neuroqueer meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

neuroqueer

adj

UK /ˈnjʊə.ɹəʊˈkwɪə/ · US /ˈn(j)ʊ.ɹoʊˈkwɪɹ/

Etymology From neuro- + queer.

Neologism Belonging to, characteristic of, or related to the intersection of neurodivergence and queerness, particularly autism and LGBT identities.

Whether discussed in clinical journals or in media accounts, ABA purports to change neural pathways, rewire neuroqueer brains, and ford synapses.2018, M. Remi Yergeau, Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness, page 123:
Neuroqueer perspectives challenge typical understandings of identity categories through disidentification processes. A neuroqueer project not only questions typical conceptions of gender but also pivots away from normative gender categories altogether.2019 February, Justine E. Enger, “'The Disability Rights Community Was Never Mine': Neuroqueer Disidentification”, in Gender & Society, volume 33, number 1, page 124:

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My conceptualization of neuroqueer technoscience is also strongly influenced by 3 my own experiences as a multiply neurodivergent queer femme.2022, Jessica Sage Rauchberg, “Imagining a Neuroqueer Technoscience”, in Studies in Social Justice, volume 16, number 2, page 372:

noun

Etymology From neuro- + queer.

Neologism The state or quality of being neuroqueer.

Neuroqueer is a queer/crip response to normative discussions about gender, sexuality, and disability as pathology.2019 February, Justine E. Enger, “'The Disability Rights Community Was Never Mine': Neuroqueer Disidentification”, in Gender & Society, volume 33, number 1, page 124:
Autistic rhetoric scholar Melanie Yergeau theorizes neuroqueer as a kind of “asocially perverse” motioning.2021, Ryan Lee Cartwright, Peculiar Places: A Queer Crip History of White Rural Nonconformity, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 188:

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For a primer on the issue of neuroqueer and its roots in multiple discourse fields from queer aversion therapy to antiautistic hate speech, see Yergeau 2018.2022, Peter Kuppers, Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters, unnumbered page:

Neologism One who belongs to the neuroqueer community.

In this regard, the potential of a prosthetic, specialized environment is the always-now —any change could result in neuroqueers backsliding into neuroqueerity.2018, M. Remi Yergeau, Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness, unnumbered page:
For those of us who inhabit the spaces between the cracks, the neuroqueers who wander outside a prescribed notion of “cognitive normalcy,” we know things are not that simple.2019, Nadia Erlam, “Cognitive Dispossession: Ecofeminism, Entheogens, and Neuroqueering Drug Policy”, in Chiara Baldini, David Luke, Maria Papaspyrou, editors, Psychedelic Mysteries of the Feminine: Creativity, Ecstasy, and Healing, unnumbered page:

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We affirm that there is nomore important queer project than for neuroqueers, crips, and non-normates more generally to survive with an essential flourish (Peers, 2018) in the face of that which would render our most basic needs undesirable, untenable, unreasonable, or “special.”2020, Lindsay Eales, Danielle Peers, “Care haunts, hurts, heals: The promiscuous poetics of queer crip Mad care”, in Journal of Lesbian Studies, volume 25, number 3:

verb

Etymology From neuro- + queer.

Neologism To make or become neuroqueer.

I believe in the potentialities of autistic stories and gestures, of neuroqueering what we've come to understand as language and being.2018, M. Remi Yergeau, Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric and Neurological Queerness, unnumbered page:
King’s video neuroqueers the dominant popular cultural image of autistic people always having great powers of visual memory by showing a different version of this.2018, Anna Reading, “Neurodiversity and Communication Ethics: How Images of Autism Trouble Communication Ethics in the Globital Age”, in Cultural Studies Review, volume 24, number 2, page 120:

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Listening to autistic narratives reveals possibilities for neuroqueering interpersonal communication theory.2021, Kristen L. Cole, “Neuroqueering interpersonal communication theory: listening to autistic object-orientations”, in Review of Communication, volume 21, number 3:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.