flexibeast.space - gemlog - 2023-03-02
Let's talk about neuronormativity and ableism in queer/tgd communities
Neuronormativity and ableism in queer and tgd communities can manifest in things like:
- Making noisy and/or bright in-person social events critical for connecting with others.
- Downplaying or invalidating people's boundaries as e.g. being ‘silly’ or ‘sex-negative’, instead of respecting them.
- Endorsing and perpetuating false assumptions and stereotypes about autism and adhd.
- Treating kink dynamics as inherently ‘optional’, rather than being the most appropriate relationship structure for some people.
- Assuming that all ‘real’ disabilities are immediately visible, and that someone other than the affected person can decide what is and isn't a disability for them.
- Ignoring, marginalising or criticising those who don't perform queerness / transness / genderqueerness in the ‘right’ way (e.g. saying they're ‘fake’ or ‘cosplaying queerness’).
- Thinking of all neurodivergence as an ‘illness’ or a ‘problem’ simply resulting from moral failings / capitalism / trauma / etc., and in need of ‘fixing’ or ‘solving’, rather than at least part it being a reflection of human diversity. Sound familiar?
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