Is autism a disease?If a woman asked me right now, “but wouldn’t you rather be cured?” I’d reply, “would you like to be cured of being a woman?”Autism, like womanhood, is painful, and difficult, and not made easy by the structure of our society. But it is who we are.There are treatments that can make certain aspects easier, yes. But there is no whole cure because there is no whole disease.Some women take birth control to reduce the effects of PMS or PMDD, to stop their bodies from being so at odds with the world, to make living just a little more easy, a little more comfortable. But it is not for every woman, it does not change the fact that they are a woman, and it does not change the sexism that they face every day, all the problems that result from the fact of society being built to serve people who are not them.I’d like treatments for autistic people to be seen in the same light. Medicine’s priority should be to improve quality of life, not to make a person more palatable to society.Society must be forced to deal with these people because these people will not be easily consigned to oblivion.
~ Irene Wendy Wode
