wetwareproblem: Since conversion therapy is looming in everyone’s consciousness right now: This is your regular reminder that ABA, the generally-recommended therapy for autistic children, is literally conversion therapy with an extra dose of “auties aren’t even real people” thrown in for good measure. It was conceived by the same people, from the same research, for the… Continue reading
Tag: autism
Science finally supports that we are all born as blank slates and gender is merely a construct
If any of my followers believes that “brain sex” is a rigid and well defined category check this out
I actually did a study on this in my freshman year of university!
I had to give a ten minute presentation on gender and a) how it’s different from sex, and b) whether or not there’s such thing as a “male” and “female” brain.
I found COUNTLESS studies supporting the idea that the brain itself is unisex- there is very little, if any, difference between “male” and “female” brains, with one exception. I’m by no means a neuroscientist but this is what I understood from this particular article: there’s this tiny part of the hypothalamus (a small part of the brain) that has neutrons in it, and the number of neutrons varies. HOWEVER, when the brains of cis men and women and trans men and women (who had not taken hormones for years prior to the time of death) were studied, it was found that the cis men and trans men had almost identical average neutron counts, and the cis women and trans women had almost identical average neutron counts. So if you’re DMAB but realize at some point that you’re a trans woman, as far as your brain is concerned, you ARE a woman! The same goes for DFAB trans men (intersex/nonbinary individuals weren’t studied, unfortunately).
TLDR; Your brain doesn’t care what you were “born as”, only what you really are!
I’m currently reading a fantastic book that goes through and debunks old studies that “find evidence” to support gender roles. SPOILER ALERT: they were all poorly done studies and their evidence is unsupported bullshit.
a pretty good read and a good source
NEUROSCIENCE DEBUNKING GENDER ESSENTIALIST SHIT YESSS
Yay for science finally supporting it. I’ve believed this for years.
mm-hmm!
Super important for all of the reasons stated here, but also because it is further proof that the “Extreme Male Brain” theory of autism is BS.
There is no such thing as a male brain.
Autism is not a thing that only men can have.
Women are not “less autistic” because they’re starting from more “female” brains.
The fact that I still see this being treated as fact in modern psychology makes me want to scream at some researchers.
Or at the very least is giving me the determination to finish my Master’s so that I can scream at them in my dissertation…
Science finally supports that we are all born as blank slates and gender is merely a construct
gloriousmonsters: pvwitch: memelordrevan: rosslynpaladin: iamthethunder: s8yrboy: “If autism isn’t caused by environmental factors and is natural why didn’t we ever see it in the past?” We did, except it wasn’t called autism it was called “Little Jonathan is a r*tarded halfwit who bangs his head on things and can’t speak so we’re taking him into… Continue reading
Every parent on tv with an autistic kid be like
thetrashknightofbreath: autistictsoni: autistic-parenting: “Do you know what it’s like to have a kid who doesn’t smile at you or touch you?” I really, genuinely don’t understand this. My son has never, ever laughed at funny faces. He’s never laughed at silly shows. But when he finds something he enjoys, like numbers, his face lights up.… Continue reading Every parent on tv with an autistic kid be like
Guides on writing autistic characters
curiousonscreen: There’s a lot of great advice about writing autistic characters on the internet, and the aim of this post is to link to all of it. If you’ve got something that should be included in this post, please include a link in a reblog. Note to People Thinking of Writing Autistic Characters by Ada… Continue reading Guides on writing autistic characters
How to Recognize Autism Symptoms in Yourself (with Pictures)
I wish I had seen this 15 or 20 years ago.
This is incredibly useful. I think there’s still a pretty widespread issue of autistic people generally being depicted as how neurotypicals see us rather than how we see ourselves. So you see depictions or descriptions of autistic people all the time, but it never registers that that’s how other people might view you.
For example, see the last bullet point on #7. NTs see autistic people who talk excessively about their interests, so that’s how we get depicted and what’s looked for in assessments. They don’t see those of us who’ve developed anxiety about sharing what we care about with others because of how many bad experiences we’ve had from oversharing early on. That’s an experience of autism that is mostly invisible to NTs. So you see depictions of autistic people oversharing all the time, and it seems like that can’t possibly be you because, if anything, you have the exact opposite problem.
OMG YES!
When I was younger, I loved talking about my interests, but as I got older, I started to realize I was annoying people, so I refrained from talking about my interests. To the point where I now feel somewhat uncomfortable talking to people about my interests because I worry I’m boring or annoying them.
How to Recognize Autism Symptoms in Yourself (with Pictures)
Every single pokemon character is autistic
sorio99: sockshathair: unuvocheto: Every single one. Like maybe there are some nts but only like one percent. Evidence: – it is a social norm to not make eye contact unless you are going to battle – most trainers specialize in one type aka special interests – no small talk. It is acceptable to introduce yourself… Continue reading Every single pokemon character is autistic
metatextuality: siriustachi: my whole life I have been hearing the same bullshit about how autistic people are intractable and inflexible and don’t understand other people or adapt to new situations me and every other single autistic person I know have been spending our whole lives desperately trying to navigate and understand neurotypical social norms and… Continue reading
An inside look at executive functioning issues.
A response to: Ask an Autistic – What is Executive Functioning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=229Xb…)
I like this video. I really enjoy hearing from other a/Autistics and I love it when people make videos in response to or elaborating on a topic from one of mine.
Video is not captioned.
this is a really good description of what i experience. i don’t think choice paralysis is the whole story with executive dysfunction, but it’s such a big factor that i’m not sure i could disprove that it is, either.
non-autistics apparently don’t see every possible next action, even the abysmally stupid ones, and have to choose between them, every time they try to do something. that sounds so goddamn restful. i mean, i’m sure the vast and branching alternate universe tree that opens up before each one of my decisions makes me a better writer, and i know it makes me better at spotting solutions other people miss.
but it also means that when the small saucepan is not hanging on the Hook Where The Small Saucepan Belongs, i suddenly have to cope with every possible place it could have gone springing into my mind at once, including silly stuff like “my helper accidentally took it home with her” and “my spouse took it to his office to put peanut shells in.” the fact that i find it in the most logical place (the dishwasher) within five seconds doesn’t retroactively undo the mental and emotional labor i involuntarily expended on that massive array of choices i thought up. it happened. it happens every time. i can’t decide not to do that. welcome to autism.
Wait, so how do allistics whittle it down? How does normal brain sort out silly options from non-silly ones when deciding what to do? I can’t even comprehend it.
I wonder if allistics have to consciously decide to include silly options before being able to even consider doing a silly thing. That must be why I end up doing silly things and not realizing I’ve done a silly thing until people look at me funny.
i think that’s probably it – the allistic brain instinctively picks out The Next Thing and presents only that to the consciousness.
i think both neurotypes are necessary to a functioning society. allistics get shit done; autistics think up the shit you didn’t know you could do. 😀
hmm. well, imaginative, creative neurotypicals are admired for seeing lots of possibilities and options rather than only one or two, but are also chided for the way that really takes up processing power and leads to bad or deferred decisions.
it seems to me like an actual physical limitation? if you’re the sort of only see one or two choices, that saves a lot of time and energy, but you’re going to have a really hard time navigating complex, novel situations. if you’re the sort to always see dozens of choices then basically every day is a complex novel situation. you’re trading ‘kick ass in familiar situations but freak out and die in unfamiliar situations’ on one end of the creativity spectrum for ‘be about the same level of shitty in all situations’.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Monsters' Queen 