“I originally conceived of neuroqueer as a verb: neuroqueering as the practice of queering (subverting, defying, disrupting, liberating oneself from) neuronormativity and heteronormativity simultaneously[…] I was expanding the Queer Theory conceptualization of queering to encompass the queering of neurocognitive norms as well as gender norms” Dr Nick Walker

Neuroqueering as a Practice

The word ‘neuroqueer’ does not only refer to individuals who are both neurodivergent and queer, but can also be thought of as a practice, or a mindset. In fact, Dr Wilder suggests that one does not have to be neurodivergent and queer themselves to neuroqueer, and that anyone who neuroqueers is themselves neuroqueer. In exploring and maintaining an awareness of oneself in this way, the practice of neuroqueering can be liberating for neurodivergent and queer people, and allies who neuroqueer may find it a useful perspective to help reexamine their biases.

Dr Wilder also draws attention to the issue of pathologisation that is often prevalent when discussing neurodivergences, especially in older medical models. Queer individuals may feel especially uncomfortable with such essentialisation, and Dr Wilder suggests that a ‘queering’ of our conception of neurocognitive norms can be a solution to these issues.

How might someone do 'neuroqueer'?

• Being both neurodivergent and queer, with some degree of conscious awareness and/or active exploration around how these two aspects of one’s being entwine and interact (or are, perhaps, mutually constitutive and inseparable).
• Embodying and expressing one’s neurodivergence in ways that also queer one’s performance of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and/or other aspects of one’s identity.
• Engaging in practices intended to undo and subvert one’s own cultural conditioning and one’s ingrained habits of neuronormative and heteronormative performance, with the aim of reclaiming one’s capacity to give more full expression to one’s uniquely weird potentials and inclinations.
• Engaging in the queering of one’s own neurocognitive processes (and one’s outward embodiment and expression of those processes) by intentionally altering them in ways that create significant and lasting increase in one’s divergence from prevailing cultural standards of neuronormativity and heteronormativity.
• Approaching, embodying, and/or experiencing one’s neurodivergence as a form of queerness (e.g., in ways that are inspired by, or similar to, the ways in which queerness is understood and approached in Queer Theory, Gender Studies, and/or queer activism).
• Producing literature, art, scholarship, and/or other cultural artifacts that foreground neuroqueer experiences, perspectives, and voices.
• Producing critical responses to literature and/or other cultural artifacts, focusing on intentional or unintentional characterizations of neuroqueerness and how those characterizations illuminate and/or are illuminated by actual neuroqueer lives and experiences.
• Working to transform social and cultural environments in order to create spaces and communities – and ultimately a society – in which engagement in any or all of the above practices is permitted, accepted, supported, and encouraged.

Reference list

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