Autism

[BlackLetterDay]

Are there many people on the GC side who are autistic? I often hear of people on the other side being autistic but not so much with GC. I just wonder because the majority of people don't seem to give a crap either way.

Have you seen this thread? It’s links to a Facebook group for GC Austistic people

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4000607-Speech-by-Emily-Weir-of-Gender-Critical-Autistics

Yup. Diagnosed as a teen, back in the hey-day of 'male brain' and Baron-Cohen. Fortunately diagnosed before I discovered the internet. Apart from the other benefits, I am thankful for that because I can see how otherwise I could have hung all my issues on 'being born in the wrong body'. Asperger's Syndrome was a label that came with far less irreversible medical treatment.

Yes my dd who is 25 and diagnosed autistic. But she feels like she has to keep it under wraps from her peer group as she hates confrontation.

She also doesn't like lies.

Me. Adult diagnosis following my daughter’s diagnosis. GC bordering on obsessive!

Me, I had a private assessment when I was 39 (moment of realization after researching about autism for my son and having a lightbulb moment). I had an assessment as I am full of self doubt (being in an abusive relationship part of it) and kept getting told I wasn't or didn't seem autistic so I found the validation useful for me.

I'm GC, and I'm in some Facebook groups for females with autism, but feel I can't speak up about being gender critical without being called transphobic or other terms.

Please define acronyms in first usage. What does GC mean?

Very interesting thread.

I have an ASD 11 yr old DD who I’m very worried will fall into the trans trap. I have traits and grew up thinking I had a male brain, now I realise there’s no such thing aside from hormones and socialisation effects. DH has been diagnosed as being on the spectrum and thinks it’s nonsense to the extent that he can’t believe anyone would be taken in or others would need to combat elements of the ideology.

I’m too logical and can’t ignore reality, although I feel a lot of empathy for “genuine” trans people, whatever that means now.

I am autistic and massively against all of this gender stereotyping etc. It's unintelligble to me, and I also think it is hugely damaging. It makes no sense at all and I think, particularly for autistic girls, these gendered expectations are toxic.

I can absolutely see how autistic girls in particular get dragged into the trans stuff because the stereotypes of "oh you have a vagina, so you musz love pink and glitter and unicorns" make zero sense to autistic people in general because they aren't rational. Then somebody scews that challenge into "oh you must be male then". No. Being male is about having a penis and male DNA and biology. My som is very sensitive, my daughter is a whirlwind and I fear for anybody who crosses her. 😂 Personality and sex are not the same. "Gender" seems to be some constructed way to attempt to force certain personality traits on people because of their sex, or tell them that they should deny their sex because they do not fit the stereotype?? It's baffling and weird and damaging and makes a world that's already confusing for autistic people even more complicated and weird.

@Falleninwiththewrongcrowd

Apologies for derail, but if you're an adult who recognises autistic traits in yourself but have not been diagnosed, what do you have to gain from getting a diagnosis? I'm in this position myself, and interested in others' experiences and opinions.

From my perspective, a huge sense of relief. I had always thought there were so many things "wrong" with me and now that they are explained I can be kinder to myself and forgive myself and finally understand myself a bit. I have also then met many other autistic people and found such support and solidarity through that.

@anotherhumanfemale

I'm not. I'm still very rational though. And very GC.

None of my friends have autism and many of them are GC (many, many of my large family of in-laws are somewhere on the autism spectrum so I have a decent idea of different traits in both men and women which I'm basing the statement that none of my friends are on it - I could be wrong but fairly confident I'm not).

DH has autism and he is baffled that anybody believes the stuff I read out to him from twitter, chest feeding, cervix havers etc. He thinks it's so ridiculous that it isn't even an issue, because it's akin to telling everyone the sun in the sky is blue: there's simply no point in even discussing that it's so ridiculous.

I'm not sure it's really relevant though on the GC "side" is it? Unless we're looking at ways of appealing to youngsters who are on the autism spectrum in which case someone like me, who isn't, may not be the best to convey information? (Hence Suffrajester's initiative)

I suspect the reason the OP asked is that young people - particularly girls - on the spectrum are disproportionately represented by a long way in the group of young people being encouraging to transition, by various "charities" etc. It's really worrying.

Please define acronyms in first usage. What does GC mean?

It means gender critical. It's the perspective that people should not be limited by gender expectations and so the idea that people can change gender is meaningless because the gender binary is (or should be) meaningless. Rather, according to the GC perspective, the only meaningful difference is sex (biological gender) which cannot be changed.

For myself, I am not autistic, and I started out as a GC radical feminist, but I feel more and more uneasy with it, especially the discussion on here. It seems to lack nuance, and the frequent citing of male anti-feminists makes me distrust the idea that it's a view that arises naturally from feminism, although it does sometimes seem to (eg Kathleen Stock). It's like, it needs to evolve, but it doesn't, its stuck somehow.

@RobboCop

Without wanting to derail the thread, how did those of you who were diagnosed later in life get on prior to diagnosis? Did you manage to maintain fairly 'normal' lives?

I ask because I've always suspected I'm 'on the spectrum' in some ways. I was diagnosed with dyspraxia and ADD quite late (just before secondary school) but am a little sceptical of my diagnosis at times. Most dyspraxic people have poor coordination but I wasn't bad at boxing and kickboxing and, perhaps more tellingly, I was a truck driver for several years, working around the city centre - I was very good at reversing into tight spaces in the dark with literally inches on either side, whilst many dyspraxic people struggle to drive a car.

Amongst many other things, I'm extremely obsessive/compulsive, have sensory/textural issues, and used to have lots of weird quirks. I know it sounds daft but I went through phases of being compelled to touch my eyeball with my finger for no apparent reason and couldn't shake the impulse until I'd done it. One of many odd fixations.

I also spent years counting the words in sentences and the lines in a paragraph etc, and still sometimes do with subtitles. I'm also extremely singularly focused at times and if I'm about to make a point and the conversation changes I feel really compelled to steer it back so I can make that minor point, for seemingly no reason. I'm actually good with social interaction but it's absolutely a learned behaviour and it's almost like a multiple choice exercise where I have loads of openers and also things to fall back on if conversation dries up etc (although this is probably typical of most people to some degree).

I seem to have abnormally strong empathy (in terms of not wanting to upset others) but it's absolutely not from fear of confrontation and I can be extremely stubborn or even aggressive in situations where I'm 100% certain somebody is being a dick, but I tend to be very black and white and I find it hard to actually dislike somebody once I've decide they're 'one of the good ones' even if I witness them being a knob (this is hard to explain, it's like I know rationally they're not a nice person but I find it hard not to 'accept' their faults as part of their greater self).

Another thing is that I'm extremely literal. I used to find it hard to tell when people were joking. I actually have a pretty dry and somewhat perverse sense of humour for the large part, but I'm left pretty cold by 99% of comedy. I'm also really good at reading and had a reading age in the late teens shortly before the age of ten, but I just can't seem to compute things like cryptic crosswords.

Sorry, I'm waffling now but this is something I keep wondering about. I'm not sure whether it would make any practical difference knowing but I've been reading dyspraxia forums lately and I'm a little sceptical that I fit that mould.

I was diagnosed (finally!) when much older than you. I can relate to many of the things you said but not some of the others. However that was is no indication of whether you are autistic or not because all autistic people are different. You certainly list many autistic traits in your description. I would recommend doing the quotient test then if the score is high asking your GP for a referral: only a professional can diagnose you. I am so sick of seeing people on the internet hypothesising that family members etc may be autistic and having a totally false idea of what that means. What you say about being very rational but very empathetic makes it seems quite probable you are but only a professional can tell you that for sure through proper diagnosis prodcedures.

www.clinical-partners.co.uk/for-adults/autism-and-aspergers/adult-autism-test

I don’t have a diagnosis and I am not currently seeking a diagnosis. However, in recent years, reading about how ASD presents in women and girls has lit up many a lightbulb for me.

Interestingly, I believe if I was a teenager today, I would have been up to my neck in the trans nonsense. The ideology seems particularly attractive to ASD girls and this rings true for me.

I just did the above Clinical Partners test and got 22/30!

@Suffrajester thank you for posting your link and what you’ve said. My DD was diagnosed when 8, young for girls but it breaks my heart to think we could have got a dx younger if we had understood autism in girls better as we had ‘boys’ autism as our benchmark.

After her diagnosis I started to follow lots of female autistic speakers/writers to try to get a better understanding. I’ve slowly had to stop following most of them due to their views on gender and TWAW.

But what I feel so so strongly about is that I want my DD to be excepted however she presents. She likes short hair but also likes dresses. So fucking what! She likes playing football and likes playing with her Barbies. Brilliant. These are just clothes, hair and activities they have fuck all to do with her sex.

But I can see her struggling as we come up to puberty so I am talking so much about it with her, to make it as normal and comfortable as possible. Also my biggest worry is the information she gets via the internet and her peers.

I hope to find the autistic GC community for her!

Also one thing that pisses me right off...

Autistic women need to be shouting from the rooftops about the sexist nature of assessment and diagnosis. Women and girls have been let down terribly by the health services and Nero diverse community and many have suffered as a result!

I have a kid on the spectrum, but I was always against stereotyping from when she was tiny so she had it from an early age that boys and girls can like whatever they want to and do whatever they want. I did it so much that she hid the fact she liked some "traditionally girly" things I'm not worried about gender issues with her.

She met a transman once and was confused at the dissonance between the name this person had and the evidence before her eyes. We have an ongoing open dialogue about it.

As an aside, there's a growing social media purity mob happening centered around autism. It has all the usual hallmarks.