Anyone REALLY knoweldgable about feminism that cares to discuss it's role wrt ASD?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Okay. I'm not intending to upset anyone, and yes, I'm probably quite insane wrt this but I wanted some views on this theory.

Some of you know that I believe that stressed-out mothers, and inhumane labours 'triggers' autism in babies with a genetic predisposition. This is because of the hormone Oxytocin that is essential for bonding, love, social interaction etc. is lower in stressed mothers, and supressed by adrenaline during pregnancy and childbirth.

This has not been researched. It probably won't be. Who would fund it?

Okay, with me so far?

Now, I have read some alluded to statistics (not found the source yet) that suggests in Afro-American families there is a prevelance of just a sixth of the number of caucasions diagnosed with autism. In American Indians, it is half. These two societies are matriarchal.

I'll carry on only if I get a few bites............or anyone's interest!

When I was studying my pschologyvdegree I came across some cultural studies into grief, particularly wrt the death of offspring. Whilst I would not suggest that parents in less developed countries love their children any less they appeared to cope better with loss where is was more of a regular occurrence in their society and where their society was more of a community.

As I understand it the definition of a matriachal society means young married couples go to live with the wife's parents, then their daughters stay with them after marriage and sons go to their wife's family.

Our society is based on quite isolated one and two parent families. My cousin in law (?) is from the middle east and while she deplores the lack of rights for women, she did have a very jolly childhood with dozens of cousins all around. So I don't think it's about feminism v patriarchy, rather extended versus nuclear families.

In my imagination, small social groups based on extended families are probably quite forgiving of HFA people. I also see that my own child benefits hugely from playing with his sister and cousin. He benefits from playdates with friends as well, but it's not as natural and easy as with family members. I just wish that we had a greater range of children close to us that he could learn from.

So maybe a close knit community/extended family would be both gentler on ASD people and help those people develop their social skills.

That's a very naive concept though isn't it? I've heard so many stories from people with an ASD child about mothers and MIL who don't even believe the affected child has ASD, even with severe children. Then you get idiots like my BIL who is pro euthanasia for my kids, and likes to say that in front of them. I get teh idea of more support- I;ve been saying that as a family with multiple disability we fall outside BB / HRM dla criteria but we don;t have extra adults and it leaves me housebound at times. But would that in reality be better if I had my family about- no. It could be helped by some hypothetical family who gets it and indeed where, and this is pretty crucial with ASD of the type mine have, the majority of adults do not have it at some level, but that is not mine!

'Is it about defective genes though, or just different ones? If we could meet DS1's needs wholly, as well as our own and those of his sibling etc etc would this really be much of a problem at all?

depends on the child.

For mine yes; ds3's needs are less 'typical ASD' and more almost what one might have called a slow child in the seventies- delays, cuddly, etc- except we know what is really going on now. but the needs are more than social by a long way: severe speech and language issues for a start.

DS1 is just agressive- and more so the more people who are around him. Only 1-1 adult cover even begins to solve it and even then- well i wouldn;t ask my elderly mum IYKWIM

Such an interesting thread!
Just to throw into the mix: there is a reputed prevalence of autism/Aspergers in Jewish families... which are also famed for the all-nurturing Jewish mama! Go figure.

Go figure on a restricted genetic base over riding environment...

Genetics are set (within the remit of what we know about trigger mechanisms), what's would be more interesting would be evidence on long term outcomes in different environments. Until there is a body that has a duty to collect figures on prevalence of ASD we will not be able to assess anything much because the data does not exist. It would be a great start to understanding what makes positive differences (except the Government already knows that is early input and a strong family network and both take ££££ in support, education, therapy and respite to maintain).

I'm not aware of any link between Jewish heritage and ASD, there are some genetic conditions and diseases that are more common in Jewish people but have never heard of ASD being amongst them.

I haven;t but I would like to see the research as I guess it's possible. There's no real Jewish community near us so I could easily miss something glaringly obvious IYSWIM.

Hi Starlight
Only read your opening post so excuses if this has been discussed already. We did all about the medicalisation of childbirth in Victorian times at university; how it became/developed into a patriarchal system when previously it had been matriarchal domain, how men pushed women out and made it an 'illness' and perhaps thats where all the pressure started on women to 'perform' and behave in a certain way towards their pregnancy.
Maybe you could look it up if you haven't already; loads of sociology books about this theory and Ann Oakley is a well known feminist, she said some stuff about it...but google feminism and childbirth history or victorian patriarchal medicalisation of childbirth or something.

Thank you unpaidcarer!

"Feminist sociology seeks to extend... Marxist and Foucauldian sociology. Feminists argue that the way in which we are socialised into mas. and fem. social roles will have a determining effect on our health and illness. they argue that medicine plays a vital role in enforcing conformity to these social roles, and is especially targeted at women.
This is because controlling womens ability to reproduce is central to a patriarchal society"
it goes on along those lines but this from Kevin white, Soc. of Health and Illness, pp10.
(Michael Foucault, french bloke, died not that long ago, leading authority on sociology and I think philosophy, charismatic and gay and outspoken!)