I’m a cis male, but my autistic traits correlate with those of cis female individuals.
The study of autism is plagued with sexism, even to this day. There is definitely more awareness of the problem nowadays, but the prevalent view of how autism presents in people is largely based on antiquated stereotypes. If you are white, male, and you annoy your parents, you are more likely to get diagnosed by the professionals, than if you are not white, not male, and manage to mask your autism.
(A quick note on my terminological choices. I have no idea how being trans or nonbinary may affect autistic presentation. I don’t mean to exclude, but I also don’t want to speak about things that I’m not familiar with. I’m sorry about this.)
I believe now that my own deceased mother was autistic too, but went undiagnosed because of this sexism. She was bipolar, and alcoholic. These are often the conditions that women who are not diagnosed experience. She was treated for both conditions, but no treatment took. These treatments did not take, because they were dealing with the symptoms of autism, without dealing with the autism itself.
Early on in my research about autism, I came upon this site:
I’ve taken many of the self-assessment tests there, and I always end up neurotypical or borderline autistic. The DSM-5 is not helpful either. Actually, I think it is a step back from the online self-assessment tests. No psychiatrist of mine has ever suggested autism as an explanation for my mental troubles. I’ll remind you that I’m self-diagnosed.
Fediverse user @ImmedicableME recently posted a link to this page:
It is not the first time I find that the female presentation of autism is more reflective of how I present, too. In the book Unmasking Autism by Devon Price, the author talks of a period of time during which doctors talked about male and female autism. When I was reading this book, I could easily see my traits listed among those that doctors assigned to females.
In fiction, too, I find myself closer to the female autistic characters than the male ones. I am nothing like Rain Man, or Sheldon Cooper. I’m not rude, nor do I have an obsession with trains. The character I compare myself readily to is Quinni from Heartbreak High, an autistic girl.
For the record, I do not think that it is scientifically valid, or useful to talk about “male” and “female” autism anymore. I do not have a problem with the page I linked to above, which gives a list of traits generally linked with being female. It is important to raise the awareness that autism in females may present differently than the stereotypes.
However, once the awareness has been raised, it is better to drop the labels male and female. I am a cis male who presents mostly like a female. I think, just like my mother was undiagnosed because she did not present the male stereotype, so am I have been undiagnosed by the professionals because I do not present as the male stereotype either. Still, again, once I’ve given this explanation, I no longer want to use the binary to explain autism.
Now, I don’t have a great explanation for why I present the way I do. I suspect the pressure of living with a narcissistic father are partially to blame. I sometimes say that I don’t experience meltdowns, but this is not correct. I do experience them, but very rarely. My father, however, is an expert at triggering meltdowns in me. He knows exactly what buttons to push. Therefore, to avoid presenting too big an opportunity to him to press my buttons, I’ve learned to camouflage my autism.
My mother’s and my case are direct examples of how sexism hinders our access to medical care. We’ve both been bitten in the ass because of our manifestation of symptoms did not conform to the stereotype.
UC President Drake just announced they've appointed Catherine Spear to head UC's new Systemwide Office of Civil Rights (which will include a Systemwide Office of Disability Rights under it).
The announcement does not go into what their lived experience qualifications might be.
@disability@academicchatter " Hiring Catherine is one of a series of steps we are taking to provide centralized oversight for these campus functions and a more consistent approach to how the University responds to allegations of discrimination and harassment." ⬅️ These framings continue to give the game away. For them it is not about NOT discriminating. Not about NOT being inaccessible and toxic places for marginalized parts of the public that funds them to be. It's simply about responding to allegations and trying to keep from getting sued too hard. #Racism#Sexism#Ableism#Disability#UCAccessNow
Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert. You are an early 19th century Frenchwoman, a farmer’s daughter who becomes the wife of a boring doctor, but when you want more to life than that offers, your options are limited (by men). 2 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈. #bookstodon@bookstodon#reading#books#france#sexism
Last boost (courtesy of @kavana) reminded me of this book which I just finished. Written during the pandemic, it's a humorous but not unserious tale of a woman who takes inspiration from the true story of Phulan Devi, the Dalit girl who went from exploited victim of abuse to vengeful goddess to politician within a few short decades. Definitely recommend.
Today in Labor History January 12, 1915: The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to require states to give women the right to vote. The first place in the world where women got the right to vote was New Jersey, in 1776. However, in 1807 this was repealed and it reverted back to white men, only. The first place to continuously give suffrage to women was Pitcairn Islands, in 1838. These were the descendants of Tahitians and Christian Fletcher and other mutineers from the HMS Bounty. The first sovereign nation to give women the right to vote was Norway, in 1913. The U.S. finally granted women the right to vote in 1920. Women won suffrage in Canada in 1917, Britain and Germany in 1918, Austria and Holland in 1919. Women could not vote in France until 1944, or in Greece until 1952, or in Switzerland until 1971, or in Saudi Arabia until 2015.
Today in Writing History December 26, 1891: The author Henry Miller, American was born. I still have the copy of Tropic of Cancer that I stole from my parents when I was a teenager. And it still has the graffiti that a French feminist friend scrawled in it when visiting me: “Sexist piece of shit!” In the 1980s, when I was visiting Paris, she told me that all punk rock was sexist. So, I combed through the Parisian record shops and found her a copy of “Penis Envy,” by Crass. After that, she conceded that some punk rock was good, maybe even radically feminist.
Today in Labor History December 17, 1760: Deborah Sampson was born on this date in Massachusetts. Sampson disguised herself as a man in order to fight with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. She called herself Robert Shirtliff (as in don’t lift my shirt) and stood 5’9”, taller than the average man in those days. She fought in several skirmishes with British forces before being wounded and discovered and then honorably discharged from the army. She later petitioned the government to be repaid the wages that had been denied her because she was a woman. Her friend Paul Revere advocated for her full compensation. Finally, in 1816, Congress granted her request. There are several other women known to have secretly fought in this war. Sampson’s story has been portrayed in several plays and works of fiction, including “Portrait of Deborah: A Drama in Three Acts” (1959) by Charles Emery, “I'm Deborah Sampson: A Soldier of the Revolution” (1977) by Patricia Clapp and Revolutionary (2014), by Alex Myers, one of her descendants. Whoopi Goldberg played her in an episode of “Liberty Kids.”
The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who broke the story, the inspiring account of the sixteen female scientists who forced MIT to publicly admit it had been discriminating against its female faculty for years—sparking a nationwide reckoning with the pervasive sexism in science.
Now that Monday has been cast out, here are 2 books to help exorcise other evils. One supposes that "demons" are really aliens and we should seek to communicate, rather than expel them. The other seems to presume that only women can be demon-possessed. Maybe that's why Stephen King's famous fictional Fury was "Christine", instead of Carson.
PACER, Electronic Associates' digital computer, added to their line of analog and hybrid computers. The computer had broad applications in the R&D and process control field, ca. 1970s.
The image is emblematic of the computer industry marketing male gendered/privileged environments, women models, & inuendo & seduction to try to sell computing & software systems.