Shifting the Vulnerability Economy: Autism and Unmasking

Abstract Autistics are often viewed and treated as a vulnerable population. But what does vulnerability mean in this context, based on first-person, autistic perspectives and our own self-understandings and community-grown reflections, rather than neuronormative expectations? To explore this, we focus on the phenomenon of autistic masking, and what masking and unmasking in different contexts enables and reveals. Drawing on feminist scholarship on conceptualizing vulnerability and treating neurodiversity as an axis of intersectionality, we argue that it is useful to distinguish between what we call openness vulnerability and harm vulnerability, in order to appreciate not only the risks but also the benefits of autistic unmasking. We begin with the notion of neuronormativity, how it is harmful to autistics, and how it institutes an unjust vulnerability economy. We then introduce the concepts of harm vulnerability and openness vulnerability at the core of our argument for a shift in the vulnerability economy toward more just allocations of vulnerability between autistics and neurotypicals. Next, we look more closely at how these unjust vulnerability dynamics play out in the contexts of higher education and healthcare. Finally, we consider strategies for resisting neuronormativity under the non-ideal circumstances of the status quo.