as small as a world and as large as alone, just wanted to say i saw the two posts you...

2:03pm August 1, 2014

fenisoffended asked: just wanted to say i saw the two posts you reblogged mentioning my ask, and thank you! dont worry about not answering yet, the posts are plenty of reading in the meantime ^^

Here are some other links, may overlap with what you’ve already been told about. Understand, I’m not vetting these for quality, I’m just sending them on and you can make up your own mind. I’ve just found as many as I can that I remembered from elsewhere, and done some websearching to find more. I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with any of the links I’m sending you, same with the books. I haven’t read many of the books at all. But from here you’ll at least have a start towards stuff about autistic women and girls.

One thing I would strongly advise you to do, however? Is totally disregard whether a list of traits says it is about Asperger, autism, PDDNOS, high functioning autism, or low functioning autism. If the traits fit you, they fit you, and if they don’t, they don’t, and all of those things are just different ways of saying “autism”. So don’t disregard something just because it’s from a diagnostic category you don’t think you fit. I’m not Asperger’s but I identify with some lists of Asperger’s traits, because Asperger’s is just autism without a speech delay/regression in early childhood. If something seems to fit you, don’t disregard it based on diagnosis alone, especially since now all the diagnoses have been consolidated into one.

Websites and web pages:

Autism Women’s Network

Women and girls on the autism spectrum

Aspiengirl

List of Female Asperger Syndrome Traits

Girls and Women Who Have Asperger’s (note that anything Tony Attwood ever says about autistic women seems to have been extrapolated almost entirely from the life of one particular woman)

Asperger’s Traits in Girls

4 Clues You Are A Woman with Asperger’s

Girls and Women with Autism Spectrum Disorder (PDF)

What Autistic Girls Are Made Of

Why Women With Autism Are Invisible

Thoughts and Ideas As A Woman with ASD

Girls With Autism

Asperger’s Syndrome in Women: A Different Set of Challenges?

Resources for Women and Girls on the Autism Spectrum

Why Autism is Different for Girls

Different Parts of the Brain Affected by Autism in Women and Men, Study Finds

Books (general):

Aspergirls

Women From Another Planet?

The Independent Woman’s Handbook for Super Safe Living on the Autistic Spectrum

Aspies Alone Together: My Story and a Survival Guide for Women Living with Asperger Syndrome

The Aspie Girl’s Guide to being Safe with Men - The Unwritten Safety Rules No-One Is Telling You

I Am Aspiengirl: The Unique Characteristics, Traits, and Gifts of Females on the Autism Spectrum

Girls Growing Up on the Autism Spectrum: What Parents and Professionals Should Know about the Pre-Teen and Teenage Years

Girls Under the Umbrella of Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Practical Solutions for Addressing Everyday Challenges

Books (autobiographies and other stuff by autistic women, but not specifically about autistic womanhood):

Lucy’s Story: Autism and Other Adventures by Lucy Blackman

Nobody Nowhere by Donna Williams

Not Just Anything by Donna Williams

Autism and Sensing by Donna Williams

Songs of the Gorilla Nation by Dawn Prince-Hughes

Mozart and the Whale by Jerry and Mary Newport (half of it is by her, half by him, and well worth reading, I identify a lot with her development growing up, personally)

A Real Person: Life on the Outside by Gunilla Gerland

Life Behind Glass by Wendy Lawson

Through the Eyes of Aliens by Jasmine Lee O’Neill

Overcoming Autism by Georgiana Thomas (that one may be hard to find but is well worth reading)

Congratulations! It’s Asperger Syndrome by Jen Birch

Thinking In Pictures by Temple Grandin

I’m sure there’s more really good ones, but I’m not in my living room with my book collection right now, so I’m having to go on memory, and my memory is patchy. I’m sure there’s better ones than the ones I’ve listed here. These are just what I can remember. I collect books by autistic people so I have over a hundred and it’s frustrating that I can’t remember more, but I also don’t feel like squeezing myself through all the crap in front of my bookshelf to take notes and come back to the computer and etc. But I’ll try to post stuff if I ever do go back there.

FWIW… I’m DFAB but I don’t feel that I have a gender, so I call myself genderless and go by sie/hir pronouns. But at the same time, when I do identify with autistic people, I seem more likely to identify with autistic women (whether DFAB or not), and with other DFAB autistic people (whether women or not), than I do with autistic cis men. And I don’t know why that is. I don’t necessarily identify with the checklists they give of “autistic female traits”, in fact many times I feel like I have a lot of the “male” traits. But somehow when it comes to actual autistic people I identify strongly with, they’re either female (whether trans or cis) or DFAB (whether trans or cis). Basically, they’re usually something other than autistic cis men. And, again, I don’t know what to make of that. Also I tend to identify a lot with genderless autistic people whether they’re DFAB or DMAB.