Does someone want to write something about Simon Baron-Cohen's Gender essentialism for Queering Autism?

Friday, April 8, 2011

Does someone want to write something about Simon Baron-Cohen’s Gender essentialism for Queering Autism?

fyeahautismspectrum:

eateroftrees:

duyukdv:

totheexperts:

fyeahautismspectrum:

nicocoer:

I know I want something on the topic to go up, but my spoons are otherwise engaged.

signal boost.

I read loads of his gender fails in Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender, but I’m not particularly queer or autistic, so Queering Autism isn’t really my place!

Yes, Cordelia Fine did some pretty good SBC takedowns, which I particularly enjoyed. ;) Unfortunately, I am also having some spoon supply and allocation problems right now, but here’s more signal boost.

Well I could address it probably, being trans and probably autistic; but I haven’t actually read his works so a detailed rebuttle might be difficult.

But I mean the basic problem is “You can’t just randomly declare personality traits or other characteristics gendered, especially when they’re not remotely universal to a gender (and absolutely no trait is universal to any gender period)”

reblogged for additional commentary.

(and holy hell, SBC wrote a “review” of Delusions of Gender.)

“throughout his review the picture he sketches of me takes the form of an unalluring and instantly recognisable stereotype. I am the ‘strident’ ideologue who, in relentless pursuit of my ‘barely veiled agenda’ to discredit any whiff of evidence that does not ‘fit [my] biology-free theory of human sex differences’, falls prey to the ‘mistaken blurring of science with politics.’” — Cordelia Fine (in her response)

Daaaaaaaaaaamn.

-Eric

I’d love to toss in that the AQ is a test of stereotypical masculine introversion, not autism by a long stretch. I went on a very long rant about SBC not having questions validated for what he thinks they are at an autism research study earlier this week. Dude, of course he thinks autism is extreme male brain—he’s only looking for what he thinks are stereotypically masculine characteristics!

Too true. It’s just really kind of screwed up. And unfortunately, we have a lot of girls who won’t end up with Diagnosis until later on in life because he- and a lot of other people- spend all this time with a concept of Autism that is based very much on masculine gender expectations and presentation. We also get hit with the fact that people apply feminine stereotypes to children they see as girls (regardless of gender ID) and so certain behaviors get dismissed as being a “girl.”