Do girls tend to have fewer special interests than boys?

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I'm female with diagnosed AS, and my boyfriend is also diagnosed AS. He has an encyclopedic memory--definitely a "little professor"--and quite a few, intense, special interests. I tend to develop special interests pretty infrequently, and they don't last for very long. Even when I do have them, I have difficulty retaining facts. My boyfriend can--and will, if you don't stop him--spit facts at you for hours; it's like he never forgets anything he reads.

Do girls, on average, tend to have fewer special interests than boys? Or, if not, do they tend to have a poorer memory for facts and trivia than boys do? I'm worried that because I have a poor memory for facts and few special interests, I might have been diagnosed wrong and don't actually have AS...

Here's a list of my special interests, and I have very good knoledge of them. I find that the list is shorter than most of the ones here, but I remember a lot of facts about them.

Swinging London
Carnaby Street
The Kinks
The British Invasion
Routemaster buses
Cockneys

I have encyclopeadic knowledge of these things, but most of the lists that I see here, are five times as long as mine, and it's all things that are advanced and sophisticated, like sciences, maths, languages, history and psychology.

Here I am, comparing myself to everybody else, again. I've got to stop that.

My username isn't CockneyRebel for nothing.

I haven't noticed any quantity differences between men and women.

I think that girls does indeed have less "special interest". I think is due to the substantial difference between male and female brain. Many articles I've read are about gifted girls but I think many things apply also to AS-Girls. Usually women brains are more "scattered" and "holistic" than male brains and tend both for neurological and social reason to have higher degree in emotions and verbal things while male brains have a greatest ability to spatial/logical reasoning and systemizing. Put the 2 things together, add a different growing up ambient and girls are usually less likely to focus on a single topic reaching an "expertise" level (this is also the reason because there are far less female "genius" than male "genius").

Fewer or less intense? I've understood they tend bto sdtand out in intensity but be more mainstream than those of AS boys (e.g horses, doll collecting, soap operas)

Mine were in chronological order:

Animals, age 3-11
Horses, age 3-15
Fiction and biographies, age 4-current
Greek mythology, age 9-12
Languages age 12-current
19th century (literature, clothing, customs) age 12-14
Music -Suede, age 14-17
British retro pop culture, esp 60s-70s, age 15-19
Mylene Farmer, age 20-22
Buddhism, age 20-current
My children and children's development, 21-current
Autism, age 25-current

In addition, I think one of my boyfriends became a special interest during our three years together. That was unhealthy. He was all I thought about and I related everything to him. Very vulnerable position.

I'm not an expert on the subject, not at all, but I do have a general opinion on the matter. I've spent alot of time here, reading, and will say that for the most part, guys do have more intense interests, and it also appears that they tend to have more of them. I wouldn't say that this is by a huge margin, or without exception, it's just a generalization, after reading through thousands of posts by both male and female members.

Notably 'special interests" are not actually necessary for a diagnosis, and from this it could be inferred that not everyone with AS will manifest them.

The criteria item in the DSM that pertains to special interests is only one of a set of three (of the diagnostic sub-set),and from memory only one item within this sub-set needs to be met to meet the diagnostic threshhold for this section of the criteria.

I'm female and my special interests are intense and long-term.

hell, I still love dinosaurs and if there's a show on about them I have to watch it. I have toy dinosaurs in my yard (they live there, and I plan to make a habitat for them. I had one at my old house) and I would love more than anything to have a giant dinosaur in my front yard (my husband says no, though... they neighbors think we're strange enough already). I have planned vacation travels so that I could visit dinosaur exhibits on the way or as the destination.

my intense obsession with horses only developed when I found out at the age of 4 that dinosaurs were extinct and that I couldn't have a real one. apparently that was a horrific and traumatizing day for everyone.

is this the section in question?

(C) restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least two of the following:

1. encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
2. apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
3. stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
4. persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

would my bead collection fall under item 4? I always say I'm going to make jewelry but the simple fact is that I obsessively collect beads. I love them. I've been collecting them since someone gave me my first ceramic bead around the age of 12. I even buy beaded jewelry at yard sales so I can take them apart for the beads.

My daughter has an intense interest for hourses... are them the "train" of Aspie-girls... seems pretty common...

Interesting article at Newsweek on Females and Aspergers:

More than just 'Quirky'