Women on the Spectrum... revisited

I have had this picture prepared for a while, looking for a Thread in which to Post it. So here it is, along with the query... It seems that upon this Forum, CATS are liked, yet DOGS are associated with... well, not so much, here...? 

Well as much as I like the above picture, I'm another cat person myself.

Regarding the subject of the thread though, one of the things I get slightly 'niggled' by is the way that people sometimes refer to certain autistic traits as being exclusively male or female, & in particular that I'm confusing because I exhibit the wrong ones.

My personal theory is that these specific traits aren't actually determined by gender, rather that they just occur more frequently in one gender than the other, just like most aspects of human behaviour or physiology, e.g. height, assertiveness, maternal/paternal instinct etc

I've seen many articles & YouTube videos that refer to some women on the Spectrum as being 'Chameleons' or sometimes being over-sensitive to non-verbal cues, as compared to the men on the Spectrum who are always supposed to be lacking in social skills & preferring their own company.

Even though I was only diagnosed last year in my fifties, I have been conscious of deliberately adapting my personality & appearance in order to blend in since my late teens. I can read non-verbal cues quite well, but it's hard to tell the degree to which I have always been able to do this, as my memory always seems to retroactively be from my current perspective (which is also why remembering past mistakes is so frustrating, i.e. I often can't understand how my past selves could have been so stupid). I also find spending too much time on my own extremely uncomforable & feel much more relaxed when socialising with friends.

When I have tried to research the subject online, almost all the material I have found only talks about males on the Spectrum as being loners who are socially awkward, with the only exceptions being ASD forum threads that show up on Google searches where men occasionally describe similar experiences to my own.

I'm just curious to hear your opinion on the subject.

Pirate Santa said:

I'm just curious to hear your opinion on the subject.

Um... what Miss Elephant-In-The-Room said.

(I am neither a Cat nor a Dog Person... I kind of  like everything, except things that clearly exhibit a hatred of me at that moment, at presentation of which I run away if I can.)

Great answer DC and very true!

Great answer DC and very true!