A lack of adult male presences on WP.

Post Reply New Topic

Meh the only reason I'm making any distinction, is because of 1to4 ratio(whatever that means, as we really don't know), means that there is undeniably different issues facing the two genders.

On top of that as several post in this thread have proven, issues with aspergers go way beyond simply getting a job.

Were all at difference points in our lives, obviously the problems to someone who has never had long term employment are very different from those that have suffered greatly from their careers.

Iam a Man!, (Betty), and Ive lived on my own for 34 years now, in fact maybe its time I start thinking about going out with girls,
Now I thought it was the other way around, with most posters being male with the occasional female to tell me off when I negatively stereotype the female gender.
Maybe its because I hang around the dodgy parts of WP

Though Iam getting on a bit now, I think of this place as a social club where you can meet like minded people rather than the NTs at work that think Iam odd because I can talk about subjects other than football.

You'd think it's a male dominated site, but thread for example has about half and half, and virtually all of the women are familiar posters, and only tyrion and cyclops are known to me on the male side.

Which would suggest it's getting an average or typical response rate from women, and a very high one from men.

It allows him to prune the number of visible male posters even further while counting all female posters regardless of how closely they fit his criteria.

So even though I have never lived independently for five years (My longest period is three years, and I had assistance from relatives so I wouldn't end up homeless), I am counted as evidence of the number of women on this site, but a man who has had a similar history would not count as an adult male by Stoek's criteria.

Also, I like to say "tsuris" and sometimes "agita".

That's not what I said at all, your twisting what I said as you have done before.

For the fact of the matter I even counted cyclops in that number if you weren't paying attention.

But again if this isn't an issue facing you I fail to see why your even posting in this thread.

Not having your demographic represented isn't a minor issue.

I know what Stoek means. I was vaguely thinking about that, but never really bothered to think much of it because it's not really a problem or anything.

As someone suggested, it might be because adult males prefer to do some other things such as their hobbies or something rather then coming here.

This kind of thing is hard to discuss because I notice when a male person even suggests something like this (gender-related matters), for some reason, some people, particularly female people tend to twist his suggestion and rather start attacking him often using sarcastic expressions etc. It often ends up being rather unpleasant. I often find it uncomfortale to post in such threads because if I say what I want to say, I might get attacked by such people. But I posted here any way.

Men clubs are overrated.

I was the bread winner of this household for 10 years, and had lived on my own for 7 years before going back to school. It wasn't until my best friend's daughter was diagnosed HFA that I finally understood why I find it so difficult to be around people for very long -- when I was her age, I wasn't doing any better than she is now.

Since when does that mean you're an adult?

Rumour has it a long time ago there were some adult males on this site who were dismayed by the utter lack of adult male presence on this site.


So after that they started this really incredible website called Intensity Squared. Pssst.

What drives me nuts, is the way in which the working males problems are even contested.

As if the problems we face are not real or are not unique to our gender.

Say what you one but there is a 4to1 ratio, that isn't opinion, that is a cold hearted fact. To dismiss this I think is exceptionally negligent behavior. Obvious either the society pressures for men and woman are very different, or the cognitive functions of men are very different. In either scenario the role of gender isn't reduced it's in fact heightened. It's a very logical conclusion once you get your head around the concept.

Furthermore the suggestion, that somehow a working male isn't in need of the services of this site is truly absurd.

From my perspective the true problems with aspergers only started when I started working, as I'm sure is true with many aspies.

Here are list just a few of those problems,

1) Lack of contact with family.
2)Ever growing with age societal pressure to be the initiator, provider, and the emotional rock in any relationship.
3) Physical problems, such as repetitive strain injuries, which I believe is gonna hit the younger generation of aspies especially hard.
4) Societal pressures along with natural inclination, causing men to be exceptionally emotionally isolated.
5) Just general stress and depression caused by the working world.

at my rough count, 19 men have posted in your thread. i don't know if they fit the rest of your criteria, but if you are not paying attention to the men who post in your own thread, it is quite reasonable to extrapolate that you are not paying attention to the men who post in other people's threads either. just because you are not noticing the men doesn't mean that they don't exist.

for your information, here are the areas of the forum where you will find a higher concentration of male posters than female (i think that you are probably unaware of this because you seem to be missing the male posters all around you):

Love & Dating
Games & Video Games
Computers, Math, Science, and Technology
Politics, Philosophy, and Religion
Adult Autism Issues
Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation
News and Current Events
Work and finding a Job

one area with an even gender split but which is designed for an adult demographic is In-Depth Adult Life Discussion. interestingly, you don't post in there (i don't know your age, but people under 30 are allowed to post in there as well). if you did go in there, you would see many men who fit the description in your post. maybe you just need to travel to other areas of the board a bit more to find what you're looking for.

i would like to add that the proportion of male members on the site should not really be relevant to getting help on a topic as long as there are enough members to answer whatever query a person might have. the numbers of female members or the proportion of female to male members will not interfere with getting your questions answered. there is no reason to require more members for the sake of the people who are already on the site.

however, if your concern is related to a worry that men in that demographic in the real world are not getting the help and support they need, then i would suggest that you can find ways to reach out to them specifically. calling out to them here would not work for obvious reasons.

Relying too much on statistics can be misleading. There is a 4 to 1 ratio of diagnosed males to females. But that statistic offers no information about the actual ratio of autism in males and females. It is well known now that the female presentation of autism is often quite different to the male one, and because it does not fit the traditional view of autism as studied by Asperger and others in male-only groups, it is (potentially massively) underdiagnosed, missed or not recognised for what it is. The actual number of females with AS could be twice what is being diagnosed. So this statistic is meaningless in terms of this discussion, because WP has a large population of the un-diagnosed, self-diagnosed and questioning as well.

Last edited by Jinks on 15 Mar 2013, 9:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

(also partners and parents of the diagnosed)

I've been trying to convince someone for a while that my GF was Autism as it's very obvious to me (that's why we get along so well) but everybody seems to think that Aspergers is only for boys. Very few experts have done the research into Autism in females (it's one of my current obsessions) and from what I see, it appears that contrary to what I first thought there might be slightly more females on the spectrum than males. It's been said that 80% of Aspies are unemployed but that's because every 'expert' I talked to told me that Aspies aren't hold down full time work so I can't have it. BS!

Having said that, I'm a 30 year old male and it seems to me this site is well represented by my demographic.

So you did not in fact post this? Or did you actually mean something else?





Not...having your demographic represented?

You're saying this about a forum? Where membership is self-selected? Did you forget the majority of autism research focuses on males and does not really include women and girls? If there's one thing that's true about autism it is not that men and boys aren't represented.

And apparently, you really are upset or annoyed that real world forum participation does not match up to what you think it should be. I didn't really expect you to also play the victim, and try to turn it into some form of harm being done to you.

Unbelievable.