Irene Wendy Wode QUOTES

1 " Is autism a disease?

If a woman asked me right now, “but wouldn’t you rather be cured?” I’d reply, “would you like to be cured of being a woman?”

Autism, like womanhood, is painful, and difficult, and not made easy by the structure of our society. But it is who we are.

There are treatments that can make certain aspects easier, yes. But there is no whole cure because there is no whole disease.

Some women take birth control to reduce the effects of PMS or PMDD, to stop their bodies from being so at odds with the world, to make living just a little more easy, a little more comfortable. But it is not for every woman, it does not change the fact that they are a woman, and it does not change the sexism that they face every day, all the problems that result from the fact of society being built to serve people who are not them.

I’d like treatments for autistic people to be seen in the same light. Medicine’s priority should be to improve quality of life, not to make a person more palatable to society.

Society must be forced to deal with these people because these people will not be easily consigned to oblivion. "

― Irene Wendy Wode

2 " Chivaka’s eyes narrowed and she spoke confidently. “This is war,” she hissed. “Not murder.”
Isis leaned in close and matched her tone. “You don’t know anything about war.”
“Tell me about war, then,” Chivaka dared her in a taunting tone.
“I will,” Isis said, matter-of-fact, sitting down across from the girl, crossing her legs and folding her hands atop her knee as she began, drawing attention to some of the newer, still-pale scars on her brown skin.
“War is murder on the scale of nations. Revolution is murder in self-defense. Imperialist expansion is murder for profit. This is a blood feud between two families, two branches of one great family, and Nash can hold a grudge until the end of the world. Just because he’s rallied an army to his side doesn’t make him anything more than a crazed murderer who will not give up on making the world in his image, who will kill anyone who gets in his way. You don’t think he’s a murderer? Ask his family. Ask his brother. Ask his daughter, who still grieves for her human lover.” Isis leaned in close to hiss at the girl in front of her. “Ask his son. Ask Mahkai. "

― Irene Wendy Wode , The Red Glade Peacemakers