I've seen a lot of comments from neurodivergent people bewailing "what if my infodumping is mistaken for mansplaining?"
In many cases I think this is a misunderstanding of what mansplaining is and looks like. It can also come from, unfortunately to say, a place of mistrust of women and their ability to distinguish between when they are being spoken to in a respectful way vs. a patronising way.
2/
And if your infodumping is genuinely difficult to distinguish from mansplaining, that suggests the problem is deeper, and you might indeed have some sexist attitudes to work on. Did you ascertain the level of knowledge the woman you're talking to has, or did you assume it? Did you start your comment by acknowledging and building from what she already brought to a discussion or did you launch directly into lecture mode?
Working against sexism is not just a responsibility of neurotypical people. Neurodivergent people, too, have to examine the ways that sexism might be leaking into their neurodivergent ways of being and communicating.
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Finally, it is a sad but real phenomenon that misogynists often hide behind [pretended or real] neurodivergence as a smokescreen for their bad behaviour. This is fucking shitty, and impacts both women and neurodivergent folks— and neurodivergent women doubly so.
This is why an argument of "my behaviour looks like sexism but it's actually neurodivergence" is increasingly regarded, rightly, as a red flag by women. I highly recommend putting as much distance as you can between yourself and this crowd— they will try to drag you down with them.
4/
As an autistic woman I love an infodump, both as speaker and listener. There's something so "in the zone" about it, just letting the facts tumble out one after another.
Have I ever seen infodumping mislabeled as mansplaining? Honestly, no. I have seen accusations of mansplaining deployed disingenuously to win an internet argument, but that's its own thing, and pretty transparently bogus.
Infodumping, done right, is a mutually respectful activity, which makes it fundamentally different to mansplaining.
Fin/
@Tattie the number of men I've encountered who respond to being told they said something shitty with "I'm autistic". So am I, so I recognise that makes it more likely I'll read the situation wrong and say the wrong thing and potentially hurt or upset someone and work very hard to avoid doing that, rather than using it as an excuse.
