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Sept. 2, 2016 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
10:55
#Feminists4Autism
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If you're a feminist like me, you're probably aware that we live in a patriarchy.
Now, for those who don't know, a patriarchy is a highly oppressive social system that benefits men at the expense of women.
And this social system also oppresses men as well, by giving more money to women's healthcare.
For example, women in London live up to 12 years longer than men.
And that might sound like a good thing, but remember that's 12 more years of slavery that women have to endure.
They are simply not allowed to die.
It turns out that the patriarchy will spend almost £2 million more pounds on women's healthcare than men's to ensure their suffering lasts well into their 80s.
Of course, professional MRAs like Alan White, professor of men's health at Leeds University and lead author of the recent EU report into men's health, told the Bureau that there was a real lack of initiatives directed at the male population.
Presumably because men's lives are so awesome, they simply don't need these initiatives.
And as agreed at the last international patriarchy meeting, that money would be better spent oppressing women.
And this misogynist even goes as far as to point out that the male privilege of working class men means that there are literally no programs designed to reach out to them either.
Now I, as a male feminist, have checked my privilege because I am a regular viewer of Steve Shives and I totally agree with his position on this subject.
Drop this hypersensitive defensiveness and either grow up and learn to accept the fact that we live in a society where there is gender inequality and where it disadvantages women and that that is a problem that needs to be addressed or toddle off to the men's rights movement subreddits and bitch and moan with the other guys who are upset at the unfair divorce settlement or because they never get to see their kids or because the girl they like won't go out with them.
There's a place for you.
It's called the men's rights movement.
They will not mistreat you and abuse you verbally the way I have just done.
They will love you and support you for everything that you are.
A deeply oppressed holder of a penis whose life has been ruined by these mean, nasty women.
So as I was saying, all of you deeply oppressed penis holders can just fuck off.
Just seriously, you can just go.
You can unsubscribe from my channel and never darken my doorway again.
How very dare you think that discussing your life expectancy is even something worthy of consideration?
What were you treated unjustly by the courts?
Do you never get to see your children?
What are you, a paedophile?
Just because three out of four homeless people and suicide victims are men, that doesn't mean we need to talk about this.
I mean, have you considered that one in four homeless people and one in four suicide victims are important?
No, I didn't think you did, did you, Mr. Entitled?
What a misogynist you are.
Now that we've checked your privilege, we're not going to be talking about something trivial like your life expectancy.
Oh no, we're going to be talking about autism.
Specifically, women's levels of autism and how they are significantly underdiagnosed.
And I know what you're thinking.
You're thinking, well, okay, how many casualties of autism are there every year?
What is the body count?
The final number?
And the answer is, of course, millions.
But we don't know exactly how many, because autism in women is significantly underdiagnosed.
While we know that millions of women every year die from autism, we don't know how many because of course, the patriarchy only focuses on men.
When Hans Asperger first defined autistic psychopathy in 1944, he was talking about boys.
He thought no women or girls were affected by the condition.
A 1993 research paper in Sweden found a boy-to-girl ratio of 4 to 1.
Others put the ratio at 16 to 1.
And as you can see, this is not fair.
But a more recent study by the National Autistic Society in 2015 suggests that women may be closing the autistic gap by reducing it to 3 to 1.
But that's still not parity.
However, feminist scientists around the world are compiling a growing body of evidence that more girls and women have the condition than originally thought and that it is being significantly underdiagnosed because our culture just hates women.
It just hates them.
And this is because the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorders has largely been based on the behavioural characteristics of the oppressor.
But fear not.
Charities are trying to close that gap by campaigning for changes to recognize the more nuanced way girls and women may present with the condition.
They are both metaphorically and literally smashing the patriarchy.
Because the problem is that we really don't understand autism in girls.
And that's a problem.
For example, when a large new study finds significant deviations in brain structure and behaviour between boys and girls with autism, you can tell that they are in fact total misogynist pricks who are deeply anti-feminist and of course by definition anti-woman.
Dr. Vinod Menon, a professor of misogyny and oppression at the Stanford School of Medicine and one of the study's authors, told the Huffington Post that girls with autism display autism symptoms differently and this may lead them to be underdiagnosed or may make it harder for them to get the most appropriate treatment.
As if his single study overturns 30 years of feminist scientific research establishing that there are exactly zero differences between men and women on both a biological and social level.
In this study, while the boys and girls had similar IQ scores, as well as comparable social behaviours and communication skills, the boys showed significantly more repetitive and restrictive behaviours than the girls did.
Because traditional science, or serenance, is a patriarchal male social construct, specifically designed to exclude women and ensure that men always score better in anything that they do.
And it's this very same serenance that goes on to show that the analysis of the brain scans reveals that autistic boys have different brain patterns in regions associated with motor function and the planning of motor activities.
What this is, is a patriarchal conspiracy.
I'm going to level with you and give you the absolute truth of the matter.
Autism is a feminist issue.
One out of every 68 children today in the United States receives a diagnosis of autism and of course, one out of 42 of them is male.
And 100% of them have a Tumblr account.
And many people think that autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the US.
And there's no cure for autism.
There are several accessible websites on autism, such as www.autismspeaks.org, which will, for example, give you information on the subject.
So what symptoms or behaviors do autistic people display?
There are eight major signs of autism that you can identify in your friends, your family, your colleagues, your co-workers, perhaps even your business or your organisation or even a social movement you happen to identify with.
The first is an extreme sensitivity to criticism.
If you feel that a differing opinion makes you want to block that person and everyone who has ever spoken to that person, possibly via use of a block bot on social media, you might have autism.
The second one is that you have rigid thinking.
You think that things are either right or they are wrong, and there is no grey area between them.
For example, you might say that you are either a feminist or you're a sexist.
If you reduce everything to these binary criteria, you might have autism.
Number three is that you are easily distressed when things aren't right.
Meltdowns, loss of control often happen.
For example, if you need safe spaces to be able to discuss anything that might slightly upset you, you might have autism.
Number four is endless talking about or bulldogging a subject, usually in a monotone.
For example, if you and your friends discuss a single subject constantly to the detriment of all others, you might have autism.
Number five follows on from number four.
If you are often highly intelligent but focused on a narrow field that can become an obsession, if you have dedicated your entire career to the one thing you talk about constantly on the internet, you might have autism.
Number six, if you are socially challenged and have an inability to read facial expressions and body language, for example, if you can't tell when a consensual sexual encounter is being initiated without the explicit use of verbal cues, you might have autism.
Number seven, if you have little to no understanding about nuance and layers of meanings, and perhaps you have to make up your own definitions of words to be able to try and communicate your ideas with other people, you might have autism.
And number eight, if you have a lack of empathy for other people, perhaps based on their gender or sexuality or race, you might have autism.
I think that based on these criteria here, we can absolutely confirm that autism is a feminist issue.
In fact, autism in women is so underdiagnosed that I strongly believe that all feminists should be considered to be raising awareness about autism whenever they are talking about feminism.
In fact, I think feminists should do so much activism in raising awareness about autism that feminism and autism become synonymous.
You can't talk about one without talking about the other.
If you're a feminist and you're having a conversation with someone else about feminism, you are de facto raising awareness about autism.
In fact, what we need to do to raise awareness of this most pressing of issues is a snappy feminist hashtag campaign.
I suggest hashtag feminists for autism that we can make go mega viral around the world and raise awareness for these poor suffering women.
Once we've got this hashtag trending, we can probably go on a letter writing campaign to various organizations and politicians to let them know about the connection between feminism and autism and all the good that we are doing.
I know it's dreaming big, but we don't know where this humble campaign will go.
Maybe one day in the far future, when people think feminism, they'll also think autism.
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