This is an interesting thread. Admittedly, I’ve often thought to myself when reading LW posts: “this post was clearly written by someone with AS”. If people with AS are drawn to sites like this, maybe that, in part, explains why there seems to be many more men here than women. I wonder if the male:female LW ratio is similar to the male:female AS ratio in the general population.
Autism in general affects four times as many men than women in the general population; but I’ve noticed that a surprisingly high proportion of the autistic “public figures”—given that ratio—are women. Temple Grandin, for instance, may be the most famous person with autism around; and a majority of the autism bloggers I’ve run across are female. I don’t know why this is.
Autism in general affects four times as many men than women in the general population;
Does this statistic refer only to severe cases of autism that are likely to be noticed and diagnosed whenever they occur, or also to the milder, high-functioning autism spectrum disorders? Because if the latter, I would expect that mildly autistic men are much more likely to be noticed as weird and dysfunctional than women, so this might account for at least a part of the discrepancy in the rate of diagnosis.
The explanation for the greater public prominence (and presumably social acumen) of female autistics is probably similar. In most situations, it’s probably harder for autistic men than women to avoid coming off as creepy or ridiculous.
Does “autism bloggers” mean “people who blog specifically about autism”?
If so, it might be instructive to check how many bloggers in other subjects also happen to have autism. It might be dificult to verify but the blogosphere is large enough to dig up a usefully-sized sample and disentangle to some degree the autism-blogging link.
This is an interesting thread. Admittedly, I’ve often thought to myself when reading LW posts: “this post was clearly written by someone with AS”. If people with AS are drawn to sites like this, maybe that, in part, explains why there seems to be many more men here than women. I wonder if the male:female LW ratio is similar to the male:female AS ratio in the general population.
Autism in general affects four times as many men than women in the general population; but I’ve noticed that a surprisingly high proportion of the autistic “public figures”—given that ratio—are women. Temple Grandin, for instance, may be the most famous person with autism around; and a majority of the autism bloggers I’ve run across are female. I don’t know why this is.
Does this statistic refer only to severe cases of autism that are likely to be noticed and diagnosed whenever they occur, or also to the milder, high-functioning autism spectrum disorders? Because if the latter, I would expect that mildly autistic men are much more likely to be noticed as weird and dysfunctional than women, so this might account for at least a part of the discrepancy in the rate of diagnosis.
The explanation for the greater public prominence (and presumably social acumen) of female autistics is probably similar. In most situations, it’s probably harder for autistic men than women to avoid coming off as creepy or ridiculous.
Are the words “women” and “men” reversed in your opening sentence?
Yes, thank you, fixing that now.
Does “autism bloggers” mean “people who blog specifically about autism”?
If so, it might be instructive to check how many bloggers in other subjects also happen to have autism. It might be dificult to verify but the blogosphere is large enough to dig up a usefully-sized sample and disentangle to some degree the autism-blogging link.
Yes, that’s what I mean.