Conceptualising Autistic Masking, Camouflaging, and Neurotypical Privilege: Towards a Minority Group Model of Neurodiversity

Abstract

Autistic masking and camouflaging—concealing Autistic traits to ‘pass’ as non-Autistic—is linked to negative developmental consequences including stress, mental illness, identity loss, and suicidality. Recent psychological literature on masking and camouflaging seeks to urgently address these issues—yet overlooks relevant sociological research. This study uses Sara Ahmed and Frantz Fanon’s work on masking, alongside Judith Butler’s concept of performativity, to formulate distinct sociological definitions for Autistic masking and camouflaging. I offer a qualitative Critical Discourse Analysis of 2018’s #TakeTheMaskOff Neurodiversity Activism campaign, alongside psychology masking/camouflaging literature, to question the social drivers of masking and camouflaging. Autism is widely understood as an ‘Invisible’ Disability. However, I found that the necessity of masking and camouflaging to avoid discrimination renders Autistic people a ‘Visible Neurominority Group’. Proposing a new Minority Group Model of Neurodiversity, I argue that Neurotypical hegemony, invisibility, and majority group privilege are key social drivers of masking and camouflaging.

Neurodiversity as Politics

“…Many autistic ac-tivists have framed neurodiversity as an explicitly political position in both communications to the broader community and the academic literature, referring to neurodiversity as "acceptance for neurological differences and disabilities" (Durbin-Westby, 2012) or explicitly framing it as an "alternative perspective… in contrast to the deficit model" (Robertson, 2010) rather than a simple biological reality. This tension is present even within this issue -for example, contrast Zajic and Brown's (2022) reference to "neurodiversity proponents" and "neurodiversity advocates" (consistent with the use of the term to describe an ideology) with Radulski's (2022) reference to neurodiversity as a "field" (consistent with the descriptive tradition of the term). In contrast to Walker, we believe that the use of the word neurodiversity, without further qualifiers, has a long history of being used in autistic activist communities to describe biology and ideology, with some believing the term refers only to one of these options and others applying it to both.…”

“…For example, Radulski's (2022) contribution offers an important exploration of neurodiversity activism against the demand that autistic people mask autistic traits, synthesizing the literature on the harmful impacts of "camouflaging" in autism with important concepts from literary, feminist, and disability theory. In so doing, Radulski makes use of terms like "neuroarchy" and "neurominority" to describe the experiences autistic people face living as social minorities in a majority-neurotypical world.…”

“…This special issue includes a number of important explorations of this concept. In documenting the #TakeTheMaskOff social media campaign, Radulski (2022) highlights the tremendous day-to-day stakes autistic people face as a minority living in a world that is often hostile to autistic ways of being, forcing onto autistic persons passing demands akin to those experienced by racial and ethnic minorities and other oppressed peoples. Zajic and Brown (2022) provide an interesting exploration of the implications of neurodiversity ideas on the teaching of writing, exploring what neurodiversity might mean for the teaching of writing and research on the development of autistic writing skills.…”

Autism and the Sensory Disruption of Social Experience

“…However, rather than representing such strategies as pathological attempts to compensate for a lack, I think they bear witness to an important sensory and perceptual aspect of compensation, which casts autistic social difficulties and reparatory practices as profoundly world-involving. Furthermore, phenomena such as masking emphasize the disabling and discriminatory effects of social norms and expectations in different societal contexts ( Radulski, 2022 ). An interesting avenue to pursue considering the current study is developing research approaches sensitive to both experiential and societal features of autism that would help address the question of how sensory experience relates and responds to social structures, norms, and expectations in concrete social contexts and interactions.…”

Autistic camouflaging across the spectrum

“…Some authorssuch as Pearson and Rose (2021) propose a broader characterization of masking that includes the suppression of behaviors as well as the production of a range of alternatives. However, generally speaking, researchers who do not sharply distinguish between masking and compensationor who are critical of the notion of compensation altogether 4 -tend to share the view that camouflaging has a predominantly negative impact and stress its correlations with suicidality, burnout, and poorer mental health outcomes (Cage et al, 2022;McCracken, 2021;Pearson & Rose, 2021;Radulski, 2022).…”