Off the Spectrum: Why the Science of Autism Has Failed Women and Girls

Tan, C. D. (2018). ‘I’m a normal autistic person, not an abnormal neurotypical’: Autism spectrum disorder diagnosis as biographical illumination. Social Science & Medicine, 197, 161–7.

https://thinkingautismguide.com/2024/02/30-sensory-icks-a-checklist-for-autistic-and-neurodivergent-people.html.

They might not understand that autistic people may not have the equivalent of a ‘whatever’ mental shrug.

But it is clear that non-autistic people have the same problem.26 A combination of impressions from misleading stereotypes and few opportunities to engage fully with autistic individuals means that non-autistic people don’t know what it is like to experience the world differently, to have overwhelming and genuinely painful responses to sensations t

We now know that the passive, shy façade might well be disguising potent levels of distress.

there have often been references to gendered differences in socialization, speculating that a greater emphasis on social niceties – on compliance and conformity – produced the ‘quieter’ form of autism allegedly more characteristic of autistic females. So much quieter, indeed, that it often fails to register as autism at all.

females who are driven into hiding. So, as well as exploring the ‘how’ and the ‘who’ of camouflaging, we should look to the role of gender in explaining the ‘why’. And that should include why it is more common in females – is camouflaging linked to some sex-based mechanism that prioritizes ‘belongingness’?

Gender as a Biological Variable movement. This could include both grouping variables linked to gender identity – particularly relevant to the autism community with its high levels of gender variance – but also grouping gendered ‘life variables’, such as, sadly, experience of intimate partner violence or abusive relationships, again considerably mor

One of the outside influences on the brain that social cognitive neuroscience has explored is that of negative social experiences such as bullying or rejection, a constant theme in many of the discussions I’ve had with autistic people. And the very brain mechanisms that swing into action in the face of such nastiness are the mechanisms that best se