Any GC feminists with autism?

I will be very upset if my comments explaining how my social disability makes the requirements of gender ideology very difficult for me to follow are deleted.

So many self identify as asd too. It appears trendy

Yes
I've read too that those with ASD are more likely to believe in gender but its not true of me or DC
I struggle so much with it. I would never misgender a person to their face but I would avoid using terms at all because I cannot be dishonest. The dishonesty troubles me greatly. I have to be careful how I phrase this as I've been deleted before but the whole obsession with 'passing' feels dishonest. I wish people could accept and celebrate their reality and I believe we would all be happier

Some people have said that autistic people have more of a tendency to believe in gender ideology, but I haven't seen any proof of that. I wonder if it's mainly younger autistic people who, in common with all young people, are searching for a sense of identity and belonging? I've no idea.

I think that's largely it, trying to fit in, to conform. 'Gender' is a hot topic amongst young people and generally teens are like sheep. They like to think they're individual, different, but most aren't. They just follow each other.

Social media is a huge influence in 'gender ideology' and I have never been so thankful as I am now to be a teen of the 70's. I can't imagine surviving now as back then I thought I was an alien, so maybe my alien was the equivalent their 'gender'?

The thing parents should be instilling is acceptance of differences.

I had an appalling, abusive childhood, so my acceptance came very, very late. But with good parents, a stable environment, a good support network, young people can work through and accept their differences.

Trouble is, I fear a lot don't want to, and would instead rather jump on the narcissistic, self obsessed bandwagon.

Unfortunately, diagnostic assessment for autism can be very difficult to access, especially for those who are disadvantaged in other ways, and diagnostic techniques can tend to miss the presence of autism in women and girls. This feed into the trend for self-ID in autism — there are many undiagnosed autistics, particularly women and girls, who can benefit from participating in autistic communities but have no way to obtain the correct diagnosis. Autistic communities tend to want to accept and welcome these people, so will institute pro-self-ID policies in order not to exclude those without access to decent diagnostic services. Then the communities are taken over by the self-identified.

@FrankensteinIsTheMonster
Yes, that makes a lot of sense thank you.

Scuse typos.

Namechangecosguilty — you see a lot of young low-support-needs autistics heavily involved in gender-ideology stuff, and I think there's a few reasons behind that:

• Many are preoccupied with fairness, and this is the current most fashionable social justice campaign
• Most will have personal experience of what it feels like to be the outsider, and instinctively side with those they perceive to be in that position
• Many societal gender roles and norms are arbitrary and not backed up by logic, leading autistics to question them, and modern gender ideology is often the main thing they come across when they start to investigate
• Many autistics will struggle to play the gender role society allocates to people of their sex (and would struggle with playing any societally-imposed roles, because of the nature of their brains) and genderism provides an explanation and a get-out

Additionally, a lot of online "autistic" communities have moved heavily towards a self-ID framework. Identifying as "autistic" (regardless of whether one would meet diagnostic criteria including the requirement for symptoms to have significant detrimental impact on say-to-day-functioning) shares many benefits with, and had a great deal in common with, identifying as gender-variant in some way. A ready-made and validating community, vindication of one's differentness/specialness, the ability to claim one is disadvantaged or subject to discrimination, justification for flouting arbitrary social rules, and so on. The individuals who are drawn to identifying as some variety of "queer" are often the same ones who are drawn to identifying as "neurodivergent". So in addition to there being what seems to be genuinely high levels of autistic people who are of a minority sexual orientation or identify as gender-variant in some way, there's also lots of people describing themselves as queer and autistic who haven't been assessed for autism, don't want to be assessed for autism, and IMO likely wouldn't meet criteria if they were.

@GCandautistic
This is why I am a little worried about a friend's daughter.

She's not diagnosed but even her mum thinks she is probably autistic.

She's thankfully through the worst bits of puberty, but during that time she has self harmed and been confused about her sexuality (think she's now realised she is gay which is great).

She would be a prime candidate for gender ideology grooming. It wouldn't be so bad to experiment if there wasn't the option to cause irreversible damage to the body at a time of great confusion for most people.

She's a clever girl and scientifically minded so I'm hopeful she'll find her way.

I think there are loads of us.

You might like this talk with Rachel Ara where she speaks about her autism:

This is really interesting. Hope you don't mind me commenting as I'm almost certainly NT. I do have an autistic child, hence why I'm interested.

Some people have said that autistic people have more of a tendency to believe in gender ideology, but I haven't seen any proof of that. I wonder if it's mainly younger autistic people who, in common with all young people, are searching for a sense of identity and belonging? I've no idea.

I've spoken with my autistic teen about gender identity and I get the feeling he's not questioning his own but is open to others doing so, which is fine by me.

I know puberty was traumatic for me so can see why girls would want to opt out.

Some people have likened gender ideology to 'the Emperor's New Clothes'. I always found that story difficult to get my head around (which I know is the point).

Again, apologies if I'm butting in !!

Me too, dxed in my twenties, now also have a twenty something GC DD (which is a relief because so many autistic young women are being sucked into the gender tinsel factory).

Can’t RTFT now, so just marking my place and saying hi 👋🏻

I'm not so bad with being asked about stuff that's matters of opinion, or where I can dodge it. If asked "Do you like my new dress?" and I didn't, I'd find something else to say about it that they might reasonably take to mean yes. If asked "Do you like my new dress" and they were wearing dungarees, it would be more of a struggle to go along with it.

I've learned to tell white lies to save people's feelings but can only do it when I'm prepared eg if I'm opening a a present, I know that I might not like it and have learned what I should say and what facial expressions to make.

It's only when somebody asks me a question that I hadn't expected, that I have to blurt out whatever's in my head.

Luckily, there haven't been any conversations about trans issues at work - so far at least.

For me it’s the factual inaccuracy. It’s like a religion that I can’t buy into and yet am having to pretend belief in just to socially survive.
I’m very interested in (ok obsessed with) the 16 and 17th centuries, and there are so many disturbing parallels.
I had a lot of issues growing up around becoming a woman (my mum actually slapped me around the face because I became hysterical when I started my periods). I dread to think what I could have put myself through if I was 11 now.

My autism massively affects my ability to lie. If someone asks me a question where I know social norms require a lie, eg 'Do you like my new dress?' when I think it's horrid, I have to literally put my hands over my mouth to stop the truth coming out. Biology is a fact and I can't lie about it, no matter how much I may want to or how much others try to coerce me into it.