what is the most important step a man can take? the next one

In reality, I think the behavior pattern that we name as "masking" is the natural behavioral and psychological result of being consistently punished for attempting to acknowledge your own reality during formative developmental periods. And I'm not sure that "masking" is a clarifying word to use for this

The "recovering from burnout as a high masking person" post does use this framework, but I think that referring to people whose sense of their own internal reality has been so warped and shattered that they have to completely learn from scratch as "high masking" is just not intuitive and that it communicates what is being discussed... Poorly. I understand that that is the language that is used by the community broadly rn, and I don't object to individual instances of its use, but I do think that we would be better served in these conversations by framing it differently than "masking"

It bugs me! And I think it creates unnecessary friction among communities of people first discovering autism and is susceptible to a weird kind of reverse curb cut effect where unmasking (== "stretching out and de-contorting from the society in which you live into a more comfortable shape") is set aside as something Just For Autistics, as if there aren't lots of groups of people whose existence is policed and shaped and bonsai-trimmed into painfully stunted or twisted shapes. Which, of course there are, and not all of them are groups where a mental health framework is remotely appropriate (e.g. constraints on the acceptable behavior of black people especially in gendered contexts), so why are we framing so much advocacy this way?

some carrie fisher tweets to brighten your day

For the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in 1994, flag creator Gilbert Baker was commissioned to make the world’s largest flag. The flag took months of planning and work done by teams of volunteers. The flag utilized the basic six colors of the rainbow and measured thirty feet wide by a mile long.

exploding him with my mind powers

Solange Knopf (Belgian, b. 1957) - Merkabah, Colored pencil on paper, 78.7 × 109.2 cm (2016)

Solange Knopf (Belgian, b. 1957) - Big Bang (Behind the Darkness serie), Mixed media on paper, 72,4 x 54,6 cm (2014)

Happy Pride from Sing Sing to You!

This vintage illustration, often titled "Cats - Playful Kitten Circus" by Helena Maguire from around the 1910s, depicts felines engaging with colorful hopping balls.

I don't have ms paint but just pretend it is bc no one knows paintbrush for mac but i can assure you it was just as hellish if not worse since theres technically no brushes other than a pixel round brush and the worst looking freaking spray paint

IT'S A PAINTING!!!

A novel by Grantaire

Sometimes I just look at this photo of when people had to enjoy the local canal (not optional).