I'm really not on board with this idea of 'female autism', as if autism inherently appears differently in girls than in boys - it's gender essentialist, reinforces a false binary and let's the medical profession off the hook for its systemic misogynistic bias.
Yes, I think the different ways that genders are raised in society can have impact, but I don't think it's inherently different. I believe our autistic traits are often either dismissed or interpreted through a biased lens, even when those traits present the same across genders.
I'm trying to find that study where they have autism professionals profiles of kids and their reported traits, and asked them whether they would diagnose them, and they were far more likely to diagnose a child that was identified as male, even if the traits were exactly the same.
In the same way, teachers and even parents are less likely to report autistic traits as autistic if we're talking about kids perceived as girls rather than boys. So those children are less likely to be diagnosed, and more likely to find themselves having to blend in.
Of course many of these kids are better at masking, because they've had to be in order to survive. And then the fact that they've had to learn how to do this is used against them, again, to explain away why they weren't diagnosed.
We need to talk about gender and autism, we have to, but so often we talk about it in such binary terms that it's harmful. How do we discuss it whilst rejecting the idea of 'male and female' as a strict binary? We need to be doing better by autistic people of all genders.
Is it different presentation, is it inherent or heavily influence by socialization, is it actually not all that different initially but missed due to systemic bias, and does presentation then become different due to lack of diagnosis?
We need to talk about ALL these things.
We need to talk about ALL these things.
And not just with gender.
We need to talk about this in everything, because it affects every autistic person who doesn't fall into the category of little white boy.
We need to talk about this in everything, because it affects every autistic person who doesn't fall into the category of little white boy.
We need research into ways that presentation changes, to help people who have been missed get their diagnosis, but we also need to research this without assuming that autism is biologically different in different genders, races etc. and ignoring systemic bias.
And also, the separation into 'boy autism' and 'girl autism' is completely damaging to trans people, and especially when we know so many of our autistic siblings are trans.
