Hacker News Reader

Comment by arcaster | Hacker News Reader

I'm at a loss as to why this article claims being on the autism scale / weird is only hard for women...?

> I'm at a loss as to why this article claims being on the autism scale / weird is only hard for women...?

I’m at a loss as to why you would say that the article claims that when it claims nothing of the sort. (In fact, it explicitly notes that the phenomenon that is the central theme of the article—which is not autism being “hard”—is found in both sexes, but more commonly with women than men.)

Seems that the point was that it's especially hard for women to get diagnosed and receive proper support for it. Not that it isn't also difficult for men. Girls and boys are socialized differently, and boys with autism are more likely to behave in outwardly disruptive ways, while girls are more likely to appear shy and anxious. Teachers and parents are more likely to bring up disruptive behavior to a doctor than just shyness and general social ineptitude.

IMO it's a loss for everyone to make mental health / disability a gendered issue. Mental illness is hard for everyone, regardless of what gender they identify as...

Recognizing gender differences in how conditions are expressed and challenges that relate to interaction between conditions and existing gender roles and norms is important. This isn't making mental health and gendered issue, it's recognizing that me talk health is an issue which interacts with other aspects of life, including gender.

I agree that this is a really important and positive step in the right direction, however, I think many may pick up ideas that might not be as beneficial with only a cursory skim of the article.

Totally. But I think this article actually helps with that. By educating parents, teachers, and doctors on the way that symptoms of autism manifest across children without assuming male as the "default" gender (and also educating them about our social biases which affect our interpretation of those symptoms), we're ensuring that more autistic people out there can find each other and support one another and themselves regardless of sex.

Also, I'm certain that there are male autistics who manifest their symptoms in the more stereotypically "female" way (ie, quiet, shy, reserved, good at masking), and by educating people on the different ways that autism presents itself, we can help those people get proper diagnoses and support as well.

My cyncical view is because this is the Atlantic. Less cynically the fact in the article "3-4x more boys have Autism than girls" could justify their contention that it is evenly distributed but girls are only diagnosed in cases with severe autism.

Well maybe. I'd assume it's more boys, I have something vague in memory about autism being linked to testosterone, but also because men are sort of nature's scratchpad and tend to show more extreme traits than women - which is true in much of the animal kingdom, btw. Women tend to be more average and less freakish and are also more cooperative so they can achieve a stable existence and have a family.

A statistically higher percentage of them, anyway, let's not count your crazy ex here.

Didn't read the article, but autism in men and women are two different diseases.

The same condition, but affecting people's lives differently.

citation needed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com