Published on 12, July, 2020
Suppose you have the funding and technical skills to carry out autism research (e.g., questionnaires, qualitative interviews, MRI, EEG, behavioural experiments, virtual reality, etc). What kind of research question would you like to ask? What autism question do you think is still not well known, and what would be your solution to solving it, or extend current knowledge?
I’d like to see research into the prevalence of misogyny, in today’s society, how it shows up and the effect it has on autistic females. I only recently became aware of it so have only recently started to look into it and the research currently available and the first research paper I looked into, found that a high proportion of the autistic females in the study had experienced sexual abuse or abuse in relationships by male partners or male abuse in one form or another and the percentage was much much higher than in the general population. So, my question is, why is this?
I haven’t completed the autism in females course yet, offered by NAS, and I’m curious to find out if there is any mention of misogyny in the course. Anyone who has competed the course already might be able to answer that question? I was completely oblivious to this type of behaviour or at least about how prevalent it is in our society, how deep set it is, how it shows up and where it comes from.
I would be interested to find out if females who have experienced misogyny in any way, would have been less effected if they had been more aware of what is happening in society at large and also how many autistic men have fallen victim to it.
It’s a whole new area of interest to me and so far, the people who I have spoken to about it, are very aware of this type of behaviour in society, so I might be one of the most naive people in the world, lol, but the high incidence of sexual abuse etc in autistic females might be linked to it and once my course work is complete, I will take more time to look into it. I might pay Sheffield Hallam uni a visit as I believe they are doing very well on research and education regarding autism. I was going to do a masters with them and then I wasn’t but this latest area of awareness has piqued my interest again so I might well go down that route after all.
Great thread and I’ve enjoyed reading everybody else’s ideas.
What is your understanding of misogyny? I don’t fully understand that word. I will go and look up the definition. Can women be misogynistic towards men?
No - if it were contempt directed at men it would be misandry as gyny = female e.g. gynaecologist, andry = male hence 'androgyny' meaning having 'male and female' characteristics.
If it is direct at people in general it's misanthropy (anthro = 'human' such in anthropology i.e. study of humans)
Yes, quite right, misandry is the word. I couldn't find it.