Matthew | The Autistic Coach on Nostr: “High Masking” isn’t a “new” word to use that’s affirming as a ...
“High Masking” isn’t a “new” word to use that’s affirming as a replacement for “high functioning”.
It’s simply a way for people to continue to refer to themselves that way and not be “that kind” of autistic person.
People can mask to a great degree and others to a lesser degree. It’s all masking.
Let’s not create more hierarchies for the neuronormative world to categorize us.
If anyone is “high masking” it isn’t anyone who uses that term - it’s the autistic person who is masking so hard that they don’t even understand that they could be autistic. It’s our parents, grandparents, etc - those who simp so hard for neuronormativity.
That isn’t to take away from the fact that many of us mask and mask so heavily that it destroys us. That’s very very real.
Let’s just not put a label on it that will be used to categorize us into “which autistics are useful and which aren’t”.
We need language to speak about destructive masking without using it to describe certain people as a separate type of autistic person that should be privileged.
Masking is real. For some it’s more destructive than others. It doesn’t make one higher on a scale.
Since the ND movement began in the 1990s I have seen people continuously creating new terms to say the same thing - "we are better and more unique than you - our experience is more important, more special - and so are we. we aren't like YOU other autistics"
Let's try to remember that words matter.
npub1mewd58tz390gcnw0ml99alkzzgcuj2yg9tdsjwt45zga54rtsj8qketau6 (npub1mew…tau6) #ActuallyAutistic
It’s simply a way for people to continue to refer to themselves that way and not be “that kind” of autistic person.
People can mask to a great degree and others to a lesser degree. It’s all masking.
Let’s not create more hierarchies for the neuronormative world to categorize us.
If anyone is “high masking” it isn’t anyone who uses that term - it’s the autistic person who is masking so hard that they don’t even understand that they could be autistic. It’s our parents, grandparents, etc - those who simp so hard for neuronormativity.
That isn’t to take away from the fact that many of us mask and mask so heavily that it destroys us. That’s very very real.
Let’s just not put a label on it that will be used to categorize us into “which autistics are useful and which aren’t”.
We need language to speak about destructive masking without using it to describe certain people as a separate type of autistic person that should be privileged.
Masking is real. For some it’s more destructive than others. It doesn’t make one higher on a scale.
Since the ND movement began in the 1990s I have seen people continuously creating new terms to say the same thing - "we are better and more unique than you - our experience is more important, more special - and so are we. we aren't like YOU other autistics"
Let's try to remember that words matter.
npub1mewd58tz390gcnw0ml99alkzzgcuj2yg9tdsjwt45zga54rtsj8qketau6 (npub1mew…tau6) #ActuallyAutistic