Jamesy wrote:
In social settings why can women be more judgmental/uncomftable of autistic behaviour in men?
Is that from your own observations of large numbers of people, or are you just echoing a stereotype? I've not seen enough people to draw any solid conclusions, though I have some very tentative evidence that men tend to be more reluctant than women to follow social norms for the sake of it, women seem to be more sold on conventional rituals.......e.g. greeting cards, wedding ceremonies, token gifts, baby showers, school prize distributions - I've often seen men looking like they wish they were back home in their underpants with a six-pack watching TV sport (sometimes even saying so), and I've noticed women working really hard to make sure everybody's got a flower in the correct button hole etc., and looking frustrated that the hubbies seem to think it's a complete waste of time. Given that autistic people often can't relate to social rituals, it's possible that such observations are evidence of the divide of which you speak. Traditionally it's usually been the women that have been responsible for social stuff, the men just kind of go along with it, at least in some parts of the developed world, so maybe the social differences of autistic folk impact more on NT mainstream women.