Judith Newman’s To Siri, With Love has been panned by autistic readers, calling it ableist and harmful, but receives glowing reviews from media.
If you’re a New York Times reader or a Twitter user, you might have heard about a “love letter” to an autistic son, in the form of a memoir. Its name? To Siri, With Love.
Author Judith Newman wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about her sons, and an author’s note at the beginning of the book that states that she will “insist on medical power of attorney for him so that I will be able to make the decision about a vasectomy for him after he turns eighteen.”
Yeah. You read that right.
It sounds a whole lot like eugenics, right? That’s what a lot of autistic people on Twitter thought.
Ron Suskind, a parent of an autistic child, wrote a review of To Siri, With Love for the New York Times as well.
Well, as an actually autistic person, parent of autistic kids and author/reviewer, Kaelan Rhywiol read the book and reviewed it. You can read xer tweet thread about it in the embedded tweet below, or read the full review on xer website.
#BoycottToSiri
— Kaija Rayne 25000/50000 (@Kaija_Rayne) November 30, 2017
So. I'm doing it.
Before I even start let me preface this by saying that I'm #ActuallyAutistic & a parent. I'm a published author, a reviewer, a sensitivity reader for autism, & an editor (professionally).
I asked the publisher for a review copy & they sent it. pic.twitter.com/2zkZA7E86d
It’ll take some time — there are a lot of tweets there.
The book has been panned by other autistic readers, who call it ableist and harmful. It’s also a huge invasion of her 14 year old son’s privacy — Newman mentions in the book, according to screenshots, that she did not ask permission to write about him, among other things.
You can read other boycotters’ opinions under the twitter hashtag #BoycottToSiri.
Newman spoke to website The Mighty, saying she’s been taken out of context.
"“I am going to insist Gus has a vasectomy,” Newman said, adding:The autistic community thinks I want him sterilized because I do not want the DNA of an autistic person to perpetuate. This could not be further from the truth. I want to be a grandmother! What I do not want is my son having a child he could not possibly take care of. This is my big fear. The truth is, I would never do this unless it was reversible.But in the book, I said I wanted to have the ability to decide on a vasectomy for him if he becomes sexually active at 18, and I make no apologies about that."
You can read Brooke Winters’ thread of her thoughts as an autistic social worked. I highly recommend it, because it has nuance that is often missed.
I want to address something from #ToSiriWithLove and that is the author's concerns about her sons ability to care for a child.
— Brooke Winters (@brookewinters33) December 6, 2017
CW for abuse, neglect, removing children from parents care, social work.
As an autistic reader and reviewer, with an autistic brother that seems a lot like Gus at that age, I will not be reading To Siri, With Love, nor will I recommend it to anyone else, either.
I hope that her son Gus never reads this memoir. I hope that no one that knows Gus will read this memoir.
Next: The Silence Breakers are the Person of the Year
Instead, I recommend you check out this list – curated by an autistic reader!