The Autists: women on the spectrum

Autists can express themselves drastically and let others do the same. The tone in the group is liberating; here are none of the maladies afflicting online debating among neurotypicals, like personal attacks, whataboutism, and straw men. People argue factually and stick to the subject.

Social interaction pays no heed to the autist’s compass, especially not in the media industry. You can’t draw on your strengths if these conflict with the expectations of neurotypicals. Most conspicuous will be the aspects that are perceived as negative, like withdrawing, offering criticism that is too harsh, and avoiding big groups.

Parents of autistic girls who keep it together at school speak of difficulties simply getting school representatives to believe in the diagnosis. The teachers don’t see the girls breaking down at home after the end of the school day.

As a woman, I have come to understand that I’m expected to speak in code. That is what most people do. For this reason, I’m often interpreted as speaking with a subtext, even when there is none.

I have always known that I’m autistic. And yet I haven’t had a clue.

For me, cultural consumption was never an escape from reality. It was a way of getting closer to reality, of better understanding it, conquering it.

To Weil, the sacred, the basis of human worth, the impersonal, is the human ability to suffer when experiencing bodily or spiritual harm. What remains is the trust of a child, the childlike core deep in every human heart that expects to be treated well, and thus protests when someone hurts it. That trust, that expectation of goodness, that part of

The rigid criteria that are used in the name of rational organisation assume that all employees are the same. And the more you assume that all people are the same — and thus interchangeable — the worse the conditions become for the autists, who are different from the majority.

Autistic characters are rarely portrayed in their own right. Instead, they are used as a curiosity in order to teach the neurotypical main character valuable life lessons. The neurodivergent presence becomes a plot device — an obstacle that must be conquered and which facilitates the development of the other characters.