My fear is not really with the misdiagnosis, but with the lack of the precise support you received being so common. It's hugely common in North America, where I am from, to adopt a "child as asset or liability" mindset that leads to parenting based solely around achieving normative goals, which accumulate with increased intensity around adolescence, and are further bolstered by today's media environment. Ours is a consumer culture, and part of that is that your identity is very product-driven.
In this light, gender comes to the fore not in the sense of being "tempted" after seeing something online, but as a particular mask to wear 24/7, regardless of which one you choose; something which autistic people have long been known to struggle with. It isn't outrageous to conclude that switching masks might be a relief if the assigned one isn't working out; consider that autistic women are historically underdiagnosed, and then flip it around to the context of MTF transition: suddenly, autistic man behavior would "pass" as neurotypical woman behavior. That makes it seem like transitioning is the way to be normal!
Of course, normative masks have consequences for people who lean into their assigned gender, too, creating a context for all kinds of medical interventions: steroids to look big, diet drugs and surgeries to look small, study pills to pass exams, and so on. It's a promise of purification which has gradually targeted younger and younger ages. Gender in this light isn't so unique, it's just a particularly scapegoated expression of the culture.
The parents bear some responsibility because in happily going along with a diagnosis of this sort, they're most likely being all too eager to make their child be a better product on the market. Whatever the intervention was, they can go to bed that evening telling themselves "my kid will be successful now." Which in turn results in prolongment of mental health issues and ad-hoc coping mechnaisms.
In this light, gender comes to the fore not in the sense of being "tempted" after seeing something online, but as a particular mask to wear 24/7, regardless of which one you choose; something which autistic people have long been known to struggle with. It isn't outrageous to conclude that switching masks might be a relief if the assigned one isn't working out; consider that autistic women are historically underdiagnosed, and then flip it around to the context of MTF transition: suddenly, autistic man behavior would "pass" as neurotypical woman behavior. That makes it seem like transitioning is the way to be normal!
Of course, normative masks have consequences for people who lean into their assigned gender, too, creating a context for all kinds of medical interventions: steroids to look big, diet drugs and surgeries to look small, study pills to pass exams, and so on. It's a promise of purification which has gradually targeted younger and younger ages. Gender in this light isn't so unique, it's just a particularly scapegoated expression of the culture.
The parents bear some responsibility because in happily going along with a diagnosis of this sort, they're most likely being all too eager to make their child be a better product on the market. Whatever the intervention was, they can go to bed that evening telling themselves "my kid will be successful now." Which in turn results in prolongment of mental health issues and ad-hoc coping mechnaisms.