The Gender Gap

[Statto]

Sure it does, it just help explain how men are usually better at abstract thinking and women are better at social interaction. That men are more inclined to use part of a brain for a focused purpose and women multiple parts at the same time. That autism is hyper-masculinity, characterized by much less interconnectedness of the hemispheres and is statistically more prevalent in men which results in decreased social abilities and increased abstract thinking.

That 'extreme male brain' theory, that's the one what Simon Baron Cohen has put forward, or more neutrally the sort of systemising / empathising divide which he points to as the possible distinguisher between the sexes. He was in that programme too

I thought Baron Cohen's theories had been pretty much discredited now as total cobblers.

Well, it's a theory of autism primarily, the controversial part is if it then maps onto male / female differences... From a folk-knowledge point of view, I'd say it makes sense

[Statto]

Well, it's a theory of autism primarily, the controversial part is if it then maps onto male / female differences...  From a folk-knowledge point of view, I'd say it makes sense

Say rather that it maps male/female gender stereotypes onto people on the autistic spectrum. The main consequence is that women/girls on the spectrum are very much underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed, mostly because the usual autistic flags for boys are often disguised by girls' gender socialization.

Why would I say that, when it's a theory of autism he's devised, ultimately.

The main consequence is that women/girls on the spectrum are very much underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed, mostly because the usual autistic flags for boys are often disguised by girls' gender socialization.

Well this is the interesting thing isn't it, because as autistic people don't socialise "properly" they may not pick up gender norms. According to Baron-Cohen, that would be because they spend more time systemising than they do empathising

[Statto]

But the idea that systemizing is "male" and empathizing is "female" is itself a very dubious one.

As Daniel Voyer and Barbara D’Entremont wrote: "How can we be discussing an extreme “male brain” when the literature clearly suggests that there is no such thing as a male brain?"

Which is from a brief precis of the various arguments here:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/per...treme-male

Oppositorium.