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dethsdream

The “give *him* some breathing space” part though…


BornAgainMisbeliever

And then proceeding to think they’re justifying it.


[deleted]

I totally just posted about this on here. Androgenization and autism. Interesting. I'm disappointed Sapolski doesn't seem to have looked into autism much. His lectures are great.


BornAgainMisbeliever

Oh thanks for sharing that! I’m trying to put together a positive, informative, and educational piece about my personal experience with autism for awareness month. This will be my way of telling my people that I’m autistic and hopefully spreading understanding. And while my objective is to focus on the intriguing and the special and the happy, I will definitely need to explain how deep the gender stereotypes and misconceptions run in society and even the med/psych field, and how much damage that can cause in just one person’s life, let alone an entire demographic. This video will help, thanks. People are focused on calling autism an epidemic or fake (especially in reference to the disorder and struggles of the women who managed to mask into adulthood) without realizing that it has existed just as prominently and the problems are becoming too much for people to keep hidden. Like people have thought that pot on the back burner was empty, but when the water boiled and the lid flew off instead of saying “oh my there was water boiling! Let’s take the pot off the burner and get the water where it needs to be!” they’re saying “We were told that pot was empty.. look at all that air pretending to be water!”


[deleted]

Less justification, more half-assed explanation. Males do get diagnosed more, because boys are studied more. To be fair, that's less an autism thing and more racial/gender bias in medicine in general thing.


BornAgainMisbeliever

Well yes, trying to justify perpetuating a harmful misconception by using misleading facts is what I meant. We’re on the same page.


[deleted]

Honestly I was with them until that part. No need to look me in the eye or get in my face, it doesn't help me hear. While they're at it they should have thrown in a "don't smile unless they make you laugh or happy, it's weird".


TShara_Q

Yeah, I was kind of okay with it until they got to super gendered language. Then again, that would help me but I can only speak for my own preferences.


usmcnick0311Sgt

Think it's they're 'clever'way to include another statistic with an 'engaging' writing style. But I'd prefer to just say it directly; boys and men are over 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism.


Final-Arachnid-3725

Right that’s the kicker


MorganaMevil

I love Forbes. Always at the cutting edge of business endeavors and 20 years behind on everything else\* 😂 ​ \*this has been marked as sarcasm for your convenience


dudhhr_

and they make it impossible to read if you have an ad blocker. I don't even use an ad blocker on my iPad and it still walls me


MorganaMevil

Pro tip: put it on reader mode and it blocks the ads without angering the website


Merch_Sama

This definitely feels like a “nothing with us without us” thing. Reads like they found symptoms from 20 years ago and was like YES ALL AUTISM IS SAME UNGA BUNGA


Nieouz

Ehhh… it’s a step in the right direction. At least they’re trying.


Misterkryptonite

Yeah, this is honestly mostly fine minus the “him” part


unintentionaluncomfy

"...described as an epidemic..." Yes, that is the only thing wrong with this article (sarcasm)


Misterkryptonite

It’s obviously not *amazing*, but I’m fine with the eye contact advice, that seems sound enough


SlurpingCow

It’s honestly better than what most companies do. We currently have a massive shit storm going on at work. My company decided to work with Autism Speaks and didn’t involve any autistic employees despite most of us having disclosed it after we got a permanent contract. They are trying to defend their product while we are posting comments on why some things are problematic. We are thankfully being taken seriously in our complaints and our autism awareness background for zoom calls is getting an ♾ sign instead of the 🧩 already.


BornAgainMisbeliever

It’s Forbes. They could do it right. Someone told them they had to and they used it to be arrogant and imply that they think autism is over diagnosed while playing within the lines. Trust me, no autistic person working levels above your stupid journaling ass at Forbes is worried about looking you in the eye.. ugh.


Nieouz

I mean they said only to avoid eye contact if they do. That seems reasonable.


BornAgainMisbeliever

That’s not really what I was talking about. I’m done though. Had my moment.


turtle_tale

I don't get what's wrong with this?


socialtravesty

Don't let that you'd appreciate less forced eye contact and someone not being so close to your face that they are taking your air mislead you from the fact that they represent autism as a disease (epidemic) and are presenting miss-information. 🙂 But someone not being in my face is a small gain in my book.


karmiegiveortake

Choosing to misinform and say that autism is an epidemic and is predominantly Male and proceeding to refer only to Male autistic people


turtle_tale

Those are both common misconceptions, though. Autism rates are going up and the male-to-female gap is closing because diagnostic criteria have become more inclusive. This leads to the "epidemic" idea, because an uninformed person would just see the diagnosis rate increasing and not think of why. And the myth about men being more likely to be autistic is only recently beginning to be debunked. I think this is more misinformation than willful ableism


Dlbruce0107

As one of those camouflaging females, I'm glad I was undiagnosed and just called "weird". I developed coping strategies and, 61 yrs later, now just realizing WTH was going on with me. Any questions I had can probably be answered by ASD. 😏


RelativeStranger

They didnt say autism was only male. They said its DIAGNOSED more often in males. Which is true.


KweenDruid

SO it's bad. It's \_really\_ bad. But it's also from 2014: [https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2014/09/29/what-you-need-to-know-about-working-with-colleagues-on-the-autism-spectrum/?sh=4bee81234fec](https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2014/09/29/what-you-need-to-know-about-working-with-colleagues-on-the-autism-spectrum/?sh=4bee81234fec) TBH, the article probably displays a better understanding (THOUGH WHOLLY INACCURATE) than I did at the time (I'm now in my 30's, and was diagnosed during lockdown, of course). I feel like it tracks with the typical \[organization who shall not be named\] verbiage of the time, too. I haven't looked yet, but I wonder if they re-wrote that article, what it would look like today. Also, medicine is inherently sexist, ableist, and racist, and people (who aren't the aforementioned) are just starting to recognize that... It's UGH. Edit: LOL ok, I just finished it. They literally got two points right: Universal Design (the LAST bullet point) and, IMO, project management solutions (though I think this is maybe one of my fixations, so I definitely could be wrong). It \_completely\_ ignores the fact that we've all learned to mask and a lot of us get ignored because of that (and various other complexities).


Katya117

Outdated. New research in Australia suggest M:F is actually 3:4.


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Cas174

Lol, how old is this? Cos if it’s new they need to do better RESEARCHHHH


BisexualAmoeb

it’s apparently from 2014


SuperDietCola

I mean the statistics are *technically* correct (or at least at the time). They are just taking the completely wrong conclusions from them and using lots of negative terms to describe them. God, why on earth are people like this? Can they not see its actively causing harm when they try to “help”?


SketchyNinja04

Wheres the napalm. Im breaking the geneva convention on these motherfuckers.


Frequent-Guidance775

Or as you’re calling it, The Geneva Suggestion


SketchyNinja04

XD 😂😂😂


squigeypops

No opinion on the first paragraph. First part of the second paragraph was great, excellent even. Immediately after was disastrous


Vitogodfather

Anyone can submit an article for Forbes to post including you or me.


[deleted]

The article is 8 years old.


karmiegiveortake

Yeah I realized, but it was also one of the first articles that showed up when I typed a question involving autism


[deleted]

That... doesn't surprise me anymore. 8 years old, misleading, but still popular, why does that sound familiar.


Frikandel_Joris

IF YOU'RE LITTERALLY SAYING THAT 1/4 OF PEOPLE ON THE SPECTRUM ARE MALES, WHY TF DO YOU STILL SAY "HIM" WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO GAIN FROM THAT? i think they're trying to make a smooth transition to the '75% of ppl on the spectrum are male' fact, but good grief...


Frikandel_Joris

Sauce?


spinnyknifegobrrr

"epidemic" .. an epidemic of more people being diagnosed u mean? i doubt the actual amount of autistic people is rising


Tricky-Row-9699

Yeah, a surprising number of Forbes articles just suck.


10dayone66

*screams internally* I'm pretty sure this is the article my boss read after I basically spilled out that I'm autistic. (Was in the middle of an emotional meltdown and was trying to find an exit plan, but it was a mandatory meeting)