I cringe every time I have to hear an allistic person talk down to me, so I get it. I think they sometimes even mean well, which I’m not sure is better or worse.
Most don’t, to be fair, but I’ve mostly found a way to be around like-minded (and some officially like-diagnosed) people in my personal and work life to minimize the problem. Helps me realize I’m not some isolated alien, just wired differently and I’m not alone.
“Neurotypicals never learn masking, because they have never had to.”
Kinda bullshit.
First off, I love your username. Secondly, you’re right. It’s a generalization. For the sake of clarity, I could have written it as, “Most neurotypical people don’t learn masking to the extent that neurodiverse people generally need to, because the natural behaviour of neurotypical people is more readily accepted by their peers and society at large. Hence the moniker neurotypical.”
The thing is, I don’t really edit my blog posts. I just write a thing and hit publish. I thought the subject matter might interest some people in this community, so I shared the link. I didn’t think about it very long. It is absolutely appropriate to call me out for a poorly-worded assertion, and I thank you for the feedback. I will keep it in mind going forward.
That might depend on the definition of “masking” (and whether it includes a component of an abnormally high degree of faking), but in any case there’s definitely a spectrum where some people are forced to work harder to maintain a more “normal” appearance than others.
Like body height, we all lie on that spectrum somewhere or another, and where we lie on it makes some things easier and other things harder.
What the blog writer seems to be asking for is a greater level of accommodation for differences that would affect the entire spectrum, but particularly those who are currently hurt by it the most.
You are technically right that we all need to it though.
One thing with my current bout of unemployement is I have never been so disencentivized to mask/conform as the way my country currently is.
Ouch I am so sorry to hear that. Yes the world is most decidedly very far from being “fair”, since some have made it their life’s effort to tilt it in the certain ways that most benefit them:-(. e.g. The Musk affects us all, though some more than others:-(.
