Letters To My Weird Sisters: On Autism and Feminism

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Haunting, probing and astonishingly intimate, Joanne Limburg's Letters to My Weird Sisters explores the myriad ways that creative, eccentric women have been exiled to the margins of society and defined as 'other,' even at the cost of their lives. A redemptive and unforgettable journey through the shadowlands of literature and history. - Steve Silberman, author , Neurotribes Institutionalization can be a form of social death and death was what Baggs wished for. What they are coming to realize in this passage is that just because society no longer feels for you, it doesn't automatically mean that you no longer feel for yourself—nothing as merciful as that.”

I think it's a wonderful read for anyone interested in disability and gender, regardless of whether they're autistic. Limburg is a talented writer and each letter was cleverly crafted. I really like the choice to frame each chapter as a letter to an individual. This worked for a variety of reasons, I think in the case of Woolf in particular that while she is not typically connected to the experiences of autism, it helped that it was a letter as it gave the sense of here are the ways that you and I connect. While I am sure it could have been done otherwise, I feel it helped to make clear that Limburg is not attempting to diagnose Woolf. It also served one of Limburg's concerns which was not to repeat what has historically been done to disabled people which is to talk about them, assuming their experiences without really engaging with the individual. This is particularly important for the second letter to Adelheid Bloch who was non-verbal. I am not autistic and harbour no suspicions that I may be, but I do not sit entirely comfortably within society’s notions of womanhood. I’ve always felt…well, a bit weird, and this book has also granted me some insight of more personal relevance that I will need to dwell on. Through the story of Frau V, Limburg reflects on the relationship between motherhood and autism, which is encapsulated by the infamous Refrigerator Mother theory popularised by Austrian-US psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim (e.g. Bettelheim 1967). Bettelheim’s heavily-refuted theory, which erroneously suggested that autism results from a mother’s cold and distant attitude towards her child, had and continues to have a destructive impact on many mothers of autistic children. Further, Frau V’s similarities to her son could not be read in the same way because autism was – and in part still is – understood as a ‘male’ condition. Thus, Frau V’s story represents the ways that autistic women have historically been invisible to psychiatrists and other clinicians. Psychiatry has consistently overlooked autistic women and the intersection between autism and gender oppression, with the consequences of this invisibilisation continuing to influence women’s lives. Autism has historically been considered a predominantly male condition, with discussions of autism often revolving around its manifestations during childhood, especially in middle-class white boys. Discussing Frau V’s experience brings to the fore the difficulties of being an autistic woman, but also the difficulties of being an autistic mother. I honestly don't know what I think of this one. I think that Joanne's story was one that I knew all to well; growing up undiagnosed autistic for years is traumatic and her experiences with OCD and feeling socially isolated were things that hit slightly too close to home. I really liked her idea of writing letters to 'weird women' who have graced the earth too - not all of these figures had definite signs of autism but they were all deemed heathens and ostracised from their communities for one reason or another. Joanne related the stories of each of these women to her own very well and it made me feel quite seen; there's other women out there just like me. I also liked the academic references she used in the book to studies and other research that people had done - it made the whole thing way more interesting to me.Bettelheim, Bruno (1967) The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self. New York: Free Press. Then an old friend of Limburg’s from Cambridge shifted her understanding of those criteria. Her friend said she had Asperger Syndrome, an autism spectrum diagnosis then (less now) applied to people who might experience some challenges but who displayed high intelligence and unimpaired language skills. “She wasn’t the stereotype at all!” says Limburg, still sounding surprised. “She was very sociable, empathetic… a very good actor. Then I typed ‘Aspergers’ and ‘women’ into Google. I’d never put the two words together before. And there I was, very recognisably, at the intersection.”

Limburg was 30 when she published her debut poetry collection, Femenismo, shortlisted for the Forward Prize Best First Collection in 2000. A second collection, Paraphernalia, followed in 2007. Although the cliched, Rain Man-fuelled perception of autism suggests that autistic people are only capable of excelling in maths and science, Limburg says: “Making art is not a remotely neurotypical thing to do! I’m not going to name names. But if you think about how certain very well-known music producers have been described as obsessive and eccentric and so on, with an ability to hear things other people can’t hear… well. What is that?” Jeg tror det er sundt for mange os at høre om handicappede mennesker som vi måske ikke selv identificerer og jeg tror at dette er en god måde at starte. For selvom forfatteren ikke selv er intellektuelt handicappede så giver hun gennem hele bogen henvisninger til yderlig læsning. Oof. What a vital read. Limburg explores autism, parenting, feminism, disability rights and society’s relationship with difference through four letters to her “weird sisters” from history. Her letter to Frau V, the (possibly autistic) mother to Fritz, one of Hans Asperger’s autistic patients, reaches far into the culture of motherhood over the past decades and I found it very affecting. I was also grateful for the nuance she brought to the topic of “autism mothers” and felt both understood and rightly challenged by her words.We are, all of us, striving constantly to pass those normality exams, to take our raw and boundless selves and squash them into the forms of neater and nicer girls.” MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—Autism, epistolary memoir, disability awareness, disability history, adult diagnoses, solidarity with the experiences of historical figures, intersectional feminism, patriarchal oppression & weaponized misogyny, nazis & eugenics, state-sanctioned murder, institutionalization, ableism, bullying, pregnancy & parenthood as a disabled person, social isolation, disability rights movement Once you have been pushed outside the first person plural, anything might be done to you, anything might happen.”