What about us ?

Post Reply New Topic

Sometimes I get a bit fed up with the public's perception of the Aspergic stereotype as the archetypal computer geek.

Admittedly, that would be true of a majority of Aspies.

But what about right-brained Aspies ?
The artistic/sporting Aspergic ... who doesn't fit the widely-held Aspergic stereotype.

His lot is a far harder one - for he doesn't naturally fit into an IT department and in consequence, faces much tougher life prospects.

It's accepted and expected that IT-geeks will (to some degree) be socially dysfunctional - and IT depts are generally composed predominantly of Aspergoid types, so the prospect of job-loss through constructive dismissal (read : bullying) are probably about the same as they are for NT's in NT-peopled depts.

Having aesthetic sensibilities and sporting capabilities is seriously no substitute for the good fortune of retaining your job.

Last edited by MemberSix on 03 Aug 2008, 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I consider myself more the Liberal Arts type than the civil and software engineer type. My background's in music and education and psychology. I'm working to break down some of those Aspergic stereotypes.

A stereotype isn't really a stereotype if it's completely accurate. You know, my dad is an IT geek. But I am certainly not as pragmatic or techically minded as he. But we right-brainers will survive and overcome!

That's me...I'm creative/artistic, and the competition for jobs that involve those skills are so cutthroat, it seems impossible. I don't really have any advanced interest in computers, and using one for more than about 2 hours at a time makes my eyes and head hurt.
(It's funny-- my non-aspie sister is majoring in computer science. I majored in theater. )
I'm currently looking for a job, and it's the most freaking monumental task I've ever undergone.

It's hard for me to get upset about the stereotype because I am the classical Asperger's-geek. I naturally fell into IT as the best fit for my strengths and weaknesses.

The only thing about more right-brained careers is that they tend to require a lot of schmoozing and relationship-building and Aspies can struggle with that. But who knows, there might be more tolerance for Aspie quirkiness in the arts.

Maybe in the fine arts - but outside that, there's little tolerance of neuro-diversity in the non-techie sector.
I have a Mech. Eng. degree (I'd guess more traditionally the preserve of left-brainers .... though I could be wrong on that) - but I'm still a (predominant) right-brainer (strong aesthetic/artistic sensibilities and sporty, though participatively rather than in any kind of tribal sports-fan way).
My learning style was always extremely right-brained 'grasshopper' (needing to understand the global picture first and learn in a top-down, macro-to-micro way - strongly visual) rather than left-brained 'inch-worm' (learning bottom up, micro-to-macro way - assembling detail into a global picture - strongly auditory).
I can code and do left-brain stuff .... I just don't really enjoy it.

I think there is some tolerance in the artist world of eccentrics. Andy Warhol springs to mind. However, I have noticed because I am not off the wall eccentric, I am less accepted. So why is that? My specialty is photography. I have been trying to break into it for years, with very little success. Maybe I need to try fitting in less & just march to the beat of my own rhythm section?

I can use a computer, & although I was pretty nerdy as a kid, I am no computer geek. I do have some mechanical ability. Being female, I have often lived just on the edge of society, never really being part of it. Because I haven't fit into the typical niche expected by others.

I find it really annoying that the majority of people cannot judge me based on my "content of character" (as Dr. Martin Luther King pushed for before his assassination). Instead I am judged on being "weird." Isn't that just another form of discrimination?