The reading in Docile Bodies reminds me greatly of the disability acceptance movement and modern strides in autistic advocacy.

Docile Bodies describes how society seeks to control individuals by controlling how they move their bodies. The written work focuses mainly on people and general, and then the differences in how it may present for women and men. I will be focusing mainly on their comments on humans and general and how it may relate to autistic people.

“A body is docile that may be subjected, used, transformed, and improved” – Foucault, Docile Bodies, pg.136

Autistic people often have similar experiences of their stimming being shunned by members of authority, peers, family, and strangers. Receiving strange looks, biting comments, or disappointed speeches in response to moving their body in the way they felt fit. Though modern ABA therapy is stated to help clients learn to manage their stimming, and not eliminate stimming completely, it can be said that the way in which medical professionals have treated stimming is less than ideal. Stimming is seen as a disadvantage in social spaces, a way of making yourself stick out like a sore thumb, even sometimes interpreted by strangers as “performing disability”. Masking autistic traits is a way of fitting in as a docile body.

Many Autistic advocates and content creators have advocated for the freedom to stim and posted videos of stimming to help normalize the behavior to non-autistic viewers. It is important that if we ever feel inclined to judge or frown at someone moving their body, how they see fit, we reflect on whether that’s something we actually care about them doing, or if we’re reflecting the docile bodies message that was pushed onto us.