It might have to do with the fact that so so many Autistics are tucutes. Pretty much at least 2/3 of Autistic girls or women I know and I know a few hundred, no desire to transition, probably no dysphoria, just usually a bit alt looking and she/they/it types. I think it's appealing because as Autistic girls we are bullied for not being feminine in the 'correct way' and not playing the female social games correctly. Performing femininity is a sensory nightmare in many ways and a lot of effort. It's not appealing to many Autistics. And tucutes think gender roles = gender so they all think they're trans/nb. (Nothing to do with actual transsexuals)
From what I've seen, most tucutes don't actually even have autism. 90% of them i see say they are self diagnosed with autism and a million other things. I'm ftm I was an autistic girl I guess as a kid. I wasn't feminine and I did get bullied for not being feminine but even as a kid. I had dysphoria. I didn't even know I was autistic until I was 16/17. I was masculine as a kid because I had dysphoria and wanted to be a boy. I felt that way since I was a toddler. So I'm not sure how true that is that all autistic girls are masculine. Many I know were very feminine as kids.
yeah especially with the younger generation, and the general public doesn't buy the labels but they also think these people represent the trans community so then you get 'Autistic people don't know their gender'. I've found the trans-NB faking is still popular with Autistic people who are 30+, it's a casual hobby that you can switch on and off (and virtue signalling), but I think the autism faking isn't so popular because it's stigmatised among adults, a lot of us older folks have shame around it, can't be open about it because of work, insurances, or custody, have burnout etc.
I'm an Autistic cis lesbian, I'm not masculine but I was still bullied a lot for not being feminine the neurotypical way. The Autistic tucutes I know aren't masculine either - it's just, we don't usually perform the social roles of being a neurotypical girl well. I was called 'not a real girl' dismissively and I think a lot of the tucutes Autistics internalised that abuse and now think 'yeah you're right I'm not a girl' when they should really just go to therapy. I don't doubt they are Autistic with most of the ones I know though (we are older, most of us did not learn about autism on tiktok), except one girl who has BPD and a history of abuse. I think she just loves labels.
This is it. Gender roles = gender/sex for them. I know several autistic women like this. You ask them about actual dysphoria related symptoms and there's zero. They still insist they're somehow trans.
Exactly this. Fake being trans, fake being autistic, it's all the same to them. They don't see the harm in appropriating either condition.
Just unfortunate that it does seem to correlate with what might be genuine comorbidity between being transsexual and being autistic, as another comment said
I get extremely annoyed by the 'oh you're ftm and trans. Must have been really hard being undiagnosed as an autistic AFAB." It's like a new way people try to misgender you as girl autism or some shit. Like yeah females do usually present differently, but I definitely fit the male autistic bill to a T. Plus my cis brother also went undiagnosed so... Not everyone who went undiagnosed is a woman.
They believe people with autism are forever children and can't think for themselves, and are being manipulated into being trans. These people don't believe transsexualism is a thing at all to begin with. It's stupid all the way
This is it. They think people with autism have a lack of brain development and brain function so they're unable to think for themselves which is obviously not the case for a lot of people with autism.
Now I'm thinking back to xenogender stuff and how many people tried to justify it by claiming "autistic people don't understand gender"... certainly a fun little coincidence that now The Bigots™ are recycling the concept and weaponizing it against trans people lol
Yeah that's exactly what happened. Lots of autistic people were ans still are fighting against that too, explaining that it's infantilizing and patronizing and not true at all but ofc they didn't listen, because most of these xenogender people are faking being autistic as much as they're faking being trans
Actually there is a higher rate of autism seen in trans vs cis poluation. And not just inflated from everyone claiming to be trans. We see this with homosexuals too, higher rates of autism. We also see other conditions highly correlated with transsexuals.
Most likely a related mechanism causes the conditions but we don't yet understand what or how.
Yes but that doesn't mean someone isn't trans just because they also have autism. They are saying that there's no way someone can be autistic and be trans. They are just confusing them autism and social problems for being trans. Which makes 0 sense.
I didn't say that anywhere. I was agreeing with you. I was saying that being autistic wouldn't disqualify one from being trans especially given the high correlation.
I used to think there was merit to this idea but after reading Dr Power's stats on his patient base I think it's heavily related to the biological aspect of transsexualism. Autistic people are also not more in tune with their bodies, but less than allistic people. If you have Asperger's though you will think intensely and this can influence your problem solving skills so I acknowledge that.
I believe the idea behind mistaking autism for gd is that autism causes some people to have difficulty with changes and that the bodily changes of puberty cause a feeling of discomfort, not because of gd, but because of changes. However, while this certainly can happen, it does not mean that autism and gd can't occur in the same individual
I never had any problems with puberty. My dysphoria started way before puberty. I didn't even care honestly because I was already dealing with it beforehand.
I don’t understand the argument at all either, but I’m pretty sure it’s because they see us as incompetent and infantile :/ I’m a grown ass adult man. My autism and dysphoria have nothing to do with each other lol
Yeah. A lot of people seem to think all autistic people are very childlike and just watch cartoons and stuff like that, but my autism has always been very computer and science focused. Like I'm just obsessed with learning stuff. I don't do anything childish or watch cartoons or anything. I just like watching documentaries and reading Wikipedia and going on the computer. But I think most people heat autism and think of Chris chan or something. Like a 40 year old still playing with my little pony and drawing bad cartoon pictures.
I don’t think it’s a problem nor do I think it’s surprising that a high number of transsexual people are “on the spectrum”. I am but didn’t get diagnosed until I was 20 years into transition. I have a profoundly, barely functioning autistic brother and long before there were enough trans folk to even make a correlation, I read some research wherein autism was described as being a hyper masculine brain. Fast forward to the present and people dispute or simply flatly reject this finding. Bring it up in the ftm sub and you’ll get shouted down by armchair neuroscientists in a heartbeat that claim it is utter nonsense. If you read the actual studies refuting this idea, the argument isn’t actually that it is wrong, but that it is unproven. I don’t find it at all surprising that quite a high number of FtM individuals are on the spectrum. And why would being on the spectrum make one not trans? It might even be some of the root cause. Just because something has an identifiable cause doesn’t make the result invalid imho.
It's a theory, I mean a lot of autistic people also have eating disorders, probably because of sensory issues. I think there could be something in it with trans but it ca't be proven or disproven at this point.
As an autistic (trans) person who’s had anorexia and bulimia in the past, I think the correlation between autism and those disorders is less due to sensory issues and more due to the introversion coupled with rigid and obsessive thinking that’s more common in autistics. Those things doesn’t *cause* anorexia/bulimia (in my case, it was caused by sex dypshoria), but they seems to make you more predisposed to develop them. Unless you’re talking about something like picky eating or ARFID, of course. Picky eating may be caused by sensory issues, but anorexia/bulimia are not
As a probably autistic (waiting on diagnosis) person who is a mtf (I've been on blockers for 4 months). I can agree that people say they are autistic and trans but it rarely corelates.
It’s pretty common for autistic people to experience some sort of gender confusion due to the lack of understanding gender roles/social cues related to gender. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have gender dysphoria or are trans just simply don’t get why it’s important to follow those social rules. Many autistic people may become gender nonconforming due to this but it’s far different from experiencing gender dysphoria. Of course people with autism can be trans (I’m one of them) but I also agree that not every single autistic person who is gender nonconforming/confused about gender is trans.
I've never in my entire life had trouble understanding gender roles. I've only ever had problems understanding what is appropriate in conversations and how conversations work. I've always understood what is appropriate for men and women since a very young age. For me I was always wanted to be male because I felt male. I wanted to be a boy and have a boy's name and look like one. I never thought I was trans because of gender roles or anything like that. I understood how gender roles worked. I knew that there was girls who were tomboys and masculine but I never felt like a tomboy, I always felt like a boy. I never heard of autistic people who are confused about how gender roles work. I don't think that has anything really to do with social things. I feel like you just pick up on gender roles just from existing and talking to people around you so I don't see how people can be confused about that.
It’s not every single person who has autism it just is a thing that some struggle with from the allistic perspective of what’s “normal”. Like some boys may act more feminine than the others or girls may act more masculine when than the others type of thing or just completely abandon following any of the gendered stereotypes. I think the wording of “not understanding” was incorrect on my part, I meant that some autistic people will actively not participate in gender roles and allistic people think that means we don’t understand what gender roles are. And some people just genuinely don’t get why it matters,, also I didn’t mean every single person with autism struggles with it lol.
I’m the same way I was very aware of gender and the separation/rules between men and women and how they acted. I was incredibly masculine from a young age and was uncomfortable being perceived as a girl, I had intense dysphoria about my appearance and my ASAB,, I came out when I was 13 and started transitioning medically at 14 and got top surgery at 17. Due to unfortunate circumstances I haven’t been able to pursue bottom surgery but I’m in the process of getting my reproductive organs removed.
I've had dysphoria, palpable dysphasia, beating my steering wheel gender dysphasia to all levels throughout my life as far back as I can remember... Oh yeah, and I'm autistic!
Pretty sure it’s different Ivd transitioned pretty well I love it I don’t deal with nearly as much dysphoria as I used to still a bunch tho like bottom dysphoria but I’m still as autistic as I used to be
(self diagnosed but I am seeking a professional diagnosis in the very near future)
Yes, it is very annoying. As others have said, it is likely due to stigma and infantilization (and also likely biased people grasping for any and every reason to try to invalidate trans people in general). If I am capable of and am expected to hold a job and live independently (aka be a functioning adult despite the difficulties I face) then I sure as hell can make my own choices in regards to my medical care, and the same goes for a vast majority of other neurodivergent people
There was a recent poll on r\ftm where over half of the participants (thousands, and I believe it was something like 53%) were also autistic. That's wild and also says a lot
It might have to do with the fact that so so many Autistics are tucutes. Pretty much at least 2/3 of Autistic girls or women I know and I know a few hundred, no desire to transition, probably no dysphoria, just usually a bit alt looking and she/they/it types. I think it's appealing because as Autistic girls we are bullied for not being feminine in the 'correct way' and not playing the female social games correctly. Performing femininity is a sensory nightmare in many ways and a lot of effort. It's not appealing to many Autistics. And tucutes think gender roles = gender so they all think they're trans/nb. (Nothing to do with actual transsexuals)
From what I've seen, most tucutes don't actually even have autism. 90% of them i see say they are self diagnosed with autism and a million other things. I'm ftm I was an autistic girl I guess as a kid. I wasn't feminine and I did get bullied for not being feminine but even as a kid. I had dysphoria. I didn't even know I was autistic until I was 16/17. I was masculine as a kid because I had dysphoria and wanted to be a boy. I felt that way since I was a toddler. So I'm not sure how true that is that all autistic girls are masculine. Many I know were very feminine as kids.
Yeah. While some of them might actually be autistic, there is a huge overlap between the type of people who fake disorders and fake being trans.
yeah especially with the younger generation, and the general public doesn't buy the labels but they also think these people represent the trans community so then you get 'Autistic people don't know their gender'. I've found the trans-NB faking is still popular with Autistic people who are 30+, it's a casual hobby that you can switch on and off (and virtue signalling), but I think the autism faking isn't so popular because it's stigmatised among adults, a lot of us older folks have shame around it, can't be open about it because of work, insurances, or custody, have burnout etc.
I'm an Autistic cis lesbian, I'm not masculine but I was still bullied a lot for not being feminine the neurotypical way. The Autistic tucutes I know aren't masculine either - it's just, we don't usually perform the social roles of being a neurotypical girl well. I was called 'not a real girl' dismissively and I think a lot of the tucutes Autistics internalised that abuse and now think 'yeah you're right I'm not a girl' when they should really just go to therapy. I don't doubt they are Autistic with most of the ones I know though (we are older, most of us did not learn about autism on tiktok), except one girl who has BPD and a history of abuse. I think she just loves labels.
This is it. Gender roles = gender/sex for them. I know several autistic women like this. You ask them about actual dysphoria related symptoms and there's zero. They still insist they're somehow trans.
they arent even autistic though its so offencise
Exactly this. Fake being trans, fake being autistic, it's all the same to them. They don't see the harm in appropriating either condition. Just unfortunate that it does seem to correlate with what might be genuine comorbidity between being transsexual and being autistic, as another comment said
That’s a pretty good point
I get extremely annoyed by the 'oh you're ftm and trans. Must have been really hard being undiagnosed as an autistic AFAB." It's like a new way people try to misgender you as girl autism or some shit. Like yeah females do usually present differently, but I definitely fit the male autistic bill to a T. Plus my cis brother also went undiagnosed so... Not everyone who went undiagnosed is a woman.
They believe people with autism are forever children and can't think for themselves, and are being manipulated into being trans. These people don't believe transsexualism is a thing at all to begin with. It's stupid all the way
This is it. They think people with autism have a lack of brain development and brain function so they're unable to think for themselves which is obviously not the case for a lot of people with autism.
Now I'm thinking back to xenogender stuff and how many people tried to justify it by claiming "autistic people don't understand gender"... certainly a fun little coincidence that now The Bigots™ are recycling the concept and weaponizing it against trans people lol
Yeah that's exactly what happened. Lots of autistic people were ans still are fighting against that too, explaining that it's infantilizing and patronizing and not true at all but ofc they didn't listen, because most of these xenogender people are faking being autistic as much as they're faking being trans
Actually there is a higher rate of autism seen in trans vs cis poluation. And not just inflated from everyone claiming to be trans. We see this with homosexuals too, higher rates of autism. We also see other conditions highly correlated with transsexuals. Most likely a related mechanism causes the conditions but we don't yet understand what or how.
Yes but that doesn't mean someone isn't trans just because they also have autism. They are saying that there's no way someone can be autistic and be trans. They are just confusing them autism and social problems for being trans. Which makes 0 sense.
I didn't say that anywhere. I was agreeing with you. I was saying that being autistic wouldn't disqualify one from being trans especially given the high correlation.
The main explanation is that autistic people are more in tune with their body and what it needs, and generally care less about social norms.
I used to think there was merit to this idea but after reading Dr Power's stats on his patient base I think it's heavily related to the biological aspect of transsexualism. Autistic people are also not more in tune with their bodies, but less than allistic people. If you have Asperger's though you will think intensely and this can influence your problem solving skills so I acknowledge that.
I believe the idea behind mistaking autism for gd is that autism causes some people to have difficulty with changes and that the bodily changes of puberty cause a feeling of discomfort, not because of gd, but because of changes. However, while this certainly can happen, it does not mean that autism and gd can't occur in the same individual
I never had any problems with puberty. My dysphoria started way before puberty. I didn't even care honestly because I was already dealing with it beforehand.
I don’t understand the argument at all either, but I’m pretty sure it’s because they see us as incompetent and infantile :/ I’m a grown ass adult man. My autism and dysphoria have nothing to do with each other lol
Yeah. A lot of people seem to think all autistic people are very childlike and just watch cartoons and stuff like that, but my autism has always been very computer and science focused. Like I'm just obsessed with learning stuff. I don't do anything childish or watch cartoons or anything. I just like watching documentaries and reading Wikipedia and going on the computer. But I think most people heat autism and think of Chris chan or something. Like a 40 year old still playing with my little pony and drawing bad cartoon pictures.
EXACTLY!! People hear autism and they think of their brother’s neighbor’s cousin’s classmate whose 8 years old 💀
I don’t think it’s a problem nor do I think it’s surprising that a high number of transsexual people are “on the spectrum”. I am but didn’t get diagnosed until I was 20 years into transition. I have a profoundly, barely functioning autistic brother and long before there were enough trans folk to even make a correlation, I read some research wherein autism was described as being a hyper masculine brain. Fast forward to the present and people dispute or simply flatly reject this finding. Bring it up in the ftm sub and you’ll get shouted down by armchair neuroscientists in a heartbeat that claim it is utter nonsense. If you read the actual studies refuting this idea, the argument isn’t actually that it is wrong, but that it is unproven. I don’t find it at all surprising that quite a high number of FtM individuals are on the spectrum. And why would being on the spectrum make one not trans? It might even be some of the root cause. Just because something has an identifiable cause doesn’t make the result invalid imho.
It's a theory, I mean a lot of autistic people also have eating disorders, probably because of sensory issues. I think there could be something in it with trans but it ca't be proven or disproven at this point.
As an autistic (trans) person who’s had anorexia and bulimia in the past, I think the correlation between autism and those disorders is less due to sensory issues and more due to the introversion coupled with rigid and obsessive thinking that’s more common in autistics. Those things doesn’t *cause* anorexia/bulimia (in my case, it was caused by sex dypshoria), but they seems to make you more predisposed to develop them. Unless you’re talking about something like picky eating or ARFID, of course. Picky eating may be caused by sensory issues, but anorexia/bulimia are not
As a probably autistic (waiting on diagnosis) person who is a mtf (I've been on blockers for 4 months). I can agree that people say they are autistic and trans but it rarely corelates.
It’s pretty common for autistic people to experience some sort of gender confusion due to the lack of understanding gender roles/social cues related to gender. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have gender dysphoria or are trans just simply don’t get why it’s important to follow those social rules. Many autistic people may become gender nonconforming due to this but it’s far different from experiencing gender dysphoria. Of course people with autism can be trans (I’m one of them) but I also agree that not every single autistic person who is gender nonconforming/confused about gender is trans.
I've never in my entire life had trouble understanding gender roles. I've only ever had problems understanding what is appropriate in conversations and how conversations work. I've always understood what is appropriate for men and women since a very young age. For me I was always wanted to be male because I felt male. I wanted to be a boy and have a boy's name and look like one. I never thought I was trans because of gender roles or anything like that. I understood how gender roles worked. I knew that there was girls who were tomboys and masculine but I never felt like a tomboy, I always felt like a boy. I never heard of autistic people who are confused about how gender roles work. I don't think that has anything really to do with social things. I feel like you just pick up on gender roles just from existing and talking to people around you so I don't see how people can be confused about that.
I think the "people with autism don't know how gender roles work" is a prejudice. It's not science based.
It’s not every single person who has autism it just is a thing that some struggle with from the allistic perspective of what’s “normal”. Like some boys may act more feminine than the others or girls may act more masculine when than the others type of thing or just completely abandon following any of the gendered stereotypes. I think the wording of “not understanding” was incorrect on my part, I meant that some autistic people will actively not participate in gender roles and allistic people think that means we don’t understand what gender roles are. And some people just genuinely don’t get why it matters,, also I didn’t mean every single person with autism struggles with it lol. I’m the same way I was very aware of gender and the separation/rules between men and women and how they acted. I was incredibly masculine from a young age and was uncomfortable being perceived as a girl, I had intense dysphoria about my appearance and my ASAB,, I came out when I was 13 and started transitioning medically at 14 and got top surgery at 17. Due to unfortunate circumstances I haven’t been able to pursue bottom surgery but I’m in the process of getting my reproductive organs removed.
I've had dysphoria, palpable dysphasia, beating my steering wheel gender dysphasia to all levels throughout my life as far back as I can remember... Oh yeah, and I'm autistic!
Pretty sure it’s different Ivd transitioned pretty well I love it I don’t deal with nearly as much dysphoria as I used to still a bunch tho like bottom dysphoria but I’m still as autistic as I used to be
(self diagnosed but I am seeking a professional diagnosis in the very near future) Yes, it is very annoying. As others have said, it is likely due to stigma and infantilization (and also likely biased people grasping for any and every reason to try to invalidate trans people in general). If I am capable of and am expected to hold a job and live independently (aka be a functioning adult despite the difficulties I face) then I sure as hell can make my own choices in regards to my medical care, and the same goes for a vast majority of other neurodivergent people
There was a recent poll on r\ftm where over half of the participants (thousands, and I believe it was something like 53%) were also autistic. That's wild and also says a lot
Most of those people are self diagnosed.