1. Asperger excluded girls from his studies NOT because autistic girls didn't exist (he was well aware of them), but because the ones he knew didn't fit the "little professor with bad manners" type he was interested in.

2. Autistic girls were excluded on purpose. It was a conscious choice, one that snowballed down the decades into the idea that autistic girls must not exist, because then why don't they exist in research?

3. Little Professors mutated into "next step in evolution," the idea that autists with fewer support needs are uniquely intelligent and superior. Some men link being autistic to proof of specialness, and since women are always inferior in their worldview, they can't be autistic.

4. Autistic people raised as girls are diagnosed less because 1) evaluators share these biases, thinking only cis boys are autistic, 2) research is not inclusive of all the ways autistic traits present (affecting trans and non-conforming boys too), but most of all . . .

5. People perceived as female are interpreted differently even if they present the same as a stereotypical cis autistic boy. Their traits are interpreted as shyness, brattiness, bossiness, stubbornness, rather than autisticness.

6. Women in general are pressured into fitting their gender roles, where men are given more leeway to express themselves differently (as long as that expression isn't Too Feminine). So autists perceived as girls are forced to mask more to avoid criticism.

When perceived-female autists perform femininity, dressing well, grooming themselves, taking interests in stereotypically female things, it's proof they're liars. But when a cis autistic man does manly things, it's praised, if commented on at all.

When perceived-female autists succeed socially, it's because they were never autistic in the first place, even if they previously struggled. When a cis autistic man succeeds socially, it's because he surpassed so many obstacles to get there.

When a cis autistic man does feminine things? More proof that he doesn't do social rules. When a perceived-female autistic person does masculine things? Bitchy, bossy, bratty, overbearing, incapable of compromise, talks too much, needs to learn their place.