The Aspie Women Photo Calendar

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I don't like any pinup calenders. I think they're trashy. 'Glamor' or not.

Saying you don't like any of them is fine, but some people said they thought this one is sick just because it's Asperger's related, and that's another thing altogether.

Last edited by Asp-Z on 13 Jul 2010, 11:24 am, edited 2 times in total.

Women drool over men's bodies all the time. We're just more secretive about it because society says women with sexual feelings are loose.

Asp-Z....several people in this thread have expressed their objections to a calender like this. Their particular objections may be the same as my own and they may not be. I can only speak for my personal objections to such
a calender.

My problems with this have nothing to do with whether such things objectify and demean women or not. I have opinions about that and suffice it to say they are nuanced, conditional and mixed. There is no need for me to say anything else about that aspect of calenders like this in this thread.

That said....I have two major problems with this calender and things like it:


#1. Such a calender carries with it some very ugly, elitist, discriminatory and devaluing mentalities and messages. What exactly is being implied by creating a calender featuring "sexy" and "successful" women with Asperger's? I think the unspoken implications essentially go something like this:


"We just want the world to know that there are some people with Asperger's who are physically, socially and mentally superior to other people with Asperger's. Not of all of us are like "them"....the dreaded untermensch with Asperger's syndrome who aren't "sexy" like us and collect SSI. In fact.....many of us are even superior to most of you NT's (as i'm sure this calender would include plenty of predictable props which would reinforce the stereotype of people with AS as nerdy ((but "hot" in this case)) and eccentric genuises who all excel at math, science, computers, etc...) because we have these magical "Aspieskilz" and most of you NT's don't. Since Asperger's is considered an autistic spectrum disorder, we want you, NT society, to know that many of us on the autistic spectrum are NOTHING like those poor, unfortunate and inferior creatures whose lives are unworthy of life". We are "beautiful", "brilliant, "happy" and "successful".


In other words...this would be no better than a African-American "advocacy" group creating a list of ten "successful" African-Americans.

Thus implying that SOME of us black folk are actually equal, and even superior, to most of you white folk.



That is.... not in so many HONEST words ofcourse....the type of mentality such a calender would covertly express.
It would be difficult for you to tell me i'm wrong here, since several posters who think this calender is such a
splendid idea have already expressed it in their own words.


#2. Asperger's syndrome is a neurological condition or, if you will, a disorder, by definition. It exhibits a myriad of manifestations for indviduals which are sometimes positive, sometimes negative, and sometimes some configuration of both. Only the individual with AS has the right to determine all this IMO. Therefore, Asperger's AS A MEDICAL CONDITION is not something to be universally celebrated OR mourned. Such a calender would serve to make a rather presumptous universal and celebratory statement about AS. Photos of "sexy" bookwormy women with "hottie glasses" wearing open lab coats displaying their bikini-clad bodies underneath ARE NOT in any way representative of millions of people with AS. They do not speak for millions of us. Their opposite, whatever that would be exactly, does not speak for millions of us either.

So these are the major reasons (there are others, but they aren't as important IMO and I don't care to elaborate on them) why this whole thing leaves a very rotten taste in my mouth.

This is the post that resuscitated this old thread. Is anyone actually objecting to this particular calendar idea on the premise that it objectifies women?

Quoting Horus

You have summed this up wonderfully, and far better than I could have. Thank you for that. Some days it is difficult for me to get the words out and I have to keep it short and not always sweet.

This is not a feminist issue for me; it's an issue of dignity and equality among and between all people on the autisim spectrum no matter their level of functioning or physical appearance. Elitism of any kind always strikes me as stupid, cruel and unjust. Using sex to sell a better understanding of autism (via said proposed calendar) is a completely ridiculous idea to me, a sick idea reflective of a sick society, and I'm far from being a prude. A better idea for a calendar, in my opinion, would be to use people of all sexes, ages, colors, shapes, sizes, and abilities. That would show the true beauty of autism.

Very well said.

Not gonna read through all 20 pages to see if anybody already thought of this:

I think this whole idea would've flown better if it hadn't been directed at women by a M-A-N. BTW: Though I fully expected the OP to be a young and new user, boy was I surprised to note he's 52 AND a moderator!

All that aside though, I think this idea might have flown a lot better if it had not been directed toward Aspie Women but ALL Aspies. I think this idea might do far better if what were proposed had been something like a calendar called "The Many Faces of Asperger's" and had everyday pictures of Aspies of BOTH sexes. Just the mention of "oh, no, I don't mean nudes, but maybe..." is almost guaranteed to be viewed as sexist. I'm a guy for crying out loud, and that line made ME cringe!

Seriously though! Why not a calendar of everyday Aspies doing every day things? The calendar idea isn't in an of itself a bad idea. It's just that the way you presented it is, well, as so many have already said, CREEPY!

I think if you steer away from the original concept and went with a more generic concept you'll probably get a far better response.

Psst: If you do get this idea to fly as is, PM me! No, just kidding. No really PM me! NO! REALLY! I'm just kidding!! !! !

(pm me! shhhhhh!)

Seriously, I AM only kidding.

I disagree completely with pretty much everything you've said.

How is making lists of successful Aspies saying that those Aspies are better than the rest? If anything, they are people for us to look up to and gain inspiration from. And it would send a message to NTs that we are not all failures, we are not all "ret*ds".

And nothing or no one can truly speak for all of us. But what would you rather have: a message that we can be successful, or the type of message Autism Speaks pushes?

Right, it can come as a shock but moderators are no more pure than the rest of us.
Your thought about it being a man did cross my mind before:


PS I will never knit nude for autism.

I guess some people, aspies included, think it's akin to making a calendar of children or ret*d people. I guess it's just part of the aspie stereotype.

And we're supporting that stupid pathetic stereotype of ourselves? That's what's sick.

Sorry Mr Mark, I know you were just throwing out an idea.

Personally, I think an aspie woman calender is a bad idea.

Firstly, nobody would take it seriously. Unless we made it into a joke ourselves.

Secondly, aspergers affects both genders. It's not like the Woman's Association calnder where all the members were female to begin with. So it does seem that we would be either ignoring a huge section of people with AS, or worse, singling out the women with AS as objects to be oggled at.

Thirdly.. well, as many others have pointed out, you can't tell someone has aspergers. You may as well borrow anyone off the street and make up a phoney blog for them.

A calender itself could be cool though. What about using artwork or creative projects from Aspies instead? That way both genders could take part and it wouldn't just be pictures of some random person.

As long as I get to pose with an electron microscope and Stephen Hawking.

Mics

Plenty of groups do make exactly such motivational posters, full of African-American role models (e.g. http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/su ... blacks.jpg). The country I live in produces posters and calendars of "our greatest" that go into school classrooms and the like.

But they don't make these role models pose for nude (or "glamour") shots, posing with some prop, which would be a strange kind of message.

Those people in that webpage would look extremely weird posing nude. But the existing photos of them would make a nice calendar, especially if there was a blurb about each one saying who they were and what they'd done. On the other hand, for me it's more about what's possible than who exactly did it. But I accept that a lot of people will readily personify their own potential in the form of external role models, and that it seems to comfort them to do this. Me, I can only see the point of celebrating a person's strengths if I know them personally and can give them feedback that will help them to celebrate themselves. It's different for groups like the black movement though. Their very blackness has been a powerful bond, so if one of them achieves something, in a way they've all achieved it. Autistic people haven't been abused as much, so the bond is probably not quite so strong, and anyway we're autistic which puts a damper on these collective celebration thingies, and my attitude would seem to reflect this.