Autism and gender identity

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.

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!

Yeah I do actually. Its previously been described as "the extreme male brain" so how the hell could a male with an extreme male brain have gender issues. There are alot of idiots trying to hijack Autism for their own agendas and spouting off tonnes of rubbish and nonsense about it. 

Whilst you may be right that some people have agendas as is so common with the world (in fact, I can't think of someone who doesn't have an 'agenda', so to speak), I think everyone has an 'agenda' . Indeed, it may even be said that your agenda is to argue that autism does not have a causal link with gender identity, or even an agenda to pursue the truth/follow the evidence etc.

I'm a bit of a fence-sitter but I would probably commit myself to the line of argument that autism can be linked with gender identity in some cases and does not follow a simple linear causal relationship but instead could be 'activated' in certain situation in the presence of other causes (what these causes are is a job for social science).

As for the extreme male brain hypothesis, one of your statements (that having an extreme male brain is logically inconsistent with having gender issues i.e. feeling feminine) not only reduces issues of gender identity to a gender binary (some people feel as though they do not fit into either the genders male or female) but also presumes the truth of this hypothesis and thus the validity of your argument stands and falls with the truth of this premise. So far as I am aware, the theory is extremely controversial and far from universally accepted, throwing some doubt on your statement.

I can't help but interpret aggression in your replies - I like to discuss things and put my point across but hostility is not something I'm comfortable with.

Whilst you may be right that some people have agendas as is so common with the world (in fact, I can't think of someone who doesn't have an 'agenda', so to speak), I think everyone has an 'agenda' . Indeed, it may even be said that your agenda is to argue that autism does not have a causal link with gender identity, or even an agenda to pursue the truth/follow the evidence etc.

I'm a bit of a fence-sitter but I would probably commit myself to the line of argument that autism can be linked with gender identity in some cases and does not follow a simple linear causal relationship but instead could be 'activated' in certain situation in the presence of other causes (what these causes are is a job for social science).

As for the extreme male brain hypothesis, one of your statements (that having an extreme male brain is logically inconsistent with having gender issues i.e. feeling feminine) not only reduces issues of gender identity to a gender binary (some people feel as though they do not fit into either the genders male or female) but also presumes the truth of this hypothesis and thus the validity of your argument stands and falls with the truth of this premise. So far as I am aware, the theory is extremely controversial and far from universally accepted, throwing some doubt on your statement.

I can't help but interpret aggression in your replies - I like to discuss things and put my point across but hostility is not something I'm comfortable with.