#female autism

[themaskedlady]

[ineedfairypee]

Fake it til you make it

[mewp2002]

Allowing myself to enjoy 'childish' things has been both healing and relieving. I am not interested in being a 'proper' adult, I prefer to enjoy my cartoons, toys and whimsical oddities whilst eating off a plastic hello kitty plate.

[asexualenjolras]

Robin Buckley is autistic-coded. And I love it.

The line: "I don’t really have a filter or a strong grasp of social cues" is such an important line. It's always so refreshing to see such positive neurodivergent representation in female characters. Robin is highly intelligent, highly empathetic and struggles to contextualise and understand social situations but she is shown to be genuine and honest.

It's realistic that she doesn't have a diagnosis of ASD, given that this show is set in the 1980's and autism in females is so misunderstood still today, in 2022.

She says she is aware that her coming across as "mean or condescending" is a "flaw" because her "mother reminds (her) me everyday", which is something so common in undiagnosed autistic people.

We know from season three that Robin wasn't overly popular at school, and was the sort of student that played band and got high grades. We know that Robin doesn't do well when talking about her emotions and she can be quite straight to the point in conversations. She struggles to make friends and has quite a monotone way of speaking. I think it's been hinted at that her special interests may be movies, languages and band.

Additionally, she's shown to have sensory issues with particular textures when she talks about hating wearing certain clothing.

Robin is so well-liked, too. So having her coded to be autistic is such a lovely reminder that being autistic is okay. I think we all need that sometimes.

I headcanon she also has Dyspraxia because she says, and I quote, "I should warn you, I have terrible co-ordination. It took me like 6 months longer to learn to walk than the other babies." She can't run. I can't run very well. She has Dyspraxia. And that's co-morbid with ASD.

Also, there have been studies to show that autistic people are more likely to be LGBTQ+, so it makes sense. Robin is 100% an autistic lesbian and I love her.

Anyways, I haven't seen autism portrayed in a female character this well since Phoebe Spengler in Ghostbusters: Afterlife; these 80's set series and films really are giving us the most incredible representation.

Thank you, Stranger Things. This is such a genuine portrayal of autism. Thank you.

Edit: I'm seeing a lot of people saying that Robin wasn't neurodivergent in season three and I just wanted to add that masking is a thing. Robin didn't know Steve well enough to feel comfortable to lower that mask before. There are hints that she is autistic even in season three, like when she really struggles to find the words to describe how she's feeling and rambles when faced with difficult situations.

In fact, Steve even has to tell her that she "wasn't helping" when El was trying to sort out her leg in the mall scene. The hints were there all along but season four gave us an unmasked Robin and I am so grateful for that.

[nitwitthegrey]

when you finally realize at the ripe age of 26 that you have autism and suddenly it all comes together

[khaarl-i]

I keep coming across (self included) reoccurring theme: afab autistics being mainly friends with cis (neurotypical) men, because they find them simpler and therefore easier to read

My mother even told me to be friends with guys, because they’re simpler so it’s going to be easier for me. At first I was thinking it was bs, but then I realized all friendships that don’t make me anxious af are with guys and apparently I am not the only one

[autie-hobbit]

Y'all ever think about the fact that "female Autism" really only presents in low-support needs, high-masking Autistic girls. Girls with higher support needs and lower ability to mask almost always have "classic Autism" (aka. male autism).

Really makes you think about the social construction of "female and male autism", huh?

[experimentfae]

It’s crazy how the Welcome Home ARG has my autism giggling and kicking their feet

[sedatedxstargirl]

Female autism

[radibutch]

When people say "there's no harm in self-diagnosing," I think they often overlook the subtle but very real harm that comes when communities suddenly shift to being majority-self-diagnosed.

Before I get going, I want to make it clear that I think there is a time and a place for self-diagnosis, especially for women who are often ignored by psychiatrists. I also think that certain disorders have become trends, and the self-diagnosis boom that comes with the trend can be harmful to community members if the community becomes filled with people who do not actually have the disorder.

Take autism, for example. Autistic women are already demonized, and when autism became a trend, autistic women with "undesirable" traits were left behind.

Idk, I don't think I'm expressing this clearly, but when autism becomes social anxiety lite, people with low empathy, people with trouble with activities of daily life, people with "offputting" mannerisms, people with learning disabilities, we get left behind.

[athousandrabbitholes]

For years now, psychologists and psychiatrists have discussed the existence of 'female Autism,' a supposed subtype that can look a lot milder and socially appropriate than 'male' Autism does. People with so-called 'female Autism' may be able to make eye contact, carry on a conversation, or hide their tics and sensory sensitivities. They might spend the first few decades of their lives with no idea they’re Autistic at all, believing instead that they’re just shy, or highly sensitive. [...]  There’s a significant problem with the concept of 'female Autism,' though. It’s a label that doesn’t properly account for why some Autistics mask their Autistic qualities, or have their needs ignored for years.  [...]  Autistic women aren’t overlooked because their 'symptoms' are milder. Even women with really classically Autistic behaviors may elude diagnoses for years, simply because they are women and their experiences are taken less seriously by professionals than a man’s would be. Additionally, not everyone who has their Autism ignored and downplayed is a female. Many men and nonbinary people have our Autism erased, too. To call the stealthy, more socially camouflaged form of Autism a 'female' version of the disorder is to indicate that masking is a phenomenon of gender, or even of assigned sex at birth, rather than a much broader phenomenon of social exclusion. Women don’t have 'milder' Autism because of their biology; people who are marginalized have their Autism ignored because of their peripheral status in society.

Devon Price, Unmasking Autism, [Introduction]

[ineedfairypee]

Barriers to diagnosis for autistic girls

[cheshire-teeth]

[bifflesnitch]

The undiagnosed neurodivergent experience of being the only friend to all the obvious/non-masking neurodiverse kids who used to get bullied by everyone else at school because you didn't see anything wrong with them.

[hotluncheddie]

i see your ‘lining up toy cars’ example and raise you girl dinner ‘placing everything correctly in a dolls house just to stare at it’

[1unpunishable1]

The Best Autism Representation I've Seen <3