Thread by @NeuroRebel

We’ve got a long history of missteps when it comes to autism and gender. For example, the original model of autism is based very specifically on a very narrow definition of straight, cis, white, male autistic children.

This is why for a long time, we see autistic women, girls, and non binary people being missed - because our original model of autism very narrowly is based on little autistic boys leaving the rest of us somewhere undescribed.

Eventually ,after years and years of light up blue campaigns and people championing the idea that autism was a boy’s condition, there was an outcry to take a look at how autism manifests itself in Autistic women and girls.

It is important to realize that autism does present very differently when people are socialized differently - as women and girls often are.

But there are still some problems because now we have this binary mode of “male autism” and “female autism” because it completely ignoring Autistic people who may fall outside of the gender binary.

Maybe you are male and you fit the definition of stereotypically female autism or you are a woman and you fit the definition of male autism... then what?

Gendering autism saying “this is male autism” and “this is female autism” is creating a whole set of problems that we aren’t really talking about.

It’s important to talk about the different ways in which we see autism manifesting in people of different genders, but saying “males are this way, and females are this way” does a disservice to Autistic people who may not present the traditional way/fall outside of gender norms.

Something else that we need to consider when we are talking about gender differences in autism is how much of this difference in autistic women and girls is really a difference in how they are socialized.

As someone who was socialized as a woman/assigned female at birth and raised as a woman, the expectations put on me growing up were very different from the expectations of my male counterparts.

Manners are drilled into you from a very young age.

You are expected to “behave like a lady”, have good manners, be appropriate, be approachable, and warm.

Whereas my male counterparts growing up and my male peers often would get a pass for things saying, “boys will be boys”.

We could talk about how autism is manifesting differently in adults versus children, or how autism manifests differently when people are trained to mask their autistic traits.

Let me know your thoughts about gendered autism.

Do you agree with it? Do you disagree with it? Do you feel like you fit in the gender binary of autism or are you like me?

I don’t feel I quite fit in this binary model, especially as a non binary gender fluid person.

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