The reason autistic people identify as LGBTQI more than allistic people is a mystery still but the theory that we "just don't give a shit" is strongly endorsed in the comments.
#Autism #autistic #neurodiverse #lgbtqi #ActuallyAutistic
@ideogram anecdotally, I and some other autistic folks I know all have some struggle with understanding gender as a concept. It may contribute, I guess? It seems to be that part of social norms, and autistic people are known for struggling with understanding those, so probably just another side to it?
@olena @ideogram Gender is easy to understand as an #autistic. There are two sets of unwritten rules. One of them you are supposed to VERY MUCH and the other one you are supposed to NEVER. This is supposed to be very important to you for reasons and it's supposed to be obvious to you which set of behaviors you want to do. Violating these unwritten rules is punished even more severely than violating the regular unwritten rules because these are more important.
@BernieDoesIt @olena @ideogram See, I don't believe this because I have strong gender and I have never really done the "my gender" things yet I feel very "my gender". So I would say this is like watching a movie and mistaking the cgi stuff for real. Gender and the rules are not the same for me, one is how I feel and the other is someone's cgi version of it. Unless you define gender as being the set of rules, it isn't for me.
@Antiqueight @olena @ideogram That's valid. If I understand the theory correctly, then in my explanation that would correspond to identifying which rulebook is yours while disregarding the rules in the book.
@Antiqueight @olena @ideogram But yes, I'm definitely trying to explain things outside my experience to other people with a similar lack of experience.
@BernieDoesIt @olena @ideogram
For me the best description I have is for both gender and identity - it's like being Right or Left handed. You just are. Some people are ambidexterous to a greater or lesser extent but those people who are left handed can't explain why they are, and ditto right handed people. And you can't tell just by looking at a person which they prefer. Rules and expectations and societal norms and all can take a hike, people just know themselves if they're 1, other, both, not
@Antiqueight @BernieDoesIt @olena @ideogram
And there were a lot more left handed people after they stopped being demonized and forced to try and be right handed, such as having their hands slapped with a ruler in school for writing left handed.
@the5thColumnist @BernieDoesIt @olena @ideogram Right, exactly. "where did all these left handed people come from - they weren't there when *I* was in school" etc.... or "did you try NOT being left handed"?
@Antiqueight @the5thColumnist @olena @ideogram Meanwhile we handless people are nodding along hoping that understanding this whole thing about handedness isn't going to end up being important.
@BernieDoesIt @the5thColumnist @olena @ideogram Exactly, you'd be the "not" mentioned at the end there. In another time you'd still have had no hands but been told you must identify as right handed while knowing nothing about what that should mean to you. Today we hope people realise that there are those for whom the question "Are you right or left handed?" is utterly meaningless if only due to the lack of appropriate appendages.
@BernieDoesIt @the5thColumnist @olena @ideogram Rather reminds me of the question "Are You Protestant Jews or Roman Catholic Jews?"
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3526847