laughs), the irony of it all". Mother blaming was severely fought by parent advocacy movements, which redefined autism as its own disorder. Together with experts, parents established autism as clearly biological, with a hereditary basis, but caused by environmental triggers, such as pollutants, antibiotics and vaccines (Chapman, 2023). Autism was again framed as a 'social problem', this time as an epidemic of something worse than death. It was compared to an abductor (McGuire, 2016;Broderick & Roscino, 2021) that prevented the children from developing as fully humans, yet one that could be defeated through normalizing interventions. In this context, the figure of the autism's warrior mother emerged (Douglas, 2025), who blamed big pharma and sought to rescue and cure her children "against all odds" (McCarthy, 2008). In the aftermath of COVID-19, antivaccination movements gained traction, converging with conspiracy, wellness and far-right groups that shared a distrust in established experts and a desire to keep bodyminds healthy and pure from environmental and social aggressions (Brady et al., 2023;Hoffman et al., 2019). Once more, autism became the embodied metaphor for the physical and spiritual degeneration of Western societies in need of a cure -something that must be purged. The war on autism, as defined by MacGuire (2016), considers autism as some 'thing' and not a someone, a struggle between vital 'non-autistic' and non-vital 'autistic' parts. The autism industrial complex (McGuire, 2013;Broderick & Roscigno, 2021), promising a cure, was reinforced by alternative medicines; once autism is framed as an enemy (McGuire, 2016;Douglas, 2025), anyone can profit from the urge of middle-class parents to 'save' and 'develop' their kids. Understanding the conditions of emergence of autism as a concept allows us to understand it as a white category (Maddox, 2025;Ellis, 2023) at the service of the eugenic movement, which focuses both on negative traits to be eliminated and desirable traits for success. Ableism is a two-faced coin with negative discrimination on one side, and the glorification of 'superpowers' on the other, as seen in the obsession with gifted prodigies and indigo/crystal children (Waltz, 2009). Whenever the focus is on abilities instead of humanness, weaponization of autism can occur. We identify three tropes where autistics are weaponized within the far-right: as 1) "all-powerful masters-of-technology" (Welch et al., 2022); 2) victims in incel culture; and 3) vulnerable to gender ideology. In the first trope, (male) autistics are simultaneously glorified on the basis of their cognitive skills at the service of the cause, and derogated by lacking social skills. This trope relies on a narrow conception of rationality-one that is systematizing, technical, and culturally coded as masculine. As Tavares, Mattos, & Tsallis (2023) argue through their analysis of Mel Baggs's work, this is in line with a patriarchal and ableist "male rationality" that is used to exclude autistic forms of intelligence and communication that are more empathetic, relational, or non-linear. Yet, for some autistic people, the partial acceptance offered within the far-right community may be preferable to the lack of acceptance they experience in society (Welch et al., 2022). This aligns with 'Aspie supremacy' -the view that Aspies (from Asperger's Syndrome, named after the Nazi doctor) are superior to other autistics and non-autistics "in terms of whiteness, masculinity and economic worthiness" (de Hooge, 2019). In the second trope, autistics are weaponized in the opposite direction, through naturalized oppression, placing them at the bottom of a social hierarchy (supposedly) defined by female preferences. The incels are thus vowed to absolute rejection, which fuels reactions of "aggrieved entitlement to women", amid a context of ableism and 'networked misogyny' (Gheorghe & Clement, 2023). In the third trope, autism is weaponized against trans people, hindering their access to transition-related services and social acceptance. The overlap between autism and transgender is emphasized, framing autistic people as vulnerable to the so-called gender ideology, which purportedly induces confusion and pressures them to transition (Maddox, 2025). The consequences of the war on autism for autistic people are multiple and layered across social class, race, gender and disability. To begin with, working class individuals, racialized groups, women and non-binary folks, and autistic people with co-occurring disabilities are often excluded from this battle, as they are frequently denied access to diagnosis due to autism's construction as a white, male, middle-class category (Jack, 2011;Fox, 2025). The lack of recognition of autism in childhood can result in lack of support and adverse experiences, such as incomprehension and unhelpful labels, bullying and sexual violence, as reported by late-diagnosed autistics, in particular, women (Botha & Gillespie-Lynch, 2022;Cazalis et al., 2022). Black autistic men may have their lives endangered during public meltdowns (Yates Flanagan et al., 2025); non-speaking autistics or those with co-occurring disabilities risk being institutionalized and subjected to forced sterilization, aversives, restraint, and seclusion.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 28 Oct 2026 01:01.

Cited references
60
With a DOI
44
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
16
23 / 60 (38.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
3 / 60 (5.0%)
References with detected author names
58 / 60 (96.7%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
16
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
174
From DOI or external metadata
174
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
112 / 174 (64.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 62 / 174 (35.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
46 / 174 (26.4%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 46 / 112 (41.1%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 33 / 156 (21.2%).
  1. Jordynn Jack (2011). "The Extreme Male Brain?" Incrementum and the Rhetorical Gendering of Autism . Disability Studies Quarterly, 31(3). The Ohio State University Libraries.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.18061/dsq.v31i3.1672 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1535812201
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  5. S. Baron-Cohen (2002). The extreme male brain theory of autism . Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(6), 248-254. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/s1364-6613(02)01904-6 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2131018314
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  6. shine choi , Natália Maria Félix de Souza , Amy Lind , Swati Parashar , Elisabeth Prügl , Marysia Zalewski (2025). The triumph of anti-genderism? International Feminist Journal of Politics, 27(3), 523-525. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/14616742.2025.2513114 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4412470618
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  8. S. Baron-Cohen , Alan M. Leslie , Uta Frith (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”? Cognition, 21(1), 37-46. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2093410327
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  10. Leo Kanner (1949). Problems of nosology and psychodynamics of early infantile autism. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 19(3), 416-426. American Psychological Association (APA).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.1949.tb05441.x OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2001251954
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  12. Anne E. McGuire (2013). Buying time: The S/pace of Advocacy and the Cultural Production of Autism . Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 2(3), 98. University of Waterloo.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.15353/cjds.v2i3.102 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2012340082
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  13. Bettelheim (1967). The empty fortress: Infantile autism and the birth of the self . The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  14. Anne McGuire (2016). War on Autism . University of Michigan Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.3998/mpub.7784427 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2467244311
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  15. Mitzi Waltz (2009). From Changelings to Crystal Children: An Examination of ‘New Age’ Ideas About Autism . Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 13(2), 114-128. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/15228960802581511 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2031463600
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  17. Robert Chapman * (2021). Neurodiversity and the Social Ecology of Mental Functions . Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(6), 1360-1372. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/1745691620959833 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3126691317
    AutiHub · Autistic Autism Scholarship Project Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  19. Miranda J. Brady , Erika Christiansen , Emily Hiltz (2023). Good Karen, Bad Karen: visual culture and the anti-vaxx mom on Reddit . Journal of Gender Studies, 32(6), 616-631. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/09589236.2022.2069088 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4225285665
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  20. Patty Douglas , Estée Klar (2019). Beyond disordered brains and mother blame . In Routledge Companion to Motherhood (pp. 205-214). Routledge.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.4324/9781315167848-17 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2991156669
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  22. Alicia A. Broderick , Robin Roscigno * (2021). Autism, Inc.: The Autism Industrial Complex . Journal of Disability Studies in Education, 2(1), 77-101. Walter de Gruyter GmbH.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1163/25888803-bja10008 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W3127899952
    AutiHub · Autistic Autism Scholarship Project Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  23. Rebecca Sanders , Laura Dudley Jenkins (2022). Special issue introduction: Contemporary international anti-feminism . Global Constitutionalism, 11(3), 369-378. Cambridge University Press (CUP).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1017/s2045381722000144 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4310241369
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  24. Fabienne Cazalis , Elisabeth Reyes , Séverine Leduc , David Gourion (2022). Evidence That Nine Autistic Women Out of Ten Have Been Victims of Sexual Violence . Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 16, 852203. Frontiers Media SA.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.852203 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4225009262
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  28. Anna N. De Hooge (2019). Binary Boys: Autism, Aspie Supremacy and Post/Humanist Normativity . Disability Studies Quarterly, 39(1), 2. The Ohio State University Libraries.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.18061/dsq.v39i1.6461 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2918244235
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  29. Robert Chapman * (2023). Empire of Normality . Pluto Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.2307/jj.8501594 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4388587234
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  30. Beth L. Hoffman , Elizabeth M. Felter , Kar-Hai Chu , Ariel Shensa , Chad Hermann , Todd Wolynn et al. (2019). It’s not all about autism: The emerging landscape of anti-vaccination sentiment on Facebook . Vaccine, 37(16), 2216-2223. Elsevier BV.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.03.003 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2922770828
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  32. Rowan Maddox (2025). The ‘new’ trans population: An exploration of the uses and abuses of autism . European Journal of Women's Studies, 32(3), 292-310. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/13505068251350458 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4411880928
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  34. Collins (2020). Intersectionality . Intersectionality.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  36. Douglas (2025). Unmothering Autism: Ethical Disruptions and Affirming Care . Unmothering Autism: Ethical Disruptions and Affirming Care.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  38. Jacky (Manidoomakwakwe) Ellis (2023). Imagining Neurodivergent Futures from the Belly of the Identity Machine: Neurodiversity, Biosociality, and Strategic Essentialism . Autism in Adulthood, 5(3), 225-235. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1089/aut.2021.0075 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4313462048
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  39. Ruxandra Mihaela Gheorghe , David Yuzva Clement (2024). Weaponized Autism: Making Sense of Violent Internalized Ableism in Online Incel Communities . Deviant Behavior, 45(6), 896-910. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/01639625.2023.2268253 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4387668442
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  41. Desiree Jones * , Monique Botha * , Noah Sasson (2026). “I’m Kind of Stuck in the Middle. I Don’t Know Where to Go”: Race, Autism, and Intersectional Stigma Among Black and White Autistic Adults . Autism in Adulthood. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/25739581251374440 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W7084086365
    Crossref OpenCitations
  43. Judith Goetz , Stefanie Mayer (2023). Global Perspectives on Anti-Feminism . Edinburgh University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1515/9781399505413 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4387565278
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  44. Haraway (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene . Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  45. O. Ivar Lovaas (1987). Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual functioning in young autistic children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55(1), 3-9. American Psychological Association (APA).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1037/0022-006x.55.1.3 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4234561288
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  46. Kanner (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact . Nerv. Child, 2, 217.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  47. (n.d.). The rise of end times fascism Klein N. Taylor A. The Guardian 2025
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  48. Elizabeth Pellicano , Melanie Heyworth * (2023). The Foundations of Autistic Flourishing . Current Psychiatry Reports, 25(9), 419-427. Springer Science and Business Media LLC.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1007/s11920-023-01441-9 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4385663119
    AutiHub · Autistic Autism Scholarship Project AutiHub · Documentation center Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  49. Malacrida (2020). “Mothering and disability: from eugenics to newgenics,” . Handbook of Disability Studies, 467.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  50. Ashlee Yates Flanagan , Meredith Cola , Naomi Yu , Haley Peele , Keeana Dicette , Grace Hicks et al. (2025). Policing Black autistic children: A qualitative approach to understanding Black caregivers’ concerns . Autism, 29(5), 1303-1317. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/13623613241303549 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W4405454839
    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
  51. McCarthy (2008). Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism against All Odds . Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism against All Odds.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  53. Price (2022). Unmasking Autism: The Power of Embracing Our Hidden Neurodiversity . Unmasking Autism: The Power of Embracing Our Hidden Neurodiversity.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  54. (2003). [Film] . [Film].
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  55. Roughgarden (2013). Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People..
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  56. Sheffer (2018). B52 Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna..
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  57. Sinclair (1993). Don't mourn for us . Our Voice, 1(3), 1.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  58. Stolerman (2017). The American eugenics movement: a study of the dispersal and application of racial ideologies . Aisthesis, 8, 13.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  59. Tavares (2023). An autistic critique of male rationality: links between feminism and neurodiversity . Cah. Franco Latino Am. Études Handicap, 21.
    Type: Other
    Crossref
  60. Yergeau (2018). Authoring Autism . Authoring autism.
    Type: Other
    Crossref