“Gender Differences in Autism”: TED Talks as Inclusive Spaces for Co-creation of Collective Memories

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been historically studied, identified, and diagnosed more in males than females which can be attributed to a range of factors other than biological. The preponderance of males with autism is often associated with the Extreme Male Brain (EMB) theory which contends that this male bias is interceded by the amplification of male-biased sex differences in the expression of autism-associated traits found in typical populations. This long-held notion of attaching autism to the male gender had severely impacted the females on the spectrum leading to late diagnosis, misdiagnosis, and “masking” in order to blend in. Media also played a role in the near-exclusive portrayal of autistic people as white males which is outrageously unrepresentative of reality. The present paper analyses the narratives of self-identified autistic women about their experiences shared through TED Talks which offer both individual and collective counter-narratives to articulate new understandings. The paper attempts a qualitative interpretation of 5 such talks to demonstrate how speaking about these narratives in public and influential spaces like TED Talks de-constructs collective memories (process) and constitutes constructing La Memoire Collective between the knowledge of experience and shared memories.