Ever had any NTs make fun of your interests...

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because they're not socially acceptable? For me, I go on this website called Retrojunk (because retro stuff is one of my special interests) and on its message boards, if you talk about anything else other that video games, rock music, or action movies, you either get made fun of or ignored. Also, it's very uncommon for someone in my age group to get into stuff like "The Thief and the Cobbler", "The Golden Compass", current events, reading books, or retro whatever (TV shows, movies, music, video games, etc.).

Yes, my parents. What I like is either too childish and ret*d, or when not that, too perverted and disgusting.

On I2, I was made fun of for my Benny & Joon and I got picked on for it and got crap and they were all aspies. But I stopped so they stopped. Even aspies get sick of hearing the same things over and over just like anyone else. I see that as a realization for them if they wish to talk about their interests over and over. Irritating isn't it?

My mom didn't like my obsessions either when I was little and would get mad at me for them. But she never made fun of me.

I don't think you have to be an Aspie for this one. NTs will even make fun of each other's interests.

I like when comedians do that stuff as long as it isn't mean. Jeff Foxworthy makes fun of our local culture. A lot of the stuff he makes fun of makes the people in my family very uncomfortable, and we live with it all the time. Hearing him make jokes about it can be a positive outlet for us. We laugh and nod knowingly, but no individual person has been insulted, in fact they may be laughing at themselves just as much as we are. I think that's a really good way to deal with those kinds of things, as opposed to being mean to other people.

Why folks do it openly and meanly to each other, I'll never get.

Kiley has a really good point. Everybody has their own special interests, and sometimes the best defense is to laugh at yourself when you are being made fun of. In fact, it's really good if you can make fun of yourself ahead of time, kind of beat the others "to the punch."

I'm lucky in this way -- in that I'm an NT who is obsessed with knitting and yarn and myson is on the spectrum and obsessed with music (nice obsession), comedy (again, nice obsession, but he can get over the top about it, especially when he's not funny sometimes), and video games. None of these things is hard to listen about, unless he goes ON, and ON, and ON. Well, I go on and on about yarn, too, sometimes, so I make fun of myself in front of him, and he knows it's not too bad to be made fun of, especially if we all do it to each other, and do it with love and affection for each other.

I think the key is just learning the exact amount that it's ok to talk about your obsession, and REALLY paying attention to when people begin to hem and haw, avert their eyes, and look for something else to do besides listen to you. Practicing to pick up on those nonverbal cues is a good thing.

I was into Battletech (tabletop RPG/Strategy game) for all of Middle School and High School. Seems that was the target of much ridicule up until i graduated.

Living in a house with two other Aspies I can tell you that our interests even annoy each other !

When I was a teenager I was obsessed with Duran Duran and I got picked on constantly at school and at home from my brother. Now people just get annoyed with my fixating and constant talking about one subject but they dont really "make fun" of me.

My friends tease me about being obsessed with the tuba. At my first high school, I answered to "tuba player" as readily as my own name. I was [real name] the Tuba Player more often than [real, full name] because I usually refuse to use the cumbersome, hyphenated last name my parents gave me. Someone made fun of me about it once at a summer job, but that was more for being a band geek than talking about it too ,much. I think I cussed that person out. Anyone who has ever played in an ensemble with me loves it. If your band has a tuba player, you want her to be the "I will hold the bass line together if it kills me" type, and you want her to be able to hold an instrument together with duct tape, prayer, and twine.

When I was in high school I was mocked for my interest in science and mathematics. I was in high school in the 1950s and I was a proto-nerd.


ruveyn

I hate to admit it, but no, My intrests are stop motion animation, horror films, post collapse of society survival,roleplaying games, comic book art of Richard Corben and Moebius, and firearms, I guess NTs find them interesting because they have refered me to new books, magazines, web sites, obscure data, and other sundry bits of information I would find interesting. Maybe I just come off as intresting by the way I describe them.

NTs poke fun at my Bearsac interest everyday but I get a laugh from them. However, many people inc. NTs also like it and join in with me and Bearsac when I animate him in public.

I have been mildly teased by friends over my interests. Nothing nasty though.
I used to be really obsessed with t.A.T.u a few years back and my friends I had in year 9 used to tell me they're lesbians and what not just so they can see me over react to their inaccuracy and give them a lecture about how the band started.

Then earlier this year I was talking to the old friend from year 9 and I was on about some theory to do with evolution and apes and how our behaviour is similar to other animals and blah blah, so he goes "it's always aaapes and mooonkeys!" So I shut up then.

I know my family use my old obsessions to tease and remind me of embarrassing ones. Although my current obsession has got my mum all excited and she's urging me to turn it into a future career, which is what I want to do (primatologist by the way).

in gradeschool i was teased all the time for my fascination with the human body and "gross stuff".

NTs don't make fun of my interests, at all, really, except for one girl who had her muffin showing, who was with her boyfriend. She pointed at the lime green Kinks shirt that I had on, and snickered, when I was in a line up, at Army and Navy. I turned my head and looked at how silly she looked, pointed at her, and started laughing my head off. She said to her boyfriend, "I don't like her. She's not very nice...she laughed at me...let's get out of here!" Her boyfriend said, "You got just what you deserved. You weren't very nice to that autistic girl!" Somehow, he knew, and I thought that was cool. That girl won't be laughing at me, anymore.

Other than that, I've never had anybody make fun of my special interests.