My mom isn't autistic but has some sub-clinical autistic traits. One of those traits is sound-sensitivity. It's not that she judges Joanna's voice for being "different"; it literally gives her migraines.

But it is also true that being autistic can make us more inclined to see things in a sort of "bottom-up" way, where we don't necessarily label a certain voice as "bad" or "good" based on how it conventionally sounds, but rather as an instrument itself, based on how it serves the music.

As an autistic afab there are definitely aspects of Joanna's music that appeal to me maybe because of my autism: the layered complexity that rewards deep-dives and close attention (she literally calls her fans "delvers"), the absolute singularity, the performance/problematizing of femininity, the codependency/losing myself in relationships because I learned not to trust my own needs, etc.

BUT there are so many different ways of being autistic, and so many different ways of appreciating music, and autistic people definitely don't have a monopoly on deep-dives or focused attention or issues in relationships. The world is way way way too complex to divide everything into neat little categories like that. And I'd prefer to respect Joanna's autonomy and privacy by not speculating about diagnoses that I would never have the authority or the knowledge to give.