Does masking really keep us safe

It is an illusion for the most part that hiding our autistic traits keeps us safe. I was ridiculed for decades for being autistic. It turns out that was not doing me any favours.

I have been treated better in many situations than that I was when I was trying not to be autistic. The last couple of years since being diagnosed as an autistic, I have allowed my autistic traits to gradually shine through without trying to hide them. Being autistic is like acting without a script. I guess that is the end to my unpaid acting career.

Most of my accommodations are met when I ask for them and no one has said to me, you do not look autistic thus far but that does not mean it will never happen, but it is less likely given how I now present. I do not hide my traits or my stims when I am out of the house and are selective mute in many public situations.

When I self-diagnosed as autistic at 63, I spent a year unpacking my autistic self before my assessment which made it a lot easier for the clinician to diagnose me as autistic, although I still think it would have been detected. I experienced decades of physical and emotional abuse from society and my autistic mother for my autistic traits, and why I have complex trauma. No one and nothing kept me safe from that no matter how many times I tried to hide the things that triggered them to abuse me.

There are some circumstances where hiding our traits will keep us safe just like anyone else if we feel in danger. I do believe if more autistic people unmasked, they would find that many people will be more accepting and accommodating than they think but of course it is not a given. Many of us try to hide our traits very poorly anyway, and why the years of abuse before we were diagnosed so were we safe?, no.

We are all human first so the masses in general will be hiding things about themselves for fear of ridicule. We all do it for different reasons, so this begs the question are we trying to be like people who are pretending to be someone else? yes, we are and why for the most part it does not work. In the end we are trying to hide our autistic traits from so called allistic a people who are also hiding their true selves.

There is no such thing as a normal so why are trying to copy people that are not a one size fits normal, we are not sheep. Normal is a fiction character made up by society that told us to be like so we could be managed for their selfish gain. Society is manipulating every one to conform to one superior neurotype, so we are all being screwed.