If you look up symptoms of ASD specific to girls one of them is frequently “masculine behavior/dress” or whatever and people love to blame that on autism being an “extreme male brain” but it’s really very easily explained when you consider what femininity is: a set of implicit social rules forced on women. Like, of course autistic girls and women aren’t going to be as successful at performing femininity “correctly.” It doesn’t have to do with the fictitious male brain. It has to do with femininity being inaccessible to people who have difficulty navigating complex and arbitrary social conventions.
If you say things like “autistic people are never successful” and you are also a Pokemon fan then you should probably sit down while I tell you the news about the creator of your beloved game series. Yeah, Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokemon and founder of gamefreak? Autistic
Also before anyone tries to play the “he’s so successful despite his autism” card I feel it’s important to point out much of the content in Pokemon was inspired by his special interest in bug collecting. Pokemon would not exist without him and the fact that he’s autistic.
The best part about autism is the absolutely amazing feelings that nobody else has. Sure, the average neurotipical can enjoy fresh sheets and fuzzy blankets every now and then. But they’ll never get that special autism feeling. Autistic fluffs, you know what I’m talking about. Or that sensory moment when you touch a really smooth rock and it’s like your fingers died and went to heaven. Nobody can take away that feeling.
There’s a new girl in my kindergarten class who’s autistic and it’s like she’s barely / not really verbal but like idk she opened up to me a little, I don’t tell people I’m on the spectrum at work because they already treat me horribly because I’m the only poc there but like she’s a little Latina girl who I know exactly how she feels and like I was like “hey Nina, If you don’t wanna talk it’s okay, just thumbs up or thumbs down if you understand the (math) problem? Okay?” So we sorta made like a thumbs up and thumbs down thing between us and today it was the most surreal thing because I like “I know they tell you to make eye contact but I’m gonna tell you a trick, look at their neck, chin, hair, and whatever is behind them, I don’t like eye contact very much either? Thumbs up?” And she said with the smallest voice “Thankyou , for not saying I’m dumb” I wanna be the person I needed when I was her age
– You ask someone to repeat their question then finish processing and respond halfway through they’re finished repeating it.
– You somewhat processed what someone said but your brain won’t take it.
– You mishear what people say wildly wrong. Like, wildly wrong. Then you process it and it makes wayyyy more sense than whatever you thought someone originally said.
– “Wait, what?”
– Default face is a perplexed, confused look.
– You have to deal with rude people who refuse to repeat themselves and act exasperated at the suggestion, than proceed to get angry when you won’t respond to them and/or remember what they just said.
– You can hear a car door open down the street but you can’t hear someone talking to you in the same room.
– Talking is weird.
– You’re constantly seen as a bad listener (which, maybe isn’t that far from the truth- but they assume you’re not trying), unfocused (which I tend to be, but it’s unrelated), and so on. Nobody stops to consider that maybe you have processing issues.
– You were tested for hearing issues as a kid because you didn’t respond to people or talk much, but every test came back negative and your parents were told you have perfect hearing.
– The idea of talking to two people at once is terrifying beyond imagining.
– Responding to something someone said ages ago, even with a different conversation still going, the topic has moved on, and everyone forgot about it.
– “Huh?!”
bonus round: we can watch TV or talk. not both.
And no one without auditory processing issues understands any of this.
– you watch tv with the subtitles on even though your hearing is fine
– listening to podcasts makes your brain tired like you’ve been doing big scary math
– in a chattering crowd, all you hear is white noise
– Someone tries to talk to you while music is playing and you flip tf out
lavenduers 