Open Access#ActuallyAutistic: Using Twitter to Construct Individual and Collective Identity Narratives
Author(s) -
Justine E. Egner
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
studies in social justice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.213
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 1911-4788
DOI - 10.26522/ssj.v16i2.2675
Subject(s) - construct (python library) , narrative , identity (music) , meaning (existential) , sociology , autism , social constructionism , social psychology , social identity theory , social media , psychology , social group , aesthetics , developmental psychology , social science , computer science , linguistics , world wide web , philosophy , psychotherapist , programming language
Employing Critical Autism Studies and Narrative Analysis, this project examines how autistic Twitter users engage in narrative meaning-making through social media. By analyzing the hashtags #ActuallyAutistic and #AskingAutistics this project broadly explores how individuals construct identity when lacking access to positive representations and identity communities. Answering the research question, “How do autistic people construct individual and collective identity narratives through Twitter?,” findings indicate that autistic Twitter users use their social media presence to build virtual learning communities. Common knowledge about autism is often oversimplified and highly medicalized. Therefore, autistics use Twitter to make meaning of their experiences that are not represented within cultural notions of what it means to be autistic. Autistic Twitter users reject medicalized narratives by contesting stereotypes, flipping negative narratives into positive stories, re-inscribing “deficiencies” as beneficial, and resisting rehabilitation and “cure.” Users do important social activist work by building strong autistic communities in ways that counter current negative representation, constructing positive self-affirming individual and community identities and resisting eugenic notions that autistic people are “less valuable.”