#ActuallyAustic

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Devon Price: Unmasking Autism (Hardcover, 2022, Harmony Books) 5 stars

A deep dive into the spectrum of Autistic experience and the phenomenon of masked Autism, …

A book I wish it would be translated into > 50 languages

5 stars

Radical and intriguing, this isn't the common book about Autism that you find in bookshelves, especially not written in languages other than English. This groundbreaking book, written by an Autistic and transgender author, is all about those hidden, 'masked' Autistics, especially from intersectionally marginalised populations, like Black, trans, women and other marginalised genders, and people with other disabilities on top.

Dr. Price takes a radical approach of harm reduction and social justice, identifying how much harm the ableist & capitalist society inflicts on Autistics (and on other neuro-divergent and disabled people, but really on everyone), forcing them into obscuring their disabilities, so that they can conform to 'normality' and function in an alienating, industrial society that punishes our quirks. The book helps neurodivergent people identifying their disability (seen from the social model of disability), and guides neuro-divergent people how they can actualise their own identity and identity their own values …

It's weird that the only concept allistics have of autistic people being different from each other, even when it's been explained to them, is "more autistic" vs "less autistic", and their assessment of this seems to be almost entirely based on how much an individual speaks and socializes, little else. To them, if you mask but struggle greatly underneath, you are " less autistic" than someone who functions well but is non-verbal and stims often. That's their entire view.


Here's a way of understanding how mild autism is simultaneously a super power and a curse.

It you study a tadpole in sufficient detail, most of the rest of the universe is implied.

Knowing this guy's name is Mike? That fact exists in near perfect isolation. Nothing else can be derived from that fact, and how he came to be named Mike is both too personal to be told and an unreliable story if known.

So I know a lot about amphibians and I keep forgetting Mike's name.