Hello, how are you doing? I want to share with you some ideas about neuroqueer.
social awareness
I’ve noticed over the years that queerness and autism can go together quite a bit. In my experience, people with autism can be clueless about social stuff and bull in a china shop. Or we can go the other way, super smart about social stuff and seeing through culture’s errors. There can be a combination too.
I consider myself in the socially sensitive camp, an autistic person who is very aware of what’s happening socially. Often I can comprehend what’s happening, but that doesn’t make me capable of participating in it skillfully.
party
It can be painful, to see the party: host and co-host, this group of people talking, this other talking group, an activity such as making latkes on the stove, another activity such as looking at a physical object together. Sometimes I can feel who’s new, who has more power, who has what at stake. Why is this party happening, and what is my role?
But understanding doesn’t mean I can skillfully participate in the party. I would do better writing a paper about the party, or narrating it. I’ve got no desire to have party-power, or control any part of it. I might want to eat a latke or other vegetarian snacks. Then I’m usually the first person to leave, overwhelmed by the sound level and increasing recklessness as drinkers consume alcohol. I’m quickly out of social spoons.
neuroqueer
Likewise, I look at culture in general and notice how sexuality and gender are being used for money, domination, power, ease, and convenience. I notice that gender is mostly a scam. I see sexuality and gender as part of power imbalances, and part of how many people are kept subservient or just pigeonholed. It’s obvious everywhere I look.
But sexuality and gender don’t have to be tools of fuckery. We can be creative! We have many sexuality and gender options, and being honest about who we really are might be more acceptable these days, as activists and transcestors have blazed trails toward gender truth.
The autistic people I know are mostly queer, and many are trans and nonbinary. I noticed that queerness and neurodiversity often go hand in hand. This seems a kind of intelligence. Autistic people such as myself are great at seeing social issues, and seeing through them. So it makes total sense to me, that more autistic people would be queer. We notice if we’re not straight cis people, and we might act on our differences.
intersectionality
So I was happy when I was on instagram the other day and found an org I like talking about neuroqueer. More than a coincidence or overlap, it’s about intersectionality. Queerness and neurodivergence can inform and complexify one another. Yes!
It’s fun because it’s true, but it’s also fun to find more ways that autism can function as an asset and is a valid way of being. Neuroqueer is brilliant, a way of being that can help the world. These ideas help fuel my liberation.
Glad other people experience this also. Here’s a resource, the website of Nick Walker, she her, who coined the term neuroqueer.
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