People still think of autism in like... Rain Man-terms.

As much as people like to think popular depictions (The Big Bang Theory, Abed in Community, etc) of autistic behavioral patterns are somehow furthering "the cause" (whatever that is) - ultimately, they amount to little more than vaudeville and can be incredibly damaging to people who don't "seem autistic".

It's very tiring to assure people that yes, you are indeed autistic, when all they know is Sheldon Cooper and Raymond Babbitt.

Especially annoying if they think you're some sort of genius, when the average autistic's intelligence generally is lower than average.

Especially now that so many fucking lunatic autistics are committing atrocities.

If you're obviously greatly disabled autistic=not threatening High functioning autistic=liability

I was diagnosed 20 years ago, and even I had a very hard time recognizing and accepting that my own partner is also autistic (now diagnosed as an adult).

But then again, it seems to manifest dramatically different in men v.s. women, as well as there not really being any depictions of autistic women in media for the longest time.

And a gigantic part of autistic women no doubt went undiagnosed for a long time (and still are).