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Comment by arcaster | Hacker News Reader

IMO it's a loss for everyone to make mental health / disability a gendered issue. Mental illness is hard for everyone, regardless of what gender they identify as...

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Recognizing gender differences in how conditions are expressed and challenges that relate to interaction between conditions and existing gender roles and norms is important. This isn't making mental health and gendered issue, it's recognizing that me talk health is an issue which interacts with other aspects of life, including gender.

I agree that this is a really important and positive step in the right direction, however, I think many may pick up ideas that might not be as beneficial with only a cursory skim of the article.

Totally. But I think this article actually helps with that. By educating parents, teachers, and doctors on the way that symptoms of autism manifest across children without assuming male as the "default" gender (and also educating them about our social biases which affect our interpretation of those symptoms), we're ensuring that more autistic people out there can find each other and support one another and themselves regardless of sex.

Also, I'm certain that there are male autistics who manifest their symptoms in the more stereotypically "female" way (ie, quiet, shy, reserved, good at masking), and by educating people on the different ways that autism presents itself, we can help those people get proper diagnoses and support as well.

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