Hi! I’ve gotten my diagnosis pretty recently but I’ve suspected for about a year now. This year was one of a LOT of research and reflection of everything regarding autism and because of that I stumbled on research saying that 9 out of 10 autistic women are victims of sexual assault. This really made me interested because I believe I’m also a victim of SA (it’s hard saying that with confidence, I can’t do that yet).
The thing is, I’m not fully understanding why we would be more vulnerable to it. I do to some extent, but I’m still struggling with grasping it fully (maybe I’m just trying to deny it for myself?). My story is that I was basically coerced, and the reason I find it hard to call myself a victim is because I did kind of agree to it, and I somehow don’t believe my ex actually had bad intentions.
I saw news of someone SAing a nonverbal autistic kid because they couldn’t tell anyone, and yeah, that’s straight to the point and gives an answer. But it doesn’t only happen with nonverbal autistic people, so how are we more vulnerable? I guess I’m just asking for insights to see if I can explain why it happened to me, when I am verbal, did eventually understand where it was leading and still not only complied, but also would try comforting him when he blamed himself for/got sad over me being someone who was clearly never interested in any sexual activities and would never get any satisfaction from it (he also eventually, when the relationship was clearly heading towards a breakup, said he felt guilty over having sex with me when he knew I didn’t want it. I comforted him then, too).
I don’t know. If anyone wants to share thoughts or their own experiences, it would be much appreciated.
Edit: thanks to everyone who replied, I really appreciate it. It also impressed me how everyone was straight to the point, I’m not used to that and I’m really thankful for it. Your answers helped me so so much. Thank you.