Samantha Brick on the Autism Spectrum?

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Judge not lest ye be judged

I will fully admit to judging peoples' characters

And if I'm doing similar things to SB it's not entirely illogcal to posit the theory that she has Aspergers, like me! - which is what the thread was all about until you hijacked it to say the equivalent of 'yawn!' in such a tedious way!

Sometimes I think WP is 99% NTs pretending to be on the spectrum for a laugh!

How can you seriously accuse an autistic of making 'errors of judgment re other peoples' motivation' - I mean come on! Lol What exactly do you think having Aspergers means???
I'll give you a clue - it means it's highly likely - theory of mind and all that - oh have you reached that part of the manual yet?

It's the equivalent of going on a forum for blind people and accusing someone's vision of being faulty!

Carry right on feeling superior though.....

From what I notice, people tend to be harsh when it comes to judging the appearance of women.

I wonder how Samantha Brick feels about women? What if she doesn't like them much because she's typecast them all into being shallow and judgmental towards her so she has decided she isn't going to give them a chance to like her?

Not sure if I would classify her as having an ASD. She seems like a typical woman to me, consumed with the typical topics women tend to consume themselves with. It gets to the point I roll my eyes or get bored, one. How fascinating can it possibly be?

Ok, so you're not going to be civil. I did try. Perhaps you'd check out the forum rules some time.

Yes I totally agree, far harsher than with men - you only have to compare the age and attractiveness levels of male and female newsreaders to know who gets the worst deal!



I thought she came across as lacking warmth and people skills. I didn't like the way she referred to 'the social set we move in' Lol - that spoke reams to me! Lol
It could go either way - she could be an NT as she evidently prides herself on moving in the 'right circles'. She didn't adapt herself to the other people in the interview at all though - most unknown interviewees tend to fawn all over the presenters so that seemed different.



She didn't seem typical to me at all - most women would been a lot warmer, smiled a lot more and deferred totally to the presenters and therapist. I've seen that therapist woman on some programme about couples who want to be models so I have no time for anything she has to say anyway! SB was effectively shouted down so we never got to hear her expound her theory at length. Yes, all women won't be responding to how she looks but the principle she was talking about still holds - I've seen it myself between other women. I like it on Big Brother where a cocky good-looker strolls in only to have her thunder stolen when they send in some flawless model to upstage her! You can see their face drop - it's priceless! Lol

I agree that it is usually/often irrelevant to speculate whether x, y or z is autist/asperger, but in this case I think that it is highly relevant because this *may* be the highest profile/most highly publicised and closely scrutinised example of what it is like for many women on the autism spectrum;

a ) "looking" completely "normal"/NT such that people expect "normal" behaviour and reactions from one,
b ) mimicking certain simplified/stereotyped social interactions, acting out certain roles with such success that other/NT women see you as powerful/snooty/snobby/superior,
c ) women in particular experiencing you as rigid/cold/scheming/manipulative etc because they can sense that your behaviour is somehow "deliberate"/calculated, and the way that it almost never occurs to anyone to think, aahh, perhaps this woman is on the spectrum/lacks social skills, ( because the stereotype of autism is male, etc ).
d ) If you can "do" social smiles, attractive clothes, etc but most of all if you can fairly reliably even easily attract the opposite sex, noone seems to believe that you can be autist.

I think that this case could be an important one to publicise this issue/aspect of autism for women.

It is possible for socialising/social interactions and clothes/appearance to be aspie/autie special interests; they were for me in my teens, and well into adulthood, and I suspect that if my mind had not been blown away by reading Andrea Dworkins' radical feminist book "Intercourse" when I was 24, and if this had not been followed by a massive manic-depressive and mildly psychotic breakdown following extended and rather wild and stressful travel which pretty much exploded all the appealing/seductive/charming pretty girl etc gestures/roleplay/mimicry that I had learned so laboriously in my teens, ( spurred on by bullying ), I might perhaps believe that some/many of my social difficulties were the reult of being tooo pretty/attractive.
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Last edited by ouinon on 06 Apr 2012, 2:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It was an open invitation, not a criticism

Where I live, women are obsessed with appearance. She didn't seem unlike the women in my culture. It looked staged to me, anyhow. She kept looking in the same place over and over, to the side, like a teleprompter or card was there keeping her on the right track in the conversation. Maybe all of it is just an act? The media is trying to inspire dialogue about this matter. It's a way to get people to examine their values.

Do you not make a distinction between "attractive" and "good looking"? I've known people who are the former but not the latter and vice versa. Many years ago I knew a young woman (now sadly deceased) who was not good looking in the conventional sense though one of the most attractive people I have ever known.

Around here, everything tends to get lumped together. Good looking equals attractive. Ugly equals unattractive. I see your point, though. Ugly persons could increase their attractiveness by wearing makeup, having well groomed appearance, wearing sexy clothing, and developing an overly warm, friendly persona thus they appear attractive to certain people.

Be careful about calling yourself too pretty! Only the Daily Mail readers and nemorosa can be the real judge of that! - that was a joke by the way.

I am fascinated that you felt the need to learn all the gestures/roleplay/mimicry - no way would I bother to do all that. I also thought that when a person was really pretty they didnt have to do much to fit in - just look pretty! Why would you need to act like a pretty girl if you already were one?

That's the way that I manage eye contact; I alternate between wide-eyed/respectful/interested/polite/socially approved intense focus on the other person/people's faces for short bursts, and then look away for a bit, ( usually in one direction, where there is noone, or where there is a "peaceful"/undistracting space etc ) to think through my speech/thoughts as opposed to my social interaction.
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Same here - I will realise I haven't looked at the other person for a while and when I look back they look perturbed by it.

It's also going to be the case that some people have mild autism so wont pick it up in others so well in my opinion.

I do not have great eye contact either, and to know for sure if Samantha Brick is the same, I'd have to see her without cameras and know her personally and see her day to day interactions. I can't know for sure from this one interview because I do not know if it is staged.

One can speculate about pretty much anyone but never reach any satisfactory conclusion, and all sorts of people display autistic characteristics particularly when under stress as SB has been.

I especially think that not too much can be inferred by her appearance on a live TV show. Lots of normal people would feel very uncomfortable in such circumstances. My NT partner has been on television a number of times yet she still feels awkward about it.

It would be easier for me to decide if I knew her in person and knew that she is being genuine and not working on something for the media. Then I would know what she is really like and that she isn't putting together a piece to secure viewers or dialogue between masses of people or maintaining poor eye contact because she is reading a prompter or something. Without that information, I feel like I am being manipulated or played.

We don't have to prove it absolutely Lol