Re: The Geek Theory of Autism

[Guest guest]

At 06:26 PM 3/29/2004 -0700, you wrote:

>jypsy [ janet norman-bain ] wrote:

>

> > The Geek Theory of Autism At university, K. met for the first

> > time people with exceptional skills like his own Brad Evenson

> > National Post

>

>Do you happen to have a link to the original form of that article? I

>thought that was a pretty good one.

>

>

sorry, it was in the national post and is no longer archived on their

system (or I would have provided the URL) Got this from Google's cashe

-jypsy

________________________________

Ooops....Wrong Planet! Syndrome

Autism Spectrum Resources

www.PlanetAutism.com

jypsy@...

[Guest guest]

Camille wrote (quoting a message from Mara):

> Hi, I think you misread what it says. the autistic " shadow " traits

> or whatever you wnat to call them are found in 25% of biologically

> related relatives and in only 10% of " in-laws " or adopted relatives.

> I heard Dr. Szatmari speak, he made the same point.

The point being that shadow traits occur in 10% of the population at

large and 2.5 times more commonly than that in blood relatives of autistics.

> I think that women with AS are over represented statistically on the

> internet. We are more likely to be interested in communicating with

> others. That's my opinion. If we could line up all the " true " ACs

> in the world, there would probably by more men than women. I don't

> think it would be as much as 4 times as many men, though.

I have been to a number of autistic adult meetings in Phoenix and

Tucson, and the male:female ratio is close to 4:1, if not more

male-heavy than that. I have been to a lot of meetings with 10-12 males

and no females. Never have I been to one where the number of females

was even that close to being half; they have always been much closer to

1 in 5. Of course, 12 people is too small of a sample size to really

tell anything, but it does contradict what you see online, where the

females definitely outnumber the males on the majority of fora.

> Simon Baron-Cohen's point is about the brain's orientation,

> scientists recognize that men can have brains that are more similar

> to the average woman's and that a woman can have a brain that is more

> similar to the average man's. He is saying that the autistics, male

> or female have brains that are more like men's, even like extremely

> male brains. I agree with that. I don't know if it explains autism,

> but there are very few, if any, really frilly feminine autistic

> women. I guess my daughter might be the only one. :-)

The autistic female friend who is living with me (and who recently got

her SSD award letter; she will be moving out soon, once she gets her

money) and I have discussed the idea of autism as an extension of

maleness, and she agrees. She is feminine in a lot of ways; she likes

skirts and high heels and stuff like that, but she dislikes make-up

(sensory issue), and she likes typically male things like tools and such

more than sewing machines or other stereotypically female stuff. She

has a hard time relating to female NTs... why they are so gregarious, so

social, and why they want to talk about feelings and stuff when there is

no desire for fix-it advice.

I have noted similar things in a lot of autistic females. They are a

lot more nuts-and-bolts related than their NT counterparts. I like the

autistic variety a lot more.

[Guest guest]

> I have been to a number of autistic adult meetings in Phoenix and

> Tucson, and the male:female ratio is close to 4:1, if not more

> male-heavy than that. I have been to a lot of meetings with 10-12

> males and no females. Never have I been to one where the number of

> females was even that close to being half; they have always been

> much closer to 1 in 5. Of course, 12 people is too small of a

> sample size to really tell anything, but it does contradict what you

> see online, where the females definitely outnumber the males on the

> majority of fora.

In the SF support group it was the same. I only ever saw one other

female there, and sometimes she wasn't there. Although I also heard a

guy from AGUA comment (about the SF group) that the trouble is

*keeping* females, not that they don't show up.

[Guest guest]

> I have noted similar things in a lot of autistic females. They are

> a lot more nuts-and-bolts related than their NT counterparts. I

> like the autistic variety a lot more.

I do too. I didn't think I could comprehend females at all until I

met autistic ones. My aide is comprehensible, but she is also weird

(not autistic, just weird -- non-feminine in many ways, and has an

overlay of institution-related mannerisms and thinking patterns

despite having been out for something like 30 years; it does make her

more comprehensible to me).

[Guest guest]

Hi,

My experience with " real world " autistics is like yours, maybe 5 males per

female, but I still think that women tend to be more mildly affected and maybe

blend in better so they are misdiagnosed as something else, or they aren't

diagnosed at all. That's just a hunch. There is no way of " correctly " and

" positively " identifying _all_ autistics since we are such a vastly different

bunch and since some will deliberately hide their autistic traits, if possible.

That reminds me of something a woman posted on the Aspie Hangout. She

was career military and undxd probably AS. She had met an officer, a

seargent, I think, who told her in confidence that he was really a Martian, but

that he couldn't go around telling just anybody.

She guess he was a closeted high-functioning schizophrenic. Sounds right to

me. Either that or he was one of the guys that escaped from Area 51 (?) in

New Mexico. :-)

I'm glad your roommate got her SSI award. That's wonderful. Now she can

go buy herself a nice set of Sears ratchets or a deluxe Dremel.

Camille

>

> > I think that women with AS are over represented statistically on the

> > internet. We are more likely to be interested in communicating with

> > others. That's my opinion. If we could line up all the " true " ACs

> > in the world, there would probably by more men than women. I don't

> > think it would be as much as 4 times as many men, though.

>

> I have been to a number of autistic adult meetings in Phoenix and

> Tucson, and the male:female ratio is close to 4:1, if not more

> male-heavy than that. I have been to a lot of meetings with 10-12 males

> and no females. Never have I been to one where the number of females

> was even that close to being half; they have always been much closer to

> 1 in 5. Of course, 12 people is too small of a sample size to really

> tell anything, but it does contradict what you see online, where the

> females definitely outnumber the males on the majority of fora.

>

> > Simon Baron-Cohen's point is about the brain's orientation,

> > scientists recognize that men can have brains that are more similar

> > to the average woman's and that a woman can have a brain that is more

> > similar to the average man's. He is saying that the autistics, male

> > or female have brains that are more like men's, even like extremely

> > male brains. I agree with that. I don't know if it explains autism,

> > but there are very few, if any, really frilly feminine autistic

> > women. I guess my daughter might be the only one. :-)

>

> The autistic female friend who is living with me (and who recently got

> her SSD award letter; she will be moving out soon, once she gets her

> money) and I have discussed the idea of autism as an extension of

> maleness, and she agrees. She is feminine in a lot of ways; she likes

> skirts and high heels and stuff like that, but she dislikes make-up

> (sensory issue), and she likes typically male things like tools and such

> more than sewing machines or other stereotypically female stuff. She

> has a hard time relating to female NTs... why they are so gregarious, so

> social, and why they want to talk about feelings and stuff when there is

> no desire for fix-it advice.

>

> I have noted similar things in a lot of autistic females. They are a

> lot more nuts-and-bolts related than their NT counterparts. I like the

> autistic variety a lot more.

>

>