People are trying to change my gender

And I'm frightened for my safety. For years I was treated like a little boy instead of the little girl I was. Just subtle little things, comments about my handwriting and my hair, from the age of about four, which were designed to condition me into believing I was male. For example, I was cast as a snowman in a Christmas play when the other little girls were angels, but that's only one example; you might think it sounds silly to remember something like this and give it any thought, but actually these things add up to something very sinister. Drip, drip, drip. They clearly wanted to do it subtly every day so I'd slowly come to the realisation that I was supposed to be male. And then I got my Asperger's diagnosis at 15, and that was the official YOU ARE MALE message. Since then, clinicians and teachers, and even close family friends, have drip-drip-dripped in comments about autism being an extreme male brain thing and all men being on the spectrum. I know these things are being proved more and more to be untrue, and the latter one is downright stupid,  but that makes it even more worrying. They want me to believe I'm male rather than female. I don't know why. It is killing me from the inside.

I AM NOW MAKING THIS VERY CLEAR - I STRONGLY IDENTIFY AS FEMALE, I AM SO PROUD TO BE FEMALE, BEING FEMALE IS SO PRECIOUS TO ME, BUT VILE EVIL PEOPLE IN MY LIFE ARE TRYING TO TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME.

My parents say I'm being paranoid but they haven't walked in my shoes. I know the truth. Some people seem to believe me, thank goodness. I'm labelled a crazy girl so lots of people don't listen to me, but I know this has been going on. I have evidence. I want to talk to people from my past about this and ask them why they wanted to hurt me so badly but I'm going to university in September and I've got so many good things in my life right now, and I've got to stay out of trouble. I have to keep my head above water and just deal with this. I'm trapped. I can't confront anyone about it because they'll just say I need more medication, or try to tell me I can't do things. I have to suffer and no one wants to help. I feel so alone and so scared. I just want to be safe from this.

Has anyone else been through anything similar?

Parents
  • Hi AngelCake

    do feel free to share this article posted recently of women with ASD.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/autism-awareness-day-women-girls-autistic-discrimination-a8283691.html

    Extract below:

    “It’s amazing that 30 years after its release, the film Rain Man still sets the bar for what we understand as autism: boys and men who are extremely good at maths and don’t understand other people. 

    It’s a picture based on the work of male scientists like Leo Kanner, who thought autism was a mother’s fault for failing to love her children enough; of Hans Asperger who thought no women and girls were affected by the syndrome he identified; shored up by the work of Simon Baron-Cohen, who theorised that male and female brains are fundamentally different – men are better at systematising, women at empathising – and therefore autism is “an extreme of the male brain”.

    This template has not only trapped generations of men in cliché, but has also prevented thousands of women from getting the support and understanding they need because a male diagnostic gaze simply never sees them.”

Reply
  • Hi AngelCake

    do feel free to share this article posted recently of women with ASD.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/autism-awareness-day-women-girls-autistic-discrimination-a8283691.html

    Extract below:

    “It’s amazing that 30 years after its release, the film Rain Man still sets the bar for what we understand as autism: boys and men who are extremely good at maths and don’t understand other people. 

    It’s a picture based on the work of male scientists like Leo Kanner, who thought autism was a mother’s fault for failing to love her children enough; of Hans Asperger who thought no women and girls were affected by the syndrome he identified; shored up by the work of Simon Baron-Cohen, who theorised that male and female brains are fundamentally different – men are better at systematising, women at empathising – and therefore autism is “an extreme of the male brain”.

    This template has not only trapped generations of men in cliché, but has also prevented thousands of women from getting the support and understanding they need because a male diagnostic gaze simply never sees them.”

Children
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