I am increasingly convinced that the concept of masking is fundamentally flawed and is actually detrimental.
Masking posits the idea that the autistic person who tries to function in allistic society is assuming a different and false personality - a mask - in order to do so.
My thinking is that this is not at all helpful. Humans are highly social animals and all humans need to be able to communicate accurately and effectively in order to function in a hugely complex society. Autistic humans need to do this just as much as any others, but they have an impairment. While allistics absorb and master all the subtleties of interpersonal communication by subconscious processes during childhood development, autistics do not to the same extent. Allistics then express this ability throughout life with no conscious effort. In contrast, to a greater or lesser extent, autistic people both master in childhood and then use throughout their lives, interpersonal communication skills that are based on conscious observation and emulation and are largely dependent on the use of the intellect.
The autistic person using these communication skills - which may be less effective than those subconscious skills used by allistics - is not adopting a different personality, they are just employing hard-won abilities. It is the immense intellectual investment that makes using these communication skills exhausting and can lead to anxiety and autistic burnout. The autistic person using allistic-style communication skills is the same person, with the same personality, as when they are not. They are not wearing a mask.
When autistics communicate with other autistics, or with allistics who are used to autistic styles of communication, it is much more straightforward and easy, not because they are being 'more authentic', or 'maskless', they are just not having to work as hard.
