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DevilKisses
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20 Feb 2016, 1:34 am

Did anyone stop doing math because of the math and autism stereotype? I sure did. Eventually I learned that being bad at math and enjoying arts and humanities are autistic traits as well. Since that pretty much covers all topics, no topic is safe from Asperger stereotypes. Now that I know how meaningless those stereotypes are I've started getting into math again. My interests were still math based anyways. Even my most NT interests like fashion design involve math.


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FizzyOrange
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20 Feb 2016, 1:38 am

Wasn't aware I had it nor that there was one for people who like math. I enjoyed the heck out of math through out the years I took it. I am even going to start relearning and practicing it now.



DevilKisses
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20 Feb 2016, 1:43 am

FizzyOrange wrote:
Wasn't aware I had it nor that there was one for people who like math. I enjoyed the heck out of math through out the years I took it. I am even going to start relearning and practicing it now.

I don't remember where I first heard that stereotype. The first time I heard it was when I was around nine or ten. I don't know if I heard it from my teachers or the internet. I do remember I read all about autism on the internet when I found out I was labeled with it. I tried to get rid of all the traits I could.


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naturalplastic
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20 Feb 2016, 1:56 am

I real life there are autistics who are totally innumerate, and there are autistics who are math geniuses. Even some who are both at the same time with different areas of math. They have chronicled idiot savants who can calculate "what day of the week march 27, 2500 AD will be in a flash, but who cannot multiply "fives times seven".

But the pop culture stereotype is that aspies/auties tend to be math geeks like either the Rain Man, or like the guys on the BBT.



Yigeren
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20 Feb 2016, 2:01 am

I really don't think it's necessarily an accurate stereotype, as you've said.. How many people on WP have said that they are terrible at math? I know it seems to me that more are terrible at it than good.

Another inaccurate stereotype is that those of east Asian descent are all excellent at math, and extremely intelligent. That's a harmful stereotype as well, even though being intelligent and good at math are not bad qualities. If I were Asian, I would hate it if everyone assumed these things of me based on my race. What of the Asians who suck at math, are they then required to explain to everyone why they are bad at math?

I guess my point is that one can't necessarily escape stereotypes. It seems that often white people are presumed to be racist and stuck-up, but I'm not going to go around all the time trying to prove to everyone that I'm not. I've seen plenty of white people do this. It's pointless. People are going to think what they want to think, and stereotypes are always going to exist in one form or another.

I was not diagnosed until recently, so I never did worry about autism stereotypes. I suppose that's one advantage of being undiagnosed as a kid. I didn't feel that I had to try to behave in a certain way to either prove or hide my autism.



DevilKisses
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20 Feb 2016, 2:06 am

naturalplastic wrote:
I real life there are autistics who are totally innumerate, and there are autistics who are math geniuses. Even some who are both at the same time with different areas of math. They have chronicled idiot savants who can calculate "what day of the week march 27, 2500 AD will be in a flash, but who cannot multiply "fives times seven".

But the pop culture stereotype is that aspies/auties tend to be math geeks like either the Rain Man, or like the guys on the BBT.

Big Bang Theory wasn't around when I was nine and ten and I didn't know about Rainman. Maybe there was a few teachers that said I was good at math because of autism.


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You are very likely neurotypical


886
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20 Feb 2016, 5:58 am

i stopped a lot of other things due to the stereotype.. once i hit age 13 or so, nothing in life mattered in middle/high school short of being tough. no one wanted to be smart, being smart was uncool..

i gave up math because algebra was painfully difficult, though.


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