This is a book by an autistic thinker, theorist, and activist who has played a key role in shaping the language and frameworks at the the core of the neurodiversity movement. This is because an entire population is diverse, including both those with extra privilege and those who don't conform to normative standards. Other parts are terribly casual, hand waving away opposing viewpoints by offering no criticism other than them being "disgusting" or "abhorrent" without justifying why.

However, with this being one of the first academic texts on these topics, I would have hoped it would be a little less… lecture-y. If you are Autistic, or care about someone who is Autistic, or in any way an outlier, this book is for you and for them. But unfortunately, these wonderful nuggets of information are densely wrapped in a tirade about the people who get it wrong, with a chapter and a half seemingly entirely devoted to ranting about this. Walker has added some thoughts and reflections on some of her older pieces and how her perspective has changed since writing them.

And that by unmasking, when possible, we can offer to ourselves and the world an example of another way to live. I loved the part about how disability should be looked at from the lens of society’s inability to accommodate neurodivergent people. While the author is expansive in her views on who gets to be "neuroqueer," she is quite judgmental when it comes to the ways people choose to speak publicly about and embody autism in the world.

Early in the text, for example, Walker states the “pathology paradigm consistently results in autistic people being stigmatized, dehumanized, abused, harmed, and traumatized by professionals and often their own families. Walker's published essays over the last several years, which--if absorbed and followed--will help professionals and advocates (including parent advocates) avoid/address toxic practices and internal ableism rampant in discussions (both formal and informal) around disability and neurodivergence. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. The million copy bestseller, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. I've been keen to find a book that, from an autistic perspective, describes what it is to be autistic, the right language to use, accommodations that can be made and the social model of disability. Throw Away the Master’s tools is a popular essay detailing the reasons we need radical changes to improve the lives of Autistic people. And finally, I got a little annoyed by Walker explaining the background behind every essay and where it was originally published, etc. As a brief overview - I love and agree with every point made, but really wish that these points were made with a little more sensitivity and a whole lot less ranting.

The chapter does raise the good core point that neurodiverse should not be used as shorthand for autistic (in the same way that diverse should not be used as shorthand for black, for example). Took a star off because there was definitely a vibe of "I'm the expert and anyone who disagrees with me, is wrong. Take, for instance, the "transphobes don't understand how pronouns work" trope which rests on classist assumptions, positioning the trans activist as having the moral high ground through being educated or 'intelligent', and using grammar normatively. I really recommend this for service providers and allies, a lot of it is certainly written for that audience. They are no more neurotypical than they are a chemical engineer, because they have the potential to become one in 20 years.The work of queer autistic scholar Nick Walker has played a key role in the evolving discourse on human neurodiversity.

If you are new to these concepts and wondering what neurodiversity actually is, what each of the terms—such as neurodivergent or neurodiverse—mean, and how this relates to autism and Autistic rights, Neuroqueer Heresies is the perfect place to start. It will change how you view yourself and others in your life, guiding you to fully embrace your weird and amazing self. I personally felt that for myself a lot of it has been covered extensively elsewhere so it wasn't particularly revelatory for me. Ultimately a great book, but I feel I would have gotten as much out of it from reading the second half alone. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the foundations, terminology, implications, and leading edges of the emerging neurodiversity paradigm.As someone who has sought to be the latter for many years, I still come away with several important reminders and tweaks I need to make to my approach and internal attitudes. Nick Walker is a queer, transgender, flamingly autistic author of both speculative fiction and nonfiction, and co-creator of the urban fantasy webcomic Weird Luck (weirdluck.