"Everyone is on the Autism Scale!" - is this right?

no! neurotypical people can have autistic traits and not be autistic and in this sense that person was just being dissmissive of your feelings.

Akkrenskarin said:

Ooh, I did not know that was now possible! Wonder if you can do that in the UK yet?

It does not look like it currently. 

Akkrenskarin said:

It's worth a shot... "low mileage, one careful lady owner..."

Seems quite appealing then perhaps ~ would it be as such nicey but pricey, or free to good home?

Ooh, I did not know that was now possible! Wonder if you can do that in the UK yet? It's worth a shot... "low mileage, one careful lady owner..."

Akkrenskarin said:

I just think it would be nice if science could get to the point where I could give it to someone who wanted a functioning uterus -

Fancy a trip to Cleveland then amongst other places:

BABY BORN VIA UTERUS TRANSPLANT

A Cleveland Clinic research trial was the first in the United States to offer uterus transplant to women suffering from uterine factor infertility (UFI). These women cannot carry a pregnancy. They were born without a uterus or have lost their uterus. Since Cleveland Clinic began the clinical trial, the team has completed eight uterus transplants; six transplants were technically successful, with four live-births thus far. Currently, two women are awaiting embryo transfers, while other candidates are listed for transplant.

https://www.clevelandclinic.org/lp/uterus-transplant/index.html

Oh no, I don't feel bad for not using it personally, babies are f***ing terrifying... I just think it would be nice if science could get to the point where I could give it to someone who wanted a functioning uterus - someone who'd had to have a hysterectomy for medical reasons, or a trans woman who wanted to carry a child - rather than it metaphorically sitting under the sink gathering dust like my smoothie maker, when someone else might get some use out of it!

Akkrenskarin said:

Lol - I love that exit card! I have been known to declare in meetings when people are being illogical and daft that I am "too autistic for this BS" which usually gets a laugh, but a card is even better!

I used to collect humorously worded business cards, so it very much appealed to me.

Akkrenskarin said:

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Cis woman and I like being that way, but I am a total waste of a perfectly functional uterus and I could do without the thing...

There is no waste ~ only ‘sanctification’ (the state of proper functioning) in choosing to bare or not a child or children, being that there is no such thing as junk DNA ~ only latent 'and' active functioning, hence it is only natural that there is freedom of choice and nothing as such to be decided without consent.

Akkrenskarin said:

except that the menopause doesn't sound much fun either

Being post-menopausal is more generally considered quite the liberation though.

Akkrenskarin said:

we women can't win either way!

There is little purpose in winning as such, being that the greater purpose of life is not so much to compete against one another ~ but much much more to collectively cooperate with the evolutionary process; whether that be increasing bodies and or advancing minds. As a teacher you are succeeding very much it seems there.

Wow thanks for all the responses everyone - I completely agree with the responses I have...can't wait until I see her again (tomorrow) to actually disprove her theory lol...I am going to show this thread to her as well (if that is OK).

Mweekie xx

The only spectrum we're all on is the human spectrum, if everyone was autistic autism wouldn't be perceived as pathological at all. We may perform the same behaviours as each other, but we do so for different reasons including our brains functioning differently to the majority.

I was given the perfect response to this when I highlighted it as a general issue to a mate. He was curious for his own knowledge. So said, so is it like:

Not everyone who can kick a ball, is a footballer?

Nail. On. The. Head.

Lol - I love that exit card! I have been known to declare in meetings when people are being illogical and daft that I am "too autistic for this BS" which usually gets a laugh, but a card is even better!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Cis woman and I like being that way, but I am a total waste of a perfectly functional uterus and I could do without the thing... except that the menopause doesn't sound much fun either - we women can't win either way!

Akkrenskarin said:

I'm not sure that there are many in possession of a uterus who would perceive it as such - in nearly four decades of possessing one, I can assure you that for only 9 weeks of that have I ever been in any way pregnant! And given how unpleasant that was, the idea of even a little bit of it every fourth week does not appeal!

Oh how unfortunate, bless you. I once had a friend and colleague who is no longer with us that just used to cave in with overwhelming agony every time her period hit, so I very much appreciate the lack of appeal involved with your and her experiences in both respects, bless.

Akkrenskarin said:

There is a twisted little bit of me that does enjoy poking the bear, so to speak, but I'm capable of causing quite enough offence accidentally that I try not to do it deliberately. At least, not with people I have to see on a regular basis...

Well we all have an instinctually / habitually aggressive Id (the beast / demon within us) to distract us from or remind us of or about our intuitively / adaptively compassionate Self (the spirit / angel within us) hence previously one of my favourite memes in relation to autistic social foe-pars being:

And for those that need an unconditional exit from one or more of their social foe-pars :

HAhahahaha!!! Love it!

I'm not sure that there are many in possession of a uterus who would perceive it as such - in nearly four decades of possessing one, I can assure you that for only 9 weeks of that have I ever been in any way pregnant! And given how unpleasant that was, the idea of even a little bit of it every fourth week does not appeal!

There is a twisted little bit of me that does enjoy poking the bear, so to speak, but I'm capable of causing quite enough offence accidentally that I try not to do it deliberately. At least, not with people I have to see on a regular basis...

Akkrenskarin said:

Haha... I can just imagine trying to use that argument to tell a pregnant colleague that she's not having it so bad, I'm a little bit pregnant too at this point in my cycle, so that morning sickness thing is no excuse not to get on and teach her first lesson of the day - if I can handle it, so can she!

... part of me almost wants to do that, just for the reaction. I should be okay, I can run quite fast when I need to.

It was actually a correction  ~ but of course if you like living dangerously; using it as an argument could be very effective indeed for getting involved in the thrill of a chase!

If so ~ may the speed force be with you verily and expeditiously. :-)

Yes! I agree to all of this. Autism is mostly invisible and mostly not relatable by neurotypicals. The dismissive attitude is well meant but unfortunately unintentionally not so nice. I also feel like noone in my family or the few friends I have do not want to hear anything about it. This is disappointing.

In this particular situation, and in context, anal people who use technicalities to be dismissive about your concerns aren't worth your attention. It's like saying gender is on a scale (which it is) but transgender people should be dismissed (which they shouldn't).  Context is everything - sensitive comments coming from an informed base are worth listening to.  Fatuous misplaced banaliities from morons who've got hold of the half the facts and haven't the anlaytical capacity to interpret them (let alone half the brains they were born with) aren't. The end.

Edited to be more insulting to the morons.

Haha... I can just imagine trying to use that argument to tell a pregnant colleague that she's not having it so bad, I'm a little bit pregnant too at this point in my cycle, so that morning sickness thing is no excuse not to get on and teach her first lesson of the day - if I can handle it, so can she!

... part of me almost wants to do that, just for the reaction. I should be okay, I can run quite fast when I need to.

Akkrenskarin said:

No, that's BS. It's like saying every woman is a little bit pregnant.

The difficult with that statement is that women who do menstruate have as such been a little bit pregnant as far as the unfertilised egg adhering to the cell wall lining of the uterus goes ~ but without sperm to fertilise it the egg and wall lining attachment spot is about seven days later expelled involving bleeding ~ due to oestrogen and progesterone levels falling on account of there having been no cellular mitosis and foetal development.

Akkrenskarin said:

Sometimes it can be well-meaning, but equally it can be used as a way of belittling the challenges that autistic people face, or as a way of avoiding making needed changes to accommodate our needs.

That much is certainly the case ~ with everyone either being on the autism spectrum as having anything from zero to however many traits, or else having enough traits to be on the autism 'diagnostic' spectrum, where the freeze, hide, flight or fight reflex is consistently active ~ rather than normally being reliably latent to become active at later stages, when required.

Hence neurotypical people often mistaking compound hypertension and exhaustion in autistic people as being laziness, or just as mistakenly ~ a lack of motivation, when excessive frustration has become burnt out depressive malaise.

So basically informing neurologically typical people that their state of surprised or shocked panic is our experiential version of feeling relatively calm, as normally helps to put things into perspective, as does for example explaining hypersensitivity as being for some autistic people like having been burnt or scolded is for non-autistic people. Touching things or being touched can involve excruciating pain.  

Another example I often use in advocacy scenarios is that we as autistic people are much more like the elderly in terms of preferring routines and being set in our ways, with our versions of being neurologically atypical or divergent being those who are more changeable, adventurous or eccentric and suchlike, in terms of their routines.

Neurology is helpful: bilateral processing vs. asymmetrical (aids our ability to see details and also be overwhelmed). Different gamma and beta oscillations. Picture thinking or aphantasia, apraxia and hyper-sensory awareness (or the inability to be desensitised). Psychology can examine external affects: These all play key roles in not understanding 'typical' things like small talk or loose (inaccurate) uses of language or always experiencing being misunderstood and not relating to the world around. A little digging into monotropism helps too. Sure everyone is human. But advertising is directed at NTs because it works. AS individuals aren't as easily 'hypnotised' 

Edit: Sometimes I think they say this to make us feel 'connected'. There's a deep fear of being axed from the tribe in most NTs, so it's projected. They panic. This sort of silliness comes out.