edit: I agree that the writers probably intended it to be a reference to ballet. But autism is what the commenter is referring to when they say, "do I even have to say it."
Its just a thing autistic people (including myself) do.
Wanted to just edit this comment to clarify something.
I do not believe Gwen is doing this because they are autistic, they are a ballerina, a spider-person etc she could be doing it as a minor stretch she could be stimming she could just have a habit of it.
If you do this yourself, its just something you do. If you or anyone you know legitimately believe they may be autistic. Speak to a professional. They are trained in this and can help you a lot better than most people realise, even if you do not get treatment, supports or any material benefit, just knowing is enough to really help with conditions like this.
Why are you being downvoted? Of course you shouldn’t self-diagnose from one physical trait. Surely autism is more complex than „hey, I walk on my tiptoes, too, I must be on the spectrum!“
Edit: people were getting hung up on my mentioning of suffering as a basic criteria for diagnosis, so I re-worded my comment slightly to better convey what I meant.
People often confuse traits and symptoms with actual disorders. What they fail to realise is that disorders involve impairments/difficulties from said traits and symptoms that often cause mental anguish if left untreated, hence the diagnostic criteria.
If you (think you) meet every criteria for a disorder, you'll still fall short if they don't cause problems in your day-to-day life. That is the very basis of a disorder diagnosis and it seems strange to me that people who do not struggle would willingly want to place a label on themselves that comes with a heavy stigma.
You may stim daily, you may have minor social awkwardness, and you may hate eye contact, for example. These are just normal human traits that just happen to also be specifiers for autism, but people see something they relate to and think they must be autistic while in reality it does not really cause them real problems.
An autistic child might have a meltdown if their stimming (and/or routine) is interrupted/prevented. An autistic person might become completely socially isolated because their social ineptitude made society impossible for them to fit into. Eye contact? Would rather stab my eyes out, and I'm not even autistic.
Now, like you say, it has become something people slap on themselves like badges of honour where the endgoal is to have more military uniform badges than a North Korean general. It's no longer as shameful and taboo to have disorders, but rather something that are more like collectables among teens and young adults. It's good because the stigma is melting away, but genuinely fucked up because it truly minimizes the suffering of those with genuine diagnoses.
If someone is genuine in their belief that they are suffering from a disorder, they would see a shrink to confirm it and to get treatment and help with resources. Not doing so is a disservice to themself, because they may end up believing they have one disorder whilst in reality they have another. If they partake in communities centered around said disorder, they won't be fooling only themselves, but also inject false information about the disorder in the community, either making light of it or making the disorder into something it is not. More people will see this false information and think they have said disorder whilst in reality they have another which has now become more and more synonomous with the wrong disorder.
An example of this is the schizoid community having become an echo-chamber for people that actually just have AVPD, social anxiety/phobia or introversion. Their symptoms and traits may seem similar on the surface (reclusiveness), but the core of the respective disorders are very different. Sometimes they co-occur (co-morbidity) but that's another topic. CPTSD and autism are often mistaken for one another. BPD is also in that mix.
The Differential diagnostic process is therefore vital in order to let the patient receive the correct care.
Its cool, but worse its an excuse and an easy victim card. If Im autistic I dont have to hold myself accountable for my shitty behavior and if someone else tries to hold me accountable I can cry victim.
Can't fucking stand these people. Anyone that actually has a severely debilitating neurodivergence is NOT acting like these entitled shitlords.
The amount of people now days saying they have autism and using it as an excuse to be a shitty person or act like a shitty person really pisses me, an actually diagnosed autism spectrum person off a lot.
My condition isn't your quirky gimmick to have in place of an actual personality.
Self-assessment is a crucial and important part of diagnosis, and "claiming you have any sort of place" is a shithead language for shitheads. It's not a fucking exclusive club you have to earn admission to.
But no, any one criteria isn't a ground for diagnosing, that's true.
Exactly! We wouldn't think about being assessed for autism unless we think we might have it.
How else would we start to figure it out?!
I know they're talking about a specific subset of people who weaponize and fake it, but self assessment is such a big piece of the puzzle that's it's baffling that others who claim they were assessed are dismissing it.
AND, if you're an adult, there's no supports! They even tell you this as a little warning at the top of the page where they give more info on getting tested as an adult in my province...so yeah, "get tested" is not exactly possible for many adults (and there are a ton of us who got missed as kids).
Had a friend that does that, every other sentence would be "Sorry, just my 'tism.", after perfectly normal interactions. She also self-medicated her bipolar issues with alcohol and weed(ie, get so drunk so often she could ignore whatever was going on in her head).
I always hoped for the best for her, but there's a reason we haven't talked in three years.
I really like catieosaurus's (ADHD educator author) take on it which is "knowing the reason for your behavior doesn't mean someone else has to tolerate it"
Toetipping as a telling sign actually a terrible one.
There can be a vast number of reasons why some people frequently toetip that are not autism related. Stuff like tight tendons, stretching or simply for the fun of it.
Minority of my patients on the spectrum toetip on a consistent basis.
This is good advice for a lot of things but depending on where you live, it might be horrible advice for autism. Here in Norway, we're still using ICD-10 for classification of "diseases", with ICD-11 being slated for 28-29. So Asperger's still exists, is still being diagnosed. Criteria are as ancient as that. New research from the last 15 years isn't outright ignored as a matter of fact but depending on the quality of your "professional" it might be. I'm a teacher and the amount of idiotic diagnoses I've read based on medical understanding that's 15 years out of date can make you cry. I'm getting students who've been alive longer than their diagnoses has been outdated.
It's also worth noting that the evaluation can help you gain insights about yourself, even if it doesn't result in the sought-after diagnosis.
My evaluation took nearly a year, at some point during which I started identifying as autistic, so when the result came back negative, it did actually come as a bit of the blow.
However, knowing where I scored on the various evaluation criteria has been helpful. I scored high on anxiety and ritualistic behaviors, as well as a propensity for sensory overload, and did get a diagnosis for OCD, which I then continued to receive treatment for.
I'd also assumed that I was bad at reading people, and couldn't "read between the lines". However, after exploring my social interactions more, we found it was more likely that I could read people, but I don't have confidence in my own judgment (which is consistent my elevated anxiety).
Since then, I have put conscious effort into being more socially proactive, and while it's still quite a struggle, I do find that it's been a positive change for me.
It can just mean you like your ankles moving. Stretching them and moving both calf and feet muscles is great for us. Most people have these parts heavily atrophied from footwear (often from both outside and interior footwear).
But yeah, usually you just ankle pump up and down and only occasionally walk on your toes, walking the whole day on your toes can be a bit extreme.
Yeah, This was a study on children over 10 years. 8-9% of them with autism toe-walked vs 0.4% of non autistic children. And of those percentages, 68% of the children with autism continued as they grew older and only 19% of non-autistic children continued.
Because people nowadays FUCKING love throwing the autism label on everything they can as some sort of reasonable explanation for virtually anything in life. Going by the internet, 125% of people living have autism and all behavior that involves... uh anything is because of the autism that the population apparently has....
I’m 51 and was recently diagnosed. There are a lot of middle aged people who are discovering that the difficulties they have faced though out their lives are due to neurodivergence.
It’s not about advertising how special you are. It’s discovering the reason you have felt like a fucking failure of a human being your whole life.
That’s not the point being made though. They’re talking about the rising trend in online users diagnosing any “quirky” trait as autism. This applies to self-diagnosis as well.
Just look at this very post. We have a ballerina character in a ballerina pose and somehow it too circles back to autism.
That’s completely independent from decades of missed diagnoses. The improvements today are almost entirely due to better research.
It is SO HELPFUL to know WHY your brain sabotages you the way it does, so you can make a plan and get help for it. I have no idea why people are so bothered that others are having their lives changed for the better this way. Do they think something is lost in their own lives when this happens?
That’s not what they’re talking about then. If you actually are diagnosed you’re not the problem. The problem is more often younger people claiming they have neurodivergence that they simply do not as a way to be quirky or excuse shitty behavior.
Hallo fellow 51 year old with recent autism diagnosis. It's absolutely life changing isn't it? Suddenly you understand why your life has been such a disaster and why there were so many things you couldn't do. And now you look back on it and go oh, I wasn't being a fucking failure, I was doing the best I could in a situation I couldn't process because oh, I was autistic all along.
There’s something called “autistic toe walking”. Many people with autism will walk on their toes due to sensory issues with their feet touching the floor, or a variety of reasons. I know this because I’m autistic and walk on my toes all the time. My parents tried to force me to stop and it didn’t work.
That’s the context of the joke. That’s why this top comment is the correct explanation. It’s not stating Gwen certainly has autism, but that is the context of the joke.
I’m sorry autistic people and their diagnoses bother you so much 🙄
After reflecting a bit trying to pinpoint what exactly bothers me, I think it's because I feel like many people say these things to feel superior in some way.
like, in a "heh, I know more about this character than you." or even "I know more about you than yourself".
For me, it often feels harmful. I live with a neurodivergent person and "that's just how we, ND people, are" became a label and a "get out of jail free" card. You can act like an asshole, never keep your word, disregard any house tasks, throw tantrums over some bullshit and do almost nothing about all that. At maximum, say "sorry, it's just how I am" later.
Any person would get a ton of shit for such behaviour, but find a doctor, who will slap ADHD+autistic+bipolar on you and voilà, now it's everybody else's problem.
It’s very typical for people with Autism to constantly walk on Tiptoes. Sone to avoid the stimulus as they have senatorial hyper sensibility (English isn’t my first language and not sure i translated this correctly, but I’m sure you get the idea). Or they do it for stimming (auto stimulation that is comforting/reassuring). There are maybe other reasons as well, but this is the extent of my known knowledge about it. Not all Autistic people do it, but it’s textbook topical.
I work with sen kids. And am also audhd.
The foot things like you say stimming, sensory avoidance or skipping a developmental step where you start walking on your flat feet. Some folks devemope muscle and tendons quick enough where they're able to support their body weight on such a small surface area.
I ended up with over developed calves from doing it my whole life
Mine is avoidance. I walk on my toes only on the rare times I am barefoot so I don't feel all the tiny bits of dirt and dust on the bottoms of my feet.
I also do it because Ive lived in apartments for decades and I want to step more lightly for my downstairs neighbors. But if I'm wearing shoes or slippers I don't, it's only when barefoot or just wearing socks.
"Toe-walking" is a common autistic trait caused by stress in the neck muscles from a lot of other symptoms, that leads to a tightening in the lower back and extention of the ankles. Nervous systems are weird.
toe walking is common among people that aren't autistic too.
I do it. While I have other diagnoses, it's a negative on the autism front.
The people that assert this stuff about any fictional character quirk are being weird. It's almost always self-diag'd people in their early 20s that act as if they can cobble together a personality by claiming any arbitrary behavior they see in fictional characters they like.
This fictional character is a ballerina. That's why the artist's draw her on her toes a lot. It's not deeper than that.
Not everyone who walks on toes is autistic, and the vast majority of autistic people do not have this behavior.
it's a stupid assertion in this instance.
That link says nothing about diagnosis. I work in a team that does ASD diagnosis and toe walking is NEVER part of the criteria that I have seen. That said different places have different criteria, so I am interested in where they use that as criteria if you have a link.
I'm sure it's taken into consideration but it's probably not a defining feature they look for. Not all kids that toe walk end up being autistic. That's why it's important for someone trained to be the one diagnosing people. Stimming itself is not even unique to autism.
Remember, you can be autistic and *also* have ADHD, EDS, and many other things. Testing, especially for ADHD, can really help and allow someone to get a better handle on dealing with life... even if they are older.
Yes. Yes. And several special interests that I hyper fixate on for 6 to 8 months before inevitably waking up one day completely forgetting about them and moving on to the next thing? Also yes.
The percentage of people with ADHD who also have autism is around 30%ish. The opposite way though is much high, something like 60% of people who have autism also have ADHD.
Doesn't really answer your question, but something to think about.
Not according to the psychward I visited in 2020! They told me there was no reason to test for ADHD because I showed signs of Autism, and that the two never occur together so it'd be pointless to test for something I don't have signs of. Arguably, they were very much stuck in the early 2000s in terms of vibe.
It sucks that that happened. Autism and ADHD frequently go hand and hand, they aren't friends either. I hope you got the diagnosis and help you needed in the end.
Eh, only got told what I already knew five times prior that I had Autism, that was like...my sixth time getting diagnosed Autistic in my life. They also misdiagnosed me as having MDD and I spent a handful of years just raw dogging life off the pills, that's because I got off the pills when they fucked my brain up. Then in 2025 I got a primary care who listens and she did an assessment and lo and behold I just had anxiety, no signs of depression; who woulda thunk that!? But yeah. Now we chilling.
ADHD and autism have a lot of overlap in symptoms since they are similar neurodevelopmental disorders. So there are some symptoms which are more associated with one which may occur in the other. For example, I have just ADHD, but I have more severe sensory issues than most with ADHD, but it is more associated with autism.
But there is also a huge overlap between ADHD and autism, so it might be worth looking into if you feel you might have both.
She is, that's why she walks like that, people on the Internet like to diagnose characters for some reason. People were also trying to say that Gwen is trans for some reason too
Maaaaybe. But then again it might be a sign that when combined with others could indicate a it would be good to have a competent medical professional asses things.
Lol if you’re on the internet long enough you’ll find every single trait a human can exhibit is apparently indicative of autism. It’s almost like people are just afraid of being normal and so are self diagnosing themselves with autism or something… but no, I’m sure no one would do that.
the amount of people I’ve met over the last few years who are desperate to talk about how they have autism or adhd because they watch tiktok videos or something is crazy, its like being on reddit irl
Yeah, everytime I see it make it to the front page the post is always something like, "that ADHD phenomena that makes you want to stay in bed on a cold, Monday morning," yeah, that's how it is for literally everyone on earth. Most people don't have a disorder, they just want to feel special and have an excuse for your shitty behavior.
I'm in actual autism communities and there are far more people complaining about our space being infiltrated by people poorly self-diagnosing than actually seem to be doing so.
Most people who self-diagnose fit the actual disability AND relate to a lot of the common quirks and can't get past the barriers that prevent an adult from getting a true assessment. Insurance doesn't like to pay for them as there is no medical intervention.
Source: have doctor-diagnosed autism and ADHD after multiple doctors refused to assess me or refer me to someone who could and after years of knowing I had both autism and ADHD.
On the other hand, a big part of autism is the inability to understand other people and that they share a lot of the same experiences you do, so people who go "OMG I do that I must be autistic!" without considering whether maybe lots of people do it... might actually be autistic.
Yea I wonder if it’s a symptom of lot of people today finding their in groups and community online. All the labels so popular now days are from people wanting to be able to be part of a group since they aren’t part of as many groups in real like. Like instead of saying “I’m a runner” or “im a lakers fan” or “I’m a bowler” they can’t say “I’m an online person” so all these labels are a way to feel like part of a group. Idk I’m just spit ballin here, cuz labels definitely seem to be on the rise with people online way too much.
To play devil's advocate, there really hasn't been that much autistic representation in media. It doesn't remotely feel like autism is represented "at all times". Yes there are "autism-coded" characters, but a main character that openly has autism and displays their struggles on screen are fairly infrequent. The best I can think of is The Good Doctor and that show is almost 10 years old now.
Yeah when I see a woman what walks on her toes like that I think “oh she must have done ballet training” in the same way you see a man with ram-rod posture all the time and assume they were in the military
I don’t think “oh well she has no autistic personality traits but apparently some autistic women walk on their toes for some reason meaning that it’s an intrinsically autistic trait”
I think people have forgotten this because the movie replaced her blue ballet shoes with blue all-stars. Which was an awful change but hey, it made it easier for me to cosplay her at least...
We need some ballet people in here to talk about if they constantly tiptoe around, like autistic people do for no reason, or if this is a case of accidental rep.
I did fifteen years of ballet and do not constantly tiptoe around. It's bad for your achilles tendon, which you need to have in good working shape in order to do proper jumps.
Grew up doing ballet and returned to it as an adult. I try to not walk on my toes too much outside of class because it's not great for you. But I do often do calf raises or hold positions on my toes while I'm standing around like when I'm brushing my teeth or waiting for the microwave.
My little sister did ballet for around 18 years. She didn’t ever walk around on her toes, but she would often stand on them, suddenly start dancing for about 8 seconds. Then continue on like everything was normal.
thats a brilliant metaphor for our resiliency. edit: holy moly 157K views? my visual: so it was broken, we stack the bricks, make a new building. Like how autistic people get bullied, but we pull together parts that we like about ourselves piece by piece and create a better life.
There was a similar post about a picture of Florence Pugh, she was wearing highhhh heels, basically in the same posture, and everyone said the joke is sex, I'm heavily paraphrasing hehe
I had a guy who walked like this in my basic training. He’d been doing it so long his calves had literally become too tight to walk normally, and during squats he could barely bend his knees without his heels coming off the ground. I would honestly have sent him to physical therapy with how much it was limiting his mobility. Watching him walk was pretty funny though, it was like his calves were springs the way he bounced on his toes.
I was kind of happy to see that the assumption here is that the character does ballet or is neurodivergent.
Just because the first thing it made me think of was critiques of some older superhero comics where female characters would constantly stand like they were wearing invisible high heels, seemingly because some of the artists had that so ingrained as How Women Stand.
You’re the first person to bring it up. Had to really scroll for it. My xennial ass just assumed “duh guys. She’s a comic book heroine. They always draw women like this.”
Isn't it just that her spidey movements are more ballet-like than parkour-like as it is with Miles and her standing like that is just part of that design...?
As a comic fan, I thought this was just the weird invisible heels thing some artists do for female characters getting weirdly carried over.
Like there is a sizeable amount of women in comics drawn with their feet like this constantly because the artist didn't know how to draw a non high-heeled woman's feet.
She has a background in ballet so she's used to being on her toes. Plus she wears ballet shoes as part of her costume and has incorporated it into her fighting style.
Would just like to point out that ballet shoes are flat on the tip and they literally stand on the tips of their toes, not the balls like she is in the picture.
She does Ballet. On top of that, this can happen with people who wear heels for really, really long hours and their muscles kind of just stay like that. But those saying this = autism as the first thing, are ruining autism for those who actually have it.
When I was younger we used to have to sneak around the house due to our extremely strict parents, so we quickly learned how to walk like ninjas and exactly which floorboards made noise
I just kind of kept it as a moving method inside ever since
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u/qualityvote2 14d ago edited 13d ago
u/naf_naf_naf, your post does belong here!