So, to weigh into this #ActuallyAutistic "To Mask or Not to Mask" topic:
I think the answer to this is rife with complexity. Factors include:
1) degree of masking, 2) the relative need according to context to mask, 3) relative degree of privilege, 4) the long term health impacts of the stress of excessive masking, 5) the relative difference in long term impact on health to the individual if they refuse to mask, and 6) deciding which has the worst long term health outcome: masking, or not masking, which can lead to life-long consequences like a never-ending economic struggle to survive, the very real possibility of houselessness, lack of income, food insecurity (i.e., hunger!), lack of support.
So many speakers/authors in the autistic world, including some of those who conduct research, seem to be coming from a place of relative affluence, so it becomes a somewhat abstract, reductionist (and thus flawed) discussion, without taking into consideration different contexts, while to others who don't have economic security the consequences of not masking are not abstract, but all too real, and thus have less latitude to choose not to mask.
It seems a foregone conclusion that not masking, and the economic fallout from that for many of us, would not be a possible path to follow.
It doesn't mean we can't try to find safe places where we can be ourselves more. It doesn't mean the relief of not masking would not benefit us.
So, please don't make it the "new cool advocacy thing" to tell people not to mask if it isn't safe, or to urge them to disclose their autism when it might not be wise, and don't dismiss people whose lived experience informs them that they can't safely drop the camouflaging or disclose openly their autism.
Some of us are much more neurologically sensitive to social environments. The repercussions from being too open around neurotypicals, such as bosses, professors, co-workers, apartment managers, may be too much to endure.
@obrerx @actuallyautistic Plus, *customers* (clients/patrons/whatever your field might call them.) I've always wanted to read something about what unmasking is supposed to look like, if it can even be done in any meaningful way, for those of us in fields where even the neurotypicals need to put on a Customer Service Persona. If the assumption is that even masking autistic people can't succeed in those fields I invite anybody who thinks that to get to know some librarians, they'll find some.
@estellechauvelin @obrerx @actuallyautistic I think a lot of librarians are neurodivergent. And you can do the whole customer service act. It’s the doing it all day everyday that is the soul killing part for me.
@dheadley @obrerx @actuallyautistic Yes, that's what I said, and of course we can do the customer service act, we do it all day. I want to read something about unmasking that either explains how it can coexist with the customer service act or at least addresses the challenges of, on one hand, being told that you need to unmask for your own wellbeing while on the other needing to do the customer service act for food and shelter.