Autistic women: a life more ordinary

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/women ... inary.html

Heres an article I found from a google search. I was wondering, how do you guys think the portrayal of aspie females is accurate. I read the 1st half, and I was cool. But the 2nd half, when they went into details about the aspie female group, started to rub me the wrong way. To me, since they were women, the authors needed to emphasis how 'vulnerable' the women were and they needed to be specially cared for and live cloistered lives away from the public. And the article simply picks up on the points on how these women are dealing with very female issues. I dont like this portrayal if aspie women. Like we all need a bunch of NT 'mother hens' to take care of us because we cant take care of ourselves. The general male aspies descriptions dont focus so much on naivety and needing to be cared for. Male aspies still are just as naive and they need support too. Just that the way female aspies are framed in comparison to male aspies.

It seems like a huge pity party article. It doesnt ever state to the least bit how aspie women are a value to society, it describes more how aspie women need "accommodation". At least with the male descriptions, they go into detail about how aspies are math/science/tech oriented. How they have very good talents.

I know I already made a thread about this, but at times these belittling descriptions just disgust me.

I don't agree with you about the nature of this article. The women weren't particularly shown as being incapable -- as a matter of fact, the author is careful to discuss each woman's job and, in the case of one of the members, her aspirations to work in Spain. The word "vulnerable" is used only once, in a quote from the social worker who organized the group. The need that some of the women have for accommodation is treated as simply matter of fact rather than as something pitiful. I thought it was a pretty-straight forward article, myself. It did a good job of pointing out the difficulties some women may have with diagnosis and some of the underlying cultural reasons for that difficulty.

As for not stressing the benefits of the condition, I don't see that as a problem in this article. The point of this particular article was to introduce these women and report their experiences in their own voices. The author never suggests that the women will be unable to meet the goals they've set for themselves. Frankly, I often find the kinds of articles that go out of their way to do so to be rather condescending. This article doesn't portray the women as being helpless, nor does it attempt to pretty up the basic conditions of their lives. I found it refreshingly even-handed.

I thought the article was fine. It brings attention to a needed subject - women and autism. I have been to many autism support groups in my life, and am very active in autism communities, but I can count on probably one hand the amount of women with autism I've met. I used to go to a support group in Washington, DC. We got an average of 20 people every month. Maybe 3, myself included, were female. I don't know what it's like now there. Here in the Maine support group, I haven't been in a few years, but definitely more men that I've met. My two best friends are Aspie guys. I don't really mind, I get along with the guys just fine, but having a good female Aspie friend would be nice sometime. I am not sure why the disparity myself other than women seem to be diagnosed less.

I only know of one other woman in my area who probably as AS, but then AS & autism seem to run in her family (son, & a couple of his kids are on the spectrum). I also knew a young girl who was DXd with autism. Her symptoms were pretty severe, especially for a girl.

I'd love to have a support group locally for women on the spectrum. I think it would be helpful to hear other women's stories. Liked the article too.

Would have been good to include a women that was highly successful in her career.....but include some of the pitfalls such as lack of social circle, emotive communication etc.

The article did seem to paint aspie\autistic women as hopeless and unable to cope without assistance