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Do You Wear a Mask in Public?
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Do you wear a mask in public?
Yes
81%
 81%  [ 50 ]
No
18%
 18%  [ 11 ]
Total Votes : 61

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thyme
Phoenix
Phoenix


Joined: Aug 06, 2007
Posts: 777
Location: Over the Hills and Far Away

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 2:06 pm    Post subject: Do You Wear a Mask in Public? Reply with quote

To hide who you really are?
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emergingartist54
Blue Jay
Blue Jay


Joined: Aug 16, 2007
Posts: 85
Location: Connecticut

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 2:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If I say whatever comes into my head people get a peculiar and lopsided impression, even more false than the impression they get from my relatively controlled performance as a relatively normal human being!

I don't know about you but my "true self" has many aspects. They can't possibly all be active at the same time!

For instance, with my girlfriend there is a big part of me that just wants to put my head in her lap and be comforted. I can't expect her to put up with that all the time, and if I did that other equally genuine parts of my persona would be crowded out and unable to express themselves. We always have to make choices about what parts of ourselves get to come out to play at different times. Smile
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paolo
Phoenix
Phoenix


Joined: Aug 13, 2006
Posts: 1094
Location: Italy

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's not a coldly chosen mask to deceive, but certainly when I am with other people I am always a tiring construction. My true self is only for me. Inevitably.
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sinsboldly
Free Range Aspie


Joined: Nov 22, 2006
Age: 57
Posts: 7591
Location: Oregon, USA

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 3:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a little secret I wear upon my face
I keep it very near to me in a most convenient place.
I hope you do not guess it, you might take me to task
I take it out and put it on, it's my "normal" NT mask!

It keeps the world from pressing in; it makes me look like you!
I wear it so easily you won’t believe that it's not true
I laugh and nod and make my mouth do what passes for a smile
I walk and talk and do the stuff that makes me rank and file.

But underneath the artifice, I am bored with all your talk.
Your gossip and your ‘he said-she said’; at all of this I balk!
You're constantly rattling on about the very least of things
your husband's warts, your baby's farts, your last romantic fling.

I’m sure it’s very interesting, and I tilt my head just so
I don’t want to be left out, so I put on the show.
After all should I decide to let my Aspie out?
I could bore you too, to TEARS, and be thought of as a lout.

So when you’re on and on about the rights of "people of the pod*"
and force your strict conformity on politics, style, and God.
Mind games you play with no regard for innocence or youth
you're quick to point with fingers gnarled at what you see as 'Truth.’

But I bear it all with stoicism, and onward do I march
to keep lock step with all of you when inwardly I lurch
you rub me wrong, you irritate, you scrape my nerve ends raw
you constantly regale me with what you did and saw

So if I inwardly rebel against the draw of luck
and stifle yelling to your face, “you idiot! you suck!”
and out from the mask cracks the rebellion wells and oozes
pardon me, in the genetic crap shoot; YOU are the bunch of losers. ·


(Pod people) obscure reference to a 1957 black and white horror movie called "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" where people were cloned in pods like peas. it's poetic license, so sue me!


Last edited by sinsboldly on Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:05 pm; edited 1 time in total
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postpaleo
Huh?


Joined: Feb 22, 2007
Age: 58
Posts: 3036

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 3:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wear one here too, if I get what you're asking. Very seldom drop some form of mask, intentional mask. Don't think it's even possible to do. I don't think of masks in a positive vs negitive light, either. One could argue there really is no such thing as a mask, I do think. Masks in the symbolic sense are interesting concepts to look at. Perhaps the baby at birth wears no mask, I'm not 100% certian about that either.
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paolo
Phoenix
Phoenix


Joined: Aug 13, 2006
Posts: 1094
Location: Italy

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

postpaleo wrote:
Wear one here too, if I get what you're asking. Very seldom drop some form of mask, intentional mask. Don't think it's even possible to do. .... Perhaps the baby at birth wears no mask.

I agree.
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Tanz
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl


Joined: Jan 19, 2007
Posts: 157
Location: leaving Orlando soon

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've battled for a long time between trying to be normal or popular and just being myself and lonely around other people, and all it did was bring me anxiety and depression. Now, I don't care what people think of me; I'm confident that those willing to get to know me will like me for who I truly am, and the others don't matter.

The only exceptions to this and times when I do put on a mask and pretend to be normal is in official situations, where any erratic behavior would be contrary to my benefit. For instance, job interviews, talking to police, bank tellers, hospital staff, college counselors. In other words, people who can or do hold power over me, and can make my life hell by denying me whatever it is I am seeking from them, or people who may get suspicious that I am something that I'm not.
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Starr
Phoenix
Phoenix


Joined: Sep 18, 2006
Posts: 4254
Location: the misty mountain

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 5:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes. Although it is not always an adequate one, I don't think. My favourite mask is the joker one, that is a lot like the real me, some of the time anyway. I also have a 'don't mess with me' mask that is useful when I'm feeling vulnerable.
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thyme
Phoenix
Phoenix


Joined: Aug 06, 2007
Posts: 777
Location: Over the Hills and Far Away

PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2007 11:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I feel that I must where a mask to hide the fact that I am not "normal'' around neurotypicals. I'm always watching what I say, how I sound, how I walk, facial expressions or lack, eye contact (too little/too much), smiling or not smiling, and allot of other little things. I often wish I could just be myself like other people. But it is not socialy acceptable to be the way I am Sad
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Starr
Phoenix
Phoenix


Joined: Sep 18, 2006
Posts: 4254
Location: the misty mountain

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 5:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, I know what you mean. It's so tiring isn't it? I think that's one reason why those of us on the spectrum need time alone, as ourselves, or with people who accept us as we are, to recharge our batteries.
I used to wear the NT mask when I was at work, I think maybe you have to, but I don't so often now in other situations. I am reaching the stage where I think ******'em. If they don't like me they can do the other. Wink

Merle, I love your poem. It also reminds me of the film "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers", remember how they did that horrible scream when they saw someone who wasn't one of them? That's NT's for you!
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sinsboldly
Free Range Aspie


Joined: Nov 22, 2006
Age: 57
Posts: 7591
Location: Oregon, USA

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Starr wrote:
Yes, I know what you mean. It's so tiring isn't it? I think that's one reason why those of us on the spectrum need time alone, as ourselves, or with people who accept us as we are, to recharge our batteries.
I used to wear the NT mask when I was at work, I think maybe you have to, but I don't so often now in other situations. I am reaching the stage where I think ******'em. If they don't like me they can do the other. Wink

Merle, I love your poem. It also reminds me of the film "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers", remember how they did that horrible scream when they saw someone who wasn't one of them? That's NT's for you!


Starr you are the best diplomat, ever! Of course it wasn't "Night of the Living Dead" it was "Invasion of the Body Snatchers!" Thank you so much for the subtle clue!

Merle Wink
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Starr
Phoenix
Phoenix


Joined: Sep 18, 2006
Posts: 4254
Location: the misty mountain

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 2:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh! Thanks, but it wasn't a subtle clue Merle! I've never seen "Night of the Living Dead." It was just a lucky coincidence. Very Happy
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thyme
Phoenix
Phoenix


Joined: Aug 06, 2007
Posts: 777
Location: Over the Hills and Far Away

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 3:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Starr wrote:
Yes, I know what you mean. It's so tiring isn't it? I think that's one reason why those of us on the spectrum need time alone, as ourselves, or with people who accept us as we are, to recharge our batteries.
I used to wear the NT mask when I was at work, I think maybe you have to, but I don't so often now in other situations. I am reaching the stage where I think ******'em. If they don't like me they can do the other. Wink

Merle, I love your poem. It also reminds me of the film "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers", remember how they did that horrible scream when they saw someone who wasn't one of them? That's NT's for you!


I love your poem too, Merle! I forgot to tell you before. Did you write it yourself?
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sinsboldly
Free Range Aspie


Joined: Nov 22, 2006
Age: 57
Posts: 7591
Location: Oregon, USA

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 3:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

thyme wrote:
Starr wrote:
Yes, I know what you mean. It's so tiring isn't it? I think that's one reason why those of us on the spectrum need time alone, as ourselves, or with people who accept us as we are, to recharge our batteries.
I used to wear the NT mask when I was at work, I think maybe you have to, but I don't so often now in other situations. I am reaching the stage where I think ******'em. If they don't like me they can do the other. Wink

Merle, I love your poem. It also reminds me of the film "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers", remember how they did that horrible scream when they saw someone who wasn't one of them? That's NT's for you!


I love your poem too, Merle! I forgot to tell you before. Did you write it yourself?


Yep, back when Yowling Cat started the first Dino-Aspie Cafe I wrote it to the tune of "Great Big Brownie Smile" in my head. We used to have poem reading at the old Cafe and I wrote it for the first poetry reading night.

that was ages ago, I wonder why I haven't written anything since? humm. .just haven't thought of it, I guess. Thanks for all the good feedback on it!

You know, it is really pretty fun to rewrite verses to well known songs. It's called "filking" and you can really get a good rhythm going!

Merle
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Beenthere
10 Miles South of Sanity


Joined: Dec 30, 2005
Age: 41
Posts: 2080
Location: Pa.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 4:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Been wearing a mask in public for years...only problem is that every now and then it cracks when I'm under stress. Laughing
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