@lulu they didn’t use to diagnose it for those of us who could talk.
Also, you may find this podcast enlightening (https://squarepeg.community/podcast/) - it manifests very differently for girls.
I suggest you listen from the earliest episodes, there is a LOT that you may find relevant.
I was already aware that adults and those who can communicate are under-diagnosed, that queerness and transness are much more likely, and it took me forever but also - that the typical female masking behavior that makes it difficult to diagnose applies to me too...
It's still hard for me to include myself with women, even in my own thoughts. I'm working on it and getting seen helps. And I understand what fierce little me had to do to survive and that involved a lot of masking.
Regarding "there's barely anyone non-autistic around", I know right? - but I also think that it's a bit biased by the fact that we tend to find each other and stick together.
@lulu “Women’s Work, The First 20,000 Years”, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber.
Andthen everything else she wrote.
It’s ~30 years old and is not appropriately inclusive, but please read yourself into the overlap of tech and language.
FWIW, I basically sat on Yossi until he read it, and it was like lightning bolts over his head went off. Paradigm-shifting, even after ~30 years.
@lulu
Spinning fiber into string is very worthwhile.
It is tangentially related to loom weights (the problem of fiber is: how not to tangle. It wants to tangle.) but doing it oneself answers a bunch of other important questions.
And it takes hair, from a sheep (for example), in one hand, and skill and a weighted stick in the other, and in between them is the magic of humanity.
Yes, it makes me cry every time. Indistinguishable from magic.
@lulu I'll be right here whenever you read that book and are jumping up and down needing to tell someone, anyone, of how amazing it is.
Like my friend Mary was for me. Like I was for Yossi. And for the (oops) dozens of other people who needed this book so much, to understand about our world, our history, our - everything.