There was a period of my life where I was being abused so much by men I wanted to look ugly so they’d leave me alone. I cut my hair short and was really butch for a while. It seemed to men I was some sort of novelty / or prize / but I was never liked for me always the idealised version or the “manic pixie dream girl” thing autistic women are prone to. I was viewed as an entertaining object and not a person. I was objectified my whole life. I never thought I was beautiful but since a teenage girl I had boys chase me and show up at my house etc - and actually it was terrifying. I later got called a stuck up bitch by said men and boys or bullied for refusing their advances and being my own person. Men traumatise us more than we realise - bc funnily I never chalked it up to “men” more that I must be faulty or defective even if I hated those “men” for how they behaved they all seemed the same, I was abused since a young age by a man older than me and robbed of my autonomy in my formative years. I lost a lot of my life to survival. Have respect for those of us who have come through hardship but don’t necessarily want to have to tell the tale. #asd #autism #autisticwomen