A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä

The gendered costs of masking : lived experiences of a woman with invisible disabilities;




TekijätCasteleijn-Osorno, Regina

KustantajaTaylor & Francis

Julkaisuvuosi2026

Lehti: Disability and Society

ISSN0968-7599

eISSN1360-0508

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2026.2677508

Julkaisun avoimuus kirjaamishetkelläAvoimesti saatavilla

Julkaisukanavan avoimuus Osittain avoin julkaisukanava

Verkko-osoitehttps://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2026.2677508

Rinnakkaistallenteen osoitehttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/526483577

Rinnakkaistallenteen lisenssiCC BY

Rinnakkaistallennetun julkaisun versioKustantajan versio


Tiivistelmä

Invisible disabilities often remain unrecognised until they disrupt normative expectations, placing women in a paradox where inclusion depends on performing normativity. This autoethnography examines the psycho-emotional costs of identity management as a neurodivergent mother, caregiver, and scholar. Guided by intersectional feminist disability frameworks, I analyse personal journals and reflections to foreground the lived realities of invisible disability. The analysis reveals four themes: Masking and Conformity; When Masking Fails; The Gendered Burden of Resilience; and The Sunflower Lanyard as a Scarlet Letter. Findings show that social participation for neurodivergent women is predicated on suppressing disability traits to meet gendered expectations. Furthermore, the study explores how tools like the Sunflower lanyard can fail without institutional training, potentially functioning as a marker of othering rather than a tool for relational care. This research advances scholarship by highlighting the precarious nature of conditional inclusion.



Avainsanat:
autoethnographyfeminist disability studies[endif]gendered masking[endif]invisible disabilitiespsycho-emotional disablism

Ladattava julkaisu

This is an electronic reprint of the original article.
This reprint may differ from the original in pagination and typographic detail. Please cite the original version.





Last updated on