Do males accept their AS more than females do?

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I happily accept it and I am male. In fact it only took me a day or two to accept. I always knew it was there, I just finally had a name for it. I never quite understood why other people would find it hard to accept or would be embarrassed by it.

I'm going to be evaluated this autumn, I'm male. I discovered AS in myself in February, and after a period in which I thought I'd seriously lost faith in myself finally I've come to the conclusion I'm more confident in myself than I was before. Even if the diagnosis fails, I'm glad I've been here on WP and looked after a lot of things about autistic disorders here and elsewhere too.

I also think the acceptance is not gender specific. I can't answer your poll, I don't "happily" accept my "disability". I don't think I'm happily accepting it and I don't think it's only a disability either, it's more a condition with both positive and negative sides. I've got from Nature what she's given to me, my task is to make the best of it, just like any other people's in this world. The case is not so bad.

I accepted there was something different about me long before i discovered autism and long before i got confirmation from a professional. It was a relief to find a name for it more than anything. It's made life easier not harder.

lol, reminds me of this scene in angelheart. I know who i am! Oh, except for the rest of the vid!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEUUS_kjI4k[/youtube]

Female, accept it, consider it a disability.

I was actually terrified that I was going to come back as not on the autistic spectrum and instead just a broken neurotypical when I was getting my testing done. I'd have a had a huge difficulty accepting that I was an NT.

I gladly accepted the idea that I was an Aspie for one very simple reason. I finally had a reason why I acted the was I do that wasn't "you're a freak." I am not thrilled about having AS, but I'd rather have a reason, than none.

I've accepted it, mostly because it's who I am. Why should I have any reason to hate myself for it?

I've had some problems accepting it in the past.
I do feel its a disability, but the only reason why we are disabled is because the majority refuse to accept and make adaptations for us. I don't feel defective in any way shape or form, I'm just wired differently.
I used to view my AS as a defect and something to be ashamed of, but its only when I stopped trying to be normal and let go that I saw it for what it really was. My brain is just wired differently from most people.

It took me about 2 seconds to accept it once it finally "clicked", so many things in my life suddenly came into full clarity and I understood everything that was different about me that I had been fighting against.

They say there are 5 stages of grief, for me I got through denial, anger, bargaining and depression years ago, a few weeks ago there was only acceptance left.

Quite frankly though, my entire town thinks I am somehow mentally ret*d anyway because I do not quite get their inane chatter about nothing, so telling one or two people wasn't so difficult but I didn't tell everyone, just those I felt were worth it, and three quarters of those really weren't lol

The biggest issue I have is my family, they have ostracised me my entire life anyway and now I have to try to explain to them how I see the world??!

Thing is, I have been telling everyone for years, and dropping classic clues that I didn't know what they were...like one time some woman working behind a bar asked me in her usual snide way when I was ever going to get a girlfriend, my usual stock answers of being the great unattached or don't be ridiculous weren't going to help me so I immediately came out with relationships confuse the hell out of me. Even though that is true of 99.999% of men anyway i still got ridicule; sometimes you cannot win.

I do like having having intellectual jokes at other peoples expense sometimes though if they do get snide, like when the woman in question asked me if I would ever date her...not my fault if the first thing out of my head was "only if you were dead and on fire" (complete the homicidal triad with the word "dog" and you might see the funny side...to this day they still do not have a clue what the joke was lol)

I honestly cannot say whether males or females have an easier time of it, it all comes down to individual experiences.

Take a look at Heather Kuzmich, my idol and the person who finally showed me what I am:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMPozIOkRs4[/youtube]

Now contrast this with the perspective the media as a rule puts on males:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueLxYKP5UzU[/youtube]

Is it any wonder people treat autism with suspicion?

Personally, I feel that the environment where you grew up does matter to an extent. In addition to that, people who have Asperger's aren't exactly thinking the same.

I accepted AS just fine. Ok, I admit when I was told that I had it, I was a bit shocked. Well maybe because it started with the person saying "you have a mild case of autism" before saying "called Asperger's Syndrome". Anyways, I think that if a person has a somewhat different personality, thinking or habits from the norm, there must be a good reason. I don't think there will be a guy or girl that goes around with a completely different attitude so that they can be looked down or seen as crazy. I was very happy after I was told, because I now knew that there was a reason for my difference.

Though I really wanted to punch those people who said I was just looking for an excuse for being mentally ret*d.

I would've guessed the opposite, actually, given how important my feminism was in giving me a framework for accepting my autism. I already knew from sexism that just because society says a group is inferior doesn't mean it really is. And that you don't have to accept society and conform to it - with hard work and dedication, oppressed groups can get acceptance.

But it looks like there really isn't a gender difference after all.