Narrating Policy - Challenging Narratives (Panel) (1/16/2017)

Narrating Policy - Challenging Narratives (Panel) Due to unfortunate circumstances, the presenters for the other two papers had to withdraw at short notice. * Gendered Narratives: Exploring the Cooccurrence of Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Gender Dysphoria* - Emily Maddox (University of Leeds) There is an overrepresentation of people accessing gender clinics who have a pre-existing diagnosis of autism or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is categorised as a neurological condition, with a narrative surrounding it which is overwhelming masculine. It is attached to an essential maleness and becomes an extreme and pathological version of the male brain. Thus, ASD becomes intimately connected to the gendered self of those diagnosed. Yet this essentialist position demands our considered when we consider, as Dan Goodley does, when autism is categorised as both a neurological condition and a learning disability this clearly positions it with the socio-political world. Likewise the over representation of autism in gender clinics is not being sufficiently examined in light of how autism acting as a gendered disciplinary technique interacts with and restricts gendered expression. There is little consideration of how the pathologised maleness of autism is interpreted by the person with autism who is struggling to construct a coherent gendered narrative of the self. This omission is echoed by the lack of policy determining ways to work with people who access gender clinics with both ASD and gender dysphoria. The dominant discourse of autism seems to restrict any serious interrogation of how the discursive formations of gender and autism interact with each other and the lack of policy reflects this which ultimately prevents a holistic care plan being constructed for those affected. 'Narrating Policy: Exploring Narrative in Policy and Policy Analysis' was a one-day symposium held at the University of Leeds, organised by James Beresford and Ashley R. Bullard, doctoral researchers in the School of Sociology and Social Policy. The day was dedicated to the various and variegated ways narrative and narrative analysis informs policy and policy analysis. The symposium was sponsored by the Leeds Social Science Institution and the Sociology and Social Policy’s Policy Research Cluster.

Emily Maddox

1/16/2017 1:01:48 PM