Our Alex

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I see no reason why not, can't argue with you there,

Where are the bubbles? I haven't seen them anywhere so far. I have been going straight to the forum though. I still wonder why they are only using modeling pictures of her though.

Oh, I just wasn't looking at the picture close enough. Eh, overly-sexual I wouldn't say... just, model-ish.

There are others who are much worse.

And he looks like a traditional geek. I guess there are some who are into the look, but he's not hot in the traditional sense of the term in the same way as the featured women are.

In fact, all the AS men featured are either ugly or geeky, typically both. The guy in the "Searching for love when you're not wired to connect" video was extremely skinny, nerdy, and had horrible skin while, quite predictably, the girl was hot.

Yeah, but maybe some women prefer model-quality men who ooze sex appeal, and maybe some men prefer geeky girls. Why are the stereotypes only in one direction?

This pattern is sexist against both men and women. They should have featured Wolfheart and one of the geeky girls from this site.

Agreed, the question I'm wondering now is just, why are they being featured? Does WP just pick people at random and put them up there? Maja for instance is who she is and it's not like she can help that either, but has a purpose for being there because of what she does. Has WP ever featured anyone who wasn't some kind of Autism spokesperson? Alex and Maja both are. They've never bothered me because this is their profession. I'm not critical of seeing their faces because they are the ones who have undertaken to do something big for Autism.

Don't be fooled though, basically I totally agree with you. I don't want the only face of autism for the men to be The Geek, and on the other hand, what's wrong with geek girls? It's the variety that makes us interesting.

If you scroll down about midway through the home page you come to Holman's A Rather Queer Year featuring a handsome man who is not geeky looking. But since he's the only one he could be the exception who proves the rule. My scrolling also revealed that there weren't any AS women who deviated from slim, beautiful and young. If they ever did feature a nerdy looking woman, you can be sure she would be attractive and young rather than plain and middle aged.

I have a subscription to a magazine called Autism Aspergers Digest which is aimed towards parents of autistic kids. The articles tend to be things like how to find the appropriate school (or how to homeschool) and how to help your adult child transition to their own apartment. Temple Grandin is a core contributor to this magazine and her plain, middle aged face is shown in pretty much every issue. It is a face that plain, middle aged parents can identify with and also the face of aspirations achieved that they want for their kids. It's a magazine with a dearth of hotness. Parents don't envision their kids being hot in the distant future. They envision their kids being accomplished. So Temple Grandin's face (and words) works perfectly.

Here at WP the demographic is different. There are some middle aged parents, but they (we) aren't the core demographic. It seems to skew to people who are single with the men outnumbering the women (although not by the 1:4 margin quoted in journals). The nerdy men and hot women are aimed straight at you (as a young, single, possibly nerdy man). You're supposed to identify with the men and desire the women. It is no coincidence that the one nod to parents- the Mother's Day column- featured a sillouette rather than an actual photo of somebody's mom.

The young and hot women do have the qualifying credentials. They are outspoken advocates with linkable histories of advocacy including but not limited to youtube videos. They are qualified and they know what they are talking about. But so do some older, plainer women who also have youtube resumes (one of whom used to post here a lot). So I agree it's not a coincidence that nerdy men/hot women subset of advocates has been chosen.

somewhere i think i read in the rules that one cant post about a WP member.
i think web master may qualify as membership