Published on 12, July, 2020
I am a female with autism. Something that I have felt most of my life is that I feel more masculine than feminine in my inner self however outwardly I definitely look feminine such as makeup and I do my hair etc but inwardly I feel and see myself as more of a male. Has anyone experienced this?
It's more common for autistic people not to fit in with gender expectations. Some are transgender (if you feel like a man, maybe you actually are a man with an unconventional body), some are non-binary (not feeling either male or female). Others are content with their assigned gender, but not concerned with fitting in with the attached stereotypes. All valid ways to be.
Indeed but I think better to talk about one's own experience rather than explaining women to themselves in a thread like this? There are many issues specific for AS women which don't disappear under the convenient label of 'trans' or the general gender diversity of AS people. I do have trans friends who are on the spectrum but I'm dubious that most AS women who are confused by stereotypes are 'really' men in a female body (if indeed anyone clearly manifests such a simplistic dualistic ghost in the machine). I also think it's ridiculous to characterise AS women's brain as 'masculine' just because we're inconvenient to binary fantasies of gender. Maybe we're just immune from the social forces that suppress and narrow NT women's capacity. Or to put it less partially, what if AS people are less able to respond coherently to social pressure to conform to binary gender stereotypes rather than being in the 'wrong body'? We should celebrate our gender and sexual diversity, support our trans community - but not fall into characterising all women who are logical and independent as ersatz men?