Midweek linkage - gender themes

[oursin]

The Great Barrier Reef lovingly recreated in a giant piece of crochet? :

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef came about by accident. Wertheim read about a discovery by a mathematician called Daina Taimina: that you could model hyperbolic space using crochet, simply by increasing the number of stitches in each row until the fabric warps. Mathematicians had previously struggled to demonstrate hyperbolic surfaces, despite the fact that they appear throughout the natural world - in lettuce leaves, for example.

Wertheim was so inspired that she picked up a crochet hook for the first time in 20 years, and encouraged her sister to do the same. It was Christine, a lecturer in feminism and popular culture at the California Institute of the Arts, who noticed how all the pieces of crochet accumulating on the sisters' coffee table looked like coral. Wertheim recalls her sister saying: "We could crochet a coral reef."

Rather cool! with pictures.

When it was first discovered more than 60 years ago, Asperger's syndrome was thought to be a male-only condition. But now that more and more girls are being diagnosed with it, why do we hear so little about them. I'm just a bit bothered by this:

[W]omen with autism often struggle at work because they lack what is often taken for granted in women - the intuitive ability to understand where people are coming from and how to manage situations. Because of subtle sex differences, we tend to "expect" more of women in the workplace in terms of smoothing things over, of saying the right thing; and whereas we would excuse a man who lacked these abilities, we are subliminally a lot less forgiving of a woman who has similar shortcomings.

because I think not conforming to that particular model of womanly angel-in-the-housery (OB 'Kill the Bitch!) doesn't have to be about autism/Asperger's.

Also on expectations of wymmyn and in particular their bodies: Why has Fern Britton's decision to have a gastric band fitted caused such a huge fuss? Kira Cochrane on how high-profile women's bodies became public property

Comments

[valancy.livejournal.com]

This fascinates me. I'll have to point rinue here; she's struggled with that. Thanks!

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I know several women that I think have Asperger's syndrome; yes, it can be a problem in everyday life, but I don't think it's more of a problem for women than it is for men. Up to a point, Asperger's qualities are quite prized/admired, and I could see people happily arguing the other way, that the apparent bluntness/insensitivity seen in people with mild Asperger's stands them in quite good stead at the office, even if people dread having them on committees.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Also (being picky), autism and Asperger's are somewhat different points on the spectrum, with autism being a very severe developmental disorder. It's slightly more than just being a bit poor on people skills.

[serrana.livejournal.com]

On a quasi-related note, if I see one more article about how autistics can't make emotional bonds, I will spit. Tell that to my daughter and the autistic boy in her violin class -- he's the only person she really has warmed up to there, and I certainly get the impression that it's mutual.

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

I think not conforming to that particular model of womanly angel-in-the-housery (OB 'Kill the Bitch!) doesn't have to be about autism/Asperger's.

I've been trying to unpick the logic of it today - surely if it were true then we'd have had more women diagnosed with Asperger's?

[oursin.livejournal.com]

As opposed to the category of 'callous bitch'.

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

My Asperger's is your callous bitchery...?

Yes well, I sometimes look at fandom academia and the flaws in empathic behaviour in certain people and wonder whether it is a group that attracts people on the autistic spectrum, tolerates such people or takes warm, well adjusted people and makes them like that... or whether they are simply common or garden pig ignorant. (which is not to underplay a real condition - but some people behave some ways by choice and some can't help it.)

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I think you would need various control groups, and wonder if you would find similar ineptitudes in some percentage of all of them. (My traumatic experiences with members of the 'caring professions', let me show u them.)

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

I've found in general that female nurses feel no particular need to be angel-in-the-housey: sometimes refreshingly, but more often like the one who told me that getting bitten by a dog would "serve me right" for having registered with a GP in the wrong health-service "parish" from the one I was trying to get doctor-on-call services in.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Ravelry has a neurodiversity (mostly AS adults, some OCD people, some friendly NTs) group, and being Ravelry, most of the members are female. I may possibly know more women than men with Asperger's.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

I am delighted by the crocheted barrier reef and by using handcrafts to illuminate science.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Isn't it lovely? - it reminded me of Jill Paton Walsh's A Piece of Justice, a mystery which turns on the discovery of a quilt in a remote Welsh farmhouse which embodies complex mathematical theories.

[tree_and_leaf]

Oops - I hadn't read the comments before commenting. Great minds think alike, or something...

[ironed_orchid]

I like the reef.

[tree_and_leaf]

The crochet links are brilliant - am reminded of the woman mathematician and her quilts in Jill Paton Walsh's "A Piece of Justice".

I've occasionally wondered (usually in a state of depression, so it probably doesn't count) if I have mild tendencies towards Aspergers- although I also wonder about the need to pathologise personality traits - and I think you may be right about the not conforming to a particular pattern of 'womanhood' being more of a factor, too.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the crochet link; right up my alley.