Becoming an ‘Autistic Couple’: Narratives of Sexuality and Couplehood Within the Swedish Autistic Self-advocacy Movement

Abstract

Research on sexuality and autism is dominated by a sexually deficit view of autism. According to this view, people with autism are considered different from neurotypicals and in need of sexual education that is specially adapted to the social impairments of people with autism. Perspectives on sexuality, couplehood, and autism are gradually changing, and this is partly because of alternative views on autism expressed and advocated within autistic self-advocacy movements. The present paper explores discourses within the Swedish autistic self-advocacy movement of an ‘autistic’ sexuality and couplehood (sexuality and couplehood on people with autism’s own terms). The analysis is based on articles in a Swedish magazine, Empowerment, published between 2002 and 2009 that was produced by and aimed at adults with autism.