'Gender' is little more than a set of stereotypes about biological sex that has been used to form the pseudoscientific, homophobic and misogynistic idea of ‘gender identity’, the idea that each person
Your summary of gender is spot on. I was curious if you have any ideas why autistic people are more likely to get caught up in gender ideology. I have wondering if they perhaps struggle with maintaining a stable identity due to their autism?
It is a spot on summary isn't it, but they are not my words, they are from Joe's interview. He really explained things well!
I am wondering why autistic ppl get caught up in this too and I've spoken to many autistic ppl about this and we all have different ideas, but the common theme is that because we have social differences we often feel 'alien' or 'other'. Ppl in society often notice this about us too. Especially in adolescence, we come up against others perceptions like "you're different", "you're not like the other boys/girls" etc and we internalise these differences and try to fix it. A lot of autistic ppl 'mask' - trying to appear more neurotypical and hide our autism. It's not a big jump to say we would also wear a 'gender identity mask' in order to fit in with social perceptions. And because TQ+ is such a celebrated identity now and also protected for the 'differences' - it can feel like finding a social safety net.
Generally, we are less likely to conform to social rules so this can appear on the outside to be a declaration of some kind: like a stance against your sexed body.
So many autistic girls feel more socially comfortable around boys, and so many autistic boys feel more socially comfortable around girls - because we don't often socially fit in within our sex class, or perhaps more that our autistic differences are more obvious when in contrast to others of our same sex. A lot of this is based on gendered stereotypes, so we can latch onto these stereotypes and social perceptions/stories and utilise them to try to fix our differences.
I think there needs to be research into this because currently the info out there says autistic ppl are more likely to be trans (rather than simply socially different /non conforming) - so autistic youth are more likely to go "Oh! These differences are because I'm trans!" and settle on that for an answer.
Your summary of gender is spot on. I was curious if you have any ideas why autistic people are more likely to get caught up in gender ideology. I have wondering if they perhaps struggle with maintaining a stable identity due to their autism?
It is a spot on summary isn't it, but they are not my words, they are from Joe's interview. He really explained things well!
I am wondering why autistic ppl get caught up in this too and I've spoken to many autistic ppl about this and we all have different ideas, but the common theme is that because we have social differences we often feel 'alien' or 'other'. Ppl in society often notice this about us too. Especially in adolescence, we come up against others perceptions like "you're different", "you're not like the other boys/girls" etc and we internalise these differences and try to fix it. A lot of autistic ppl 'mask' - trying to appear more neurotypical and hide our autism. It's not a big jump to say we would also wear a 'gender identity mask' in order to fit in with social perceptions. And because TQ+ is such a celebrated identity now and also protected for the 'differences' - it can feel like finding a social safety net.
Generally, we are less likely to conform to social rules so this can appear on the outside to be a declaration of some kind: like a stance against your sexed body.
So many autistic girls feel more socially comfortable around boys, and so many autistic boys feel more socially comfortable around girls - because we don't often socially fit in within our sex class, or perhaps more that our autistic differences are more obvious when in contrast to others of our same sex. A lot of this is based on gendered stereotypes, so we can latch onto these stereotypes and social perceptions/stories and utilise them to try to fix our differences.
I think there needs to be research into this because currently the info out there says autistic ppl are more likely to be trans (rather than simply socially different /non conforming) - so autistic youth are more likely to go "Oh! These differences are because I'm trans!" and settle on that for an answer.
Thanks so much for these thoughts - this makes a lot of sense and helps me understand the autistic people I know.