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Autism and gender identity

violetdr3amer

I just came across this article and it got me thinking...

https://www.aane.org/gendervague-intersection-autistic-trans-experiences/

I saw some stats somewhere a while ago, which show that quite a lot of people on the spectrum are trans or identify as non-binary/gender-fluid. Quite a lot of us are gender non-conforming, or we don't identify to our assigned gender role.

I'm a woman but I've been told many times that I "act like a bloke", and from my observations/in my opinion, NTs are much more gender-stereotyped and conform more to societal gender roles.

Thoughts?

Parents

  • Autisms got feck all to do with gender identity. Everything bar the kitchen sink gets thrown in with it. Next some idiot is going to say Autism has links with what football team you support like Autistic people are much more likely to support the northern football team in a city than the southern.  Ever think people who feel they are of a different gender can also be Autistic???? Not a stretch is it. Probably not a good idea to talk about this topic on here unless what your really trying to do is ruin some peoples careers by saying the wrong thing about it.

Reply

  • Autisms got feck all to do with gender identity. Everything bar the kitchen sink gets thrown in with it. Next some idiot is going to say Autism has links with what football team you support like Autistic people are much more likely to support the northern football team in a city than the southern.  Ever think people who feel they are of a different gender can also be Autistic???? Not a stretch is it. Probably not a good idea to talk about this topic on here unless what your really trying to do is ruin some peoples careers by saying the wrong thing about it.

Children
  • in reply to NAS71674

    I don't think it's fair to say that autism has nothing to do with gender identity - there are some statistical trends and while they cannot impute causality either way, as you mention, it is clear that in some cases there is an interaction between the two. Whether or not being autistic has a causal effect on the likelihood of someone having a specific gender identity (being transgender, for instance) is not at all clear or established and since autism is so complex and heterogeneous, I would argue that there isn't likely to be a simple, linear causal relationship.

    Indeed, we have to remember that autism is not just one homogeneous experience - it is likely that autism results from an interaction between several genes and some environmental influences. So far as I understand (and experience) it, autism interacts with a variety of other conditions (to name just two it could be anxiety or a learning disability etc.)  to create a fundamentally new experience which cannot be reduced to either autism or anxiety, for instance.

    On top of all of this, we have the largely socially constructed nature of gender identity and gender expression which undoubtedly has an effect.

    There is a rich discussion to be had here, although I will leave it at this! Slight smile

  • in reply to NAS71674

    The jury is still out on whether there is a direct causal link but there is definitely a statistical correlation that has been found in reputable studies www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../