The Art of Autistic Joy

What is this Project?

By Eden S. May, 21, 2025

–Context–

This project began when I decided to ask what could be learned from the autistic positionality in relation to the practices of resisting dominating structures and dehumanization generally. 

My thesis became clear after a lot of time spent writing, researching, organizing, reorganizing, and writing again.  Through autistic positionality, we can observe intersections between dominating power structures that are not otherwise visible, learn new ways to understand self-care and self-knowledge, and learn new methods for resistance through the autistic relationship to joy and embodiment.

I had never seen anyone ask something like this about autism, and being an autistic person and amatuer critical autism studies scholar,1 I have the expertise to at least begin the project of theorizing what the autistic standpoint and autistic joy is and what they have to offer in terms of practices for resistance, cultivating resilience, and interrogating systems of power and oppression in new ways.

The context that brought me to my topic were observations I made about the lack of autistic voice in fields such as environmentalism, critical theory, and intersectional justice work. For example, there are a lot of authors (as there should be!) who focus on what the black perspective has to teach in terms of our approach to the environmental crisis and other types of intersectional justice work. 

These contributions made from the black perspective invaluable and necessary for the new and critical approach they offer to intersectional justice work. We could not be doing the forms of justice work we do today without being informed by black standpoint theories.

So then what could we gain from paying attention to and learning from the autistic perspective and what new approaches to justice work could we develop? 

-Methodologies-

My project contributes to the emerging field of critical autism studies which aims to generate: “1) careful attention to the ways that power shapes our understandings and study of autism, 2) the advancing of empowering cultural narratives about autism, 3) a ‘commitment to develop new analytical frameworks using inclusive and nonreductive methodological and theoretical approaches to study the nature and culture of autism.’”2

As such my project is multi-pronged and is written and organized in an untypical mode that does not reduce the complexities of the concepts I work with.

My approach to project organization also does not assume that my readers process information linearly (as a traditional academic paper does), hopefully making my work more accessible to a diverse audience.

My project relies upon and is framed by the tenants of standpoint theory which “claims that authority over knowledge is created through direct experience of a condition or situation. Standpoint epistemology is related to the idea of lay expertise…”3  Standpoint theory, much like autistic ways of knowing as I will soon explain, returns agency to the body and sensory experiences and recognizes them as primary sources of knowledge. This attempts to remedy the long history of academics writing about or for autistic people without considering the validity of their words or experiences as factors that should influence the work they do.

As an autist myself, I understand the danger of the singular narrative of autisticness and therefore the importance of including other autistic voices to inform my work. I also, like Cathy Park Hong in her writing project titled “Minor Feelings: an Asian American Reckoning”, seek to “undo a monolithic or bland version”4 of the autist. As such, I must follow Hong’s lead in only attempting to “speak nearby”5 the autistic experience, even though I am autistic myself, as this practice acknowledges and respects the uniqueness of individual experience without preventing me as an author from referring to autists as a distinct grouping of people. This will hopefully allow me to reveal “what techniques of existence are called forth by our singular ways of engaging and being engaged by the world.”6

I hope to develop and advance a new empowering narrative about autism that goes beyond aiming to elevate “the social status of the group…which is exactly what neurodiversity gives autistic people an avenue towards…”7 as I see issues with the process of fighting oppressive power structures by only opposing their claims directly.

We need to imagine beyond this dominant and pervasive discourse.

–Other Guiding Questions–

I’d like to list some other key questions that are shaping my scholarship which come from other important theorists that I return to later in my analysis:

  • “How [would i] treat my bodymind and my pleasure differently if i had not been impacted by ableism, sanism, anti-black racism, homophobia sexism, and sexual violence. How would i seek pleasure differently if i didn’t feel limited by and afraid of the potential repercussions of these oppressive systems?8
  • “What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make them your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?”9

I must admit that writing on this subject in the face of our increasingly anti-autist, fascist government in the U.S is something that gives me great fear but that I am choosing to speak beyond that fear to avoid the sickness that, as Lorde points out, comes with ingesting instead of voicing out against injustices. I hope that this project helps others to find joy and solidarity during this difficult time and maybe inspires others to speak out by offering some words to use while doing so.

  1. See my blog post containing my Kurt Mayer Summer Fellowship Research Paper. ↩︎
  2. Broderick, Alicia, and Robin Roscigno. 2021. “Autism, Inc.: The Autism Industrial Complex.” Journal of Disability Studies in Education. https://doi.org/10.1163/25888803-bja10008. ↩︎
  3. Kapp, Steven K., ed. 2020. Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillian Imprint and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-8437-0. ↩︎
  4. Cvetkovich, Ann. 2023. “Minor Feelings and the Affective Life of Race.” In The Affect Theory Reader, edited by Carolyn Pedwell and Gregory J. Seigworth. Vol. 2. Duke University Press.Cvetkovich, “Minor Feelings”. 173. ↩︎
  5. Cvetkovich, “Minor Feelings”. 173.  ↩︎
  6. Manning, Erin. 2024. In Conversation With Erin Manning: A Refusal of Neurotypicality Through Attunements to Learning Otherwise Interview by Vivienne Grace Bozalek. Qualitative Inquiry. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10778004241254397. ↩︎
  7. Botha, Monique, Bridget Dibb, and David M. Frost. 2020. “‘Autism Is Me’: An Investigation of How Autistic Individuals Make Sense of Autism and Stigma.” Disability & Society 37 (3): 427–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2020.1822782. ↩︎
  8. Shalk, Sami. 2024. “Pleasure Is the Point.” In Disability Intimacy, 169. New York, N.Y.: Vintage. ↩︎
  9. Lorde, Audre. 1984. “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action*.” In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 44. S.L.: Penguin Books. ↩︎