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Do males "mask"?

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HighLlama
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28 Jul 2019, 8:38 am

MagicMeerkat wrote:
I've been reading and hearing a lot about how autistic adults grow up wearing a metaphorical "mask" to blend in when with other people. Suppressing stims, not talking about special intrests, etc. But mostly all of these accounts come from women. Usually those who were not diagnosed until they had a child diagnosed and then the themselves were diagnosed at thirty or or forty. I've heard of fathers being diagnosed not long after their kids were diagnosed, but so far, most of these "mask" stories come from women. I am curious as to if males do this mask thing. My ex-boyfriend (were still friends) and he depicts himself with a mask. At first I figured it was just a reference to this animae/manga which is his special interest. Not long after I met him, I started hearing all these ladies referring to wearing a mask growing up. I asked him if it was in regards to being autistic and he said no, it's just from such and such animae.


I think people just keep discussing this bizarro idea that autism "presents" differently in women, and that gets parroted. No behavior is exclusive to being male or female, and I think masking just comes from how you think and how you're raised. It can have some unhealthy consequences, but it's also just a survival skill in some ways. So, yes, both men and women mask.



Mountain Goat
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28 Jul 2019, 12:03 pm

breaks0 wrote:
Mountain Goat wrote:
breaks0 wrote:
The topic that won't die at least on GAD. I probably do at least sometimes in public but I'm not working and live next to a university where I go to the library all the time so it'd be hard to tell when I do vs. when I don't w/o thinking really hard about it. I can pass for NT pretty easily most of the time both b/c of where I live (see my profile) especially when I don't talk or only engage in simple social interactions like going to the supermarket. It's so instinctive that it's really hard for me to determine when I'm doing it and when I'm not.


New York! That is where Cyndi Lauper lives. Say "Hello" to her from me the next time you see her. Tell her I am sorry I didn't appreciate her music when I was younger, except "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". I didn't know she sang more as I was not paying attention to music in my youth.


Ok sure. I can't say I'm a fan other than of "She Bop" which is a nice jam. Glad you like her though.


Thanks. :) I find some of the songs like "Change of Heart" so visually and audiably fantastic in her video... I never knew the song existed until about a year or two ago and I when I saw it I was blown away by the "Full on everything about it" effect. The contrasting colours have really inspired me in unexpected ways. I am slowly building myself a little portable model railway based on similar ideas.


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28 Jul 2019, 1:31 pm

I didn't know masking was a thing. I guess I don't do it then



CockneyRebel
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28 Jul 2019, 2:12 pm

Males certainly do mask.


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