Aspie girls

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I've been researching & the books have almost no info on females with asperger's so I was wondering if any diagnosed women/girls would be interested in making a list of traits typical to autistic women, since the most I could in, like, 7 books, was that "they are more subtle in there symptoms and their obsession are more "socially appropriate". or something like that.

Please add what ever you would like to this, I'd really like to hear anything you have to say (also from men who know aspie women, as well)

How about these links. Both books are by Tony Attwood: (don't know whether you'd have read them or not because I thought they were quite detailed).

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZwQGsu ... s#PPA46,M1

http://books.google.com/books?id=KbxPsJ ... ls#PPP1,M1


I don't know many aspie males so can't comment about differences on a personal level.

I haven't been able to get any of Tony Attwoods book at the library yet, tho every other book I see refers to his work. Thanks.

There was a good thread on this a few weeks back. I think millie started it. It was called something like "Female aspies--a different presentation?" It got a lot of good comments.

Where can I find it?

Female Aspies - A different presentation?

Found using google search on this forum with the search string of "female aspies".

hi msinglynx - a number of weeks ago i started a thread about girls and AS -" Female Aspies: A different Presentation?" ----

there's a few of us around!! you might want to hunt down that thread on the General Autism discussion board to read a heap of input and view that might help you.
we also discussed various literature.

from my understanding, most women usually score lower on the spectrum, ie, not as autistic as men

weeeelllll....kind of..... But i think it is more that some of us girls can somehow manage to develop an understanding of the social cues in some instances. we don't get it...but we can "wing it" a little better sometimes. but i don't know if it actually means we are "less autistic" in terms of other traits.

someine else on WP might have more specific info pertaining to this.....

You're welcome to send me a list of questions or something if you like, but even here I don't really seem to be typical.

Wow! I was reading that first one, and they were talking about ME!

The best book I came across on the subject is 'Women From Another Planet'.

http://www.amazon.com/Women-Another-Pla ... 1410734315

Some autistic traits are more culturally acceptable for women than men. Being shy; staying at home a lot; avoiding eye contact; reading; etc. Of course that didn't help me because when I'm not oblivious to other people I'm obviously odd; but the shy type of Aspie female may benefit from it. Also, the more global connections and language focus of the female brain may compensate somewhat for autism. The effect isn't huge, though; on just about any scale, the difference between male and female averages is very small compared to the usual deviations from the norm.

You may find that the difference between male and female autistics is smaller than that between male and female NTs, though, because much of that difference is culturally acquired male/female roles, and apparently autistics don't pick those up as easily.

I think that's because things that *should* be considered more socially appropriate irrespective of gender are not considered socially appropriate for boys... double standard... given our symptoms, as children, we tend to spend more time around our mothers than other boys. So... logically, if you spend more time around your mother, even though your imprinting may be weak, you're apt to imprint to a much greater degree on your mother than you are on your father or other boys. So the reason why we end up being more "socially inappropriate" is because the culture has their collective head up their ass.

I'm reading three books about autism and women/girls:

'Asperger's and Girls' with sections by Tony Attwood and Temple Grandin, among others - a good series of essays on how girls differ from boys on the spectrum, and the difficulties they may encounter through childhood, adolescence and adulthood

'Women from Another Planet' which is a series of essays/stories/poems by women on the autism spectrum - good for that 'a-ha' factor, demonstrates how many autistic women see the world

'Pretending to be Normal' by Liane Holliday Willey - also good for seeing how someone with Asperger's experiences life and sees the world

I enjoy reading these books, because so many things written in them resonate with me, more so than with anything else I've ever read.

I got these books from the library of my local autism society. Maybe you could see if there is a similar organisation in your area?

The other thread that was linked to this thread is old and a bit long to add to, but I did want to say something about an opinion expressed on it, namely that someone who can function in social settings does not have AS. I disagree with this, since Autism is not a personality or behavior disorder, but a difference in neurological processing. It is generally conceded that aspies have above-average intelligence, and I see no reason why applying it to solving the problem of social situations would make one "less autistic", as is often said of girls, and more-socially-adept boys.