I am having kind of a rough day.
Sep. 1st, 2013 01:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettBut I was going to list good things, but then I got into a conversation about why incidence of diagnosed autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) is higher among trans people than among the "general population", so now I'm going to brain-dump here.
RIGHT SO Simon Baron-Cohen (SBC) is v keen on the idea that autism is an "extreme male brain" trait, which is kind of hilarious because everything about his "gendering" of brains is broken (c.f.: more than 50% of the people who test as having "male brains" according to his questionnaire are... female). But it makes it really awkward when he then decides that this explains female-assigned at birth (FAAB) trans folk (but completely ignores the incidence of ASCs in MAAB trans folk!). (Also let us recall that this is the man who thinks I use a wheelchair because of autism, not because of my multiple progressive chronic physical conditions that affect lower-limb function. Dude thinks everything is because of autism.)
HERE ARE SOME REASONS I CAN THINK OF that might lead to higher incidence of diagnosed ASCs in trans folk than cis people (please note that the "diagnosed" is actually really important).
ASCs are hard to diagnose. There isn't a simple test for them -- the Asperger's Screening Questionnaire SBC has put together is actually so incompetent that I don't even know where to start, so I'll begin at the beginning: it invokes stereotype threat before you even get started, through asking your gender (and, of course, only providing two options). And then, of course, goes on to ask you to say how much you agree with statements like "I know how a motor engine works" (but not "I could strip and rebuild a sewing machine") and "I'd rather go to the library than a party".
Trans folk (in the UK) go through a lot of psychological screening -- also known, of course, as "gatekeeping". It's in-depth, it's exhausting, it's invasive. It is way beyond the level of scrutiny that the "general population" ever get of their psyche.
Furthermore, because being trans is so stigmatised, trans folk are very prone to trying to find anything else at all it could be first.
I'm going to put it this way: I know a lot of cis people I reckon meet diagnostic criteria for ASCs, who don't have diagnoses. I know barely any trans people of whom the same is true. It's not just an issue of sampling -- I know an awful lot of trans people; a large enough cohort that I'm willing to bet statistical significance, though I'm not going to look it up at 2am.
Basically: until we have a good, specific, reliable test for ASCs that can be applied on a cohort scale (i.e. way beyond what's possible when a diagnosis takes at least a three-hour session), I'm going to be looking extremely dubiously at any study that claims higher incidence of ASCs in trans folk as any sort of inalienable fact, because I have yet to see anything that even begins to try to control for the factors I mention above.
THIS HAS BEEN TONIGHT'S RANT. GOODNIGHT, DREAMWIDTH. GOODNIGHT.
RIGHT SO Simon Baron-Cohen (SBC) is v keen on the idea that autism is an "extreme male brain" trait, which is kind of hilarious because everything about his "gendering" of brains is broken (c.f.: more than 50% of the people who test as having "male brains" according to his questionnaire are... female). But it makes it really awkward when he then decides that this explains female-assigned at birth (FAAB) trans folk (but completely ignores the incidence of ASCs in MAAB trans folk!). (Also let us recall that this is the man who thinks I use a wheelchair because of autism, not because of my multiple progressive chronic physical conditions that affect lower-limb function. Dude thinks everything is because of autism.)
HERE ARE SOME REASONS I CAN THINK OF that might lead to higher incidence of diagnosed ASCs in trans folk than cis people (please note that the "diagnosed" is actually really important).
ASCs are hard to diagnose. There isn't a simple test for them -- the Asperger's Screening Questionnaire SBC has put together is actually so incompetent that I don't even know where to start, so I'll begin at the beginning: it invokes stereotype threat before you even get started, through asking your gender (and, of course, only providing two options). And then, of course, goes on to ask you to say how much you agree with statements like "I know how a motor engine works" (but not "I could strip and rebuild a sewing machine") and "I'd rather go to the library than a party".
Trans folk (in the UK) go through a lot of psychological screening -- also known, of course, as "gatekeeping". It's in-depth, it's exhausting, it's invasive. It is way beyond the level of scrutiny that the "general population" ever get of their psyche.
Furthermore, because being trans is so stigmatised, trans folk are very prone to trying to find anything else at all it could be first.
I'm going to put it this way: I know a lot of cis people I reckon meet diagnostic criteria for ASCs, who don't have diagnoses. I know barely any trans people of whom the same is true. It's not just an issue of sampling -- I know an awful lot of trans people; a large enough cohort that I'm willing to bet statistical significance, though I'm not going to look it up at 2am.
Basically: until we have a good, specific, reliable test for ASCs that can be applied on a cohort scale (i.e. way beyond what's possible when a diagnosis takes at least a three-hour session), I'm going to be looking extremely dubiously at any study that claims higher incidence of ASCs in trans folk as any sort of inalienable fact, because I have yet to see anything that even begins to try to control for the factors I mention above.
THIS HAS BEEN TONIGHT'S RANT. GOODNIGHT, DREAMWIDTH. GOODNIGHT.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 12:59 am (UTC)NO WAIT I HAVE MORE THINGS TO SAY
Date: 2013-09-01 01:02 am (UTC)Re: NO WAIT I HAVE MORE THINGS TO SAY
Date: 2013-09-02 10:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 02:29 am (UTC)Also, *offers hug*.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 02:54 am (UTC)THE HAMMER IS NOT HIS PENIS.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 11:43 am (UTC)Y'know, I was going to make some sort of remark actually related to the entry, but then I saw this and dissolved into hilarious suppressed snorty laughter (first person awake in house can be difficult some mornings) and completely lost my other thoughts.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 06:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 08:15 am (UTC)Incidentally, I did SBC's questionnaire years ago, and it said that I was a mildly autistic woman.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 09:03 am (UTC)newsletterjournal.[I met you on IRC last night. Hi. I am also on the spectrum. And I just realised you're in Lashings:
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 12:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-02 10:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 05:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 06:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-06 10:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-01 06:17 pm (UTC)It's like how my trousers pretty much always have something in the pockets, but other people's trousers hardly ever do. Why on earth could that be? Maybe it's because I don't go around stuffing my hands in other people's pockets!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-09-02 10:06 am (UTC)