Does anyone else hate the Linux analogy?

Preface: I would do ANYTHING to be NT. ANYTHING. I hate having ASD and if there was a cure, I would take it without a second thought, because I would feel more feminine as an NT.

I especially do not like the analogy of NTs being Windows and NDs being Linux. I hate Linux. I don't want to be the nerd, the uncool one. I want to be Mac, a sleek, pretty, sexy Mac.

I hate the NDs are Androids and NTs are iPhones even more, and insist that it's the reverse, that NDs are iPhones and NTs are Androids, because iPhones are prettier, and I want to be the pretty, popular, feminine one. Does anyone else feel this way?

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  • Well assuming you’re female bodied One thing you’ve got going for you is that femininity and popularity as perceived by men has a hell of a lot more to do with your appearance and your body than your social skills.

    if you want to affirm your femininity you can go a long way just with the way you dress, make up, hairstyling, The way you walk, things that can be studied learnt and taught. If you look like a supermodel no one will give a toss that you talk like a nerd.

  • if you want to affirm your femininity you can go a long way just with the way you dress, make up, hairstyling, The way you walk, things that can be studied learnt and taught. If you look like a supermodel no one will give a toss that you talk like a nerd.

    Why should autistic women do that to please others? 

    It's encouraging masking.

    With regard to your last line, what you look like is only a part of attraction.

    I think you are grossly over simplifying the situation for women.

    I am friends with the 1st man I had a full intimate relationship with in my early 30s, and he told me recently that at the time he met me he was amazed I hadn't had a string of previous boyfriends, because of my looks.

    However, now he says he understands why ie my autism (undiagnosed then).

    Autism affects everything you are and everything you do, say and think.

    No matter how attractive I was, the way I behaved was so different from other women that it alienated me from men on top of which my own responses to situations where I met men e.g. social anxiety, getting overwhelmed (I could go on and on) meant that any opportunities to be asked out tended to not come to fruition.

    It's actually a very complicated question with a miriad different aspects to be analysed.

    I could write a dissertation on this having got to 61 and with a wealth of knowledge and experience to look back on.

    To misquote you: Even though I may have looked like a model, everyone cared: How I talked, behaved, thought, as someone very alien from what they were used to'....

    Add onto that my own struggles with social interaction as a part of the autism.

    One thing you’ve got going for you is that femininity and popularity as perceived by men has a hell of a lot more to do with your appearance and your body than your social skills.

    Are you talking for all men there?

    Once again, think that's incorrect.

  • Why should autistic women do that to please others? 

    I'm not suggesting she should. She wants to feel more feminine. Making others view her as more feminine will make them treat her as being more feminine which will help her feel more feminine thus benefiting her. External affirmation is a powerful thing for ones mental well being.

    And yes I am oversimplifying but it's largely true that if you look hot and girly and wear pretty dresses men will not care as much if you act like a tom boy. In fact some prefer this. That's my personal opinion based on my own subjective experience. I'm not saying its irrelevant how you act, and a lack of confidence / high anxiety is seen as negative in either sex, But if you spend an evening bending a mans ear about F1 racing or 70s vacuum tube electronics (if that's your special interest) he's not going to view you as less as of a girl if you're wearing a sexy dress and looking hot.

    I've known a lot of hot nerdy girls. None of them ever had difficulty getting boys or had issues being seen as masculine. But they were the kind of girls to wear skimpy outfits and do over the top flirting.

    Edit: I'm positive quite a few of them were autistic ... and I'm envious tbh. It's like they found the cheat code for autism.

  • I’m not a Neanderthal,

    Of course not.

    My apologies for that comment, which was uncalled for.

  • How did I not know that?? 

    Now, thanks to your input, I have to resubmit my whole application to join the "Always Right Party" AGAIN!

    I'll never be accepted at this rate...

  • Actually ironically many anthropologist's believe that the genes for language originated in neanderthal DNA and were transferred to Homosapiens through interbreeding. This is not my field but arguably if it’s true clear language is a Neanderthal trait.

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  • Actually ironically many anthropologist's believe that the genes for language originated in neanderthal DNA and were transferred to Homosapiens through interbreeding. This is not my field but arguably if it’s true clear language is a Neanderthal trait.

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