Holly Madison speaks out about her autism diagnosis

[Anonymous]

I'm not surprised that former playboy bunny and Hugh heffner ex Holly Madison has been diagnosed as autistic. I think her ability to relate the decisions she's made - both positive and negative -to her autism is impressive. I also think autistic girls are especially vulnerable to being taken advantage by men and her story is a prime example of it

[Anonymous]

I like Holly, but to say she was preyed upon by Hefner is a stretch and infantilizes adult women.

She wanted to be famous, and shacking up with Hefner as a “girlfriend” in hopes of a playboy cover was a more attractive option than working at Hooters.

[Anonymous]

I also like Holly. I respect her pursuit for a diagnosis as an adult. Also, her ability to take control of her post-bunny narrative is impressive.

I think her point is that she was more likely to be taken advantage of because she missed social cues that would have sent others running. She is also high masking with a need to please and be loved — so she leaned into her physical assets because she got “positive attention” for them.

I think playboy history is a special interest for her. Her depth of knowledge is highly researched and she mentions in her book something about knowing about her Dads collection of the magazine as a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not surprised that former playboy bunny and Hugh heffner ex Holly Madison has been diagnosed as autistic. I think her ability to relate the decisions she's made - both positive and negative -to her autism is impressive. I also think autistic girls are especially vulnerable to being taken advantage by men and her story is a prime example of it

Why do you say you aren't surprised? Curious about what you picked up on.

[Anonymous]

I think there are MANY famous women who are high functioning ASD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not surprised that former playboy bunny and Hugh heffner ex Holly Madison has been diagnosed as autistic. I think her ability to relate the decisions she's made - both positive and negative -to her autism is impressive. I also think autistic girls are especially vulnerable to being taken advantage by men and her story is a prime example of it

Why do you say you aren't surprised? Curious about what you picked up on.

A few things made me wonder.. she just comes off as very rigidly masking. Shes created a model of what she thinks people want from her and she doesn’t deviate from it. She's one of the first women we've seen in the reality era that's overly plucked, veneered, microbladed, contoured, botoxed, bleached etc. She’s the precursor to the kardashian era. If you look back to magazine covers in the 80s, supermodels had plenty of "flaws" like natural facial hair. (Obviously these arent flaws at all). It reminds me of what I think Marilyn Monroe said about wearing "Marilyn " as a mask over Norma.

She also has low affect. Her eyes never smiled when she did. Its not the botox- there are plenty of instances where other models are smiling rigidly but the rest of their faces, bodies, voices are involved.

And the way shes has conversations..
https://youtu.be/Ou2sucYPMcs?si=rmw2ZvurdUuLImkp
The first 2 minutes of this video she spends not declaring her topic and delving into it but excusing herself for having an opinion . She's trying to predict how the audience will react to her opinion (she assumes the audience will think the worst of her) and change that opinion. It's social anxiety and its hard to watch because i can feel her fear in the first 2 minutes.

And yes I agree with pp about many famous women are asd. But she's one of the first to know and discuss her autism

[Anonymous]

I was a loyal watcher of The Girls Next Door when Holly and crew were on. She had a noticeably flat affect at times. I think most people would have read it as shy or reserved, or less charitably, as stuck up/snobby. There was a girl on a season of America’s Next Top Model who openly talked about her autism and they were similar in demeanor. I also noticed that Holly seemed uncomfortable at the parties and events compared to the other girls. It couldn’t have been easy for her and I’m glad she’s doing well now!