Yeah, I find that piece pretty offensive. I have trouble with eye contact; my social skills are poor. I know a lot of people with autism who would fall into his definition of "creep", but there is nothing creepy about them. Yes, if a person in an office keeps turning the conversation to sex or does things like blocking women from leaving their office or something, that's behavior is creepy. An inability to make eye contact is not.
I started to read the article, then my phone decided it didn't want to finish loading it. Given the four paragraphs I'd already seen, I figured it would simply make my blood boil.
I know creeps. I know people with autism. I know some guys who were weird and creepy when they were 20-something, spent their 30s reading about Asperger's and how to interact with neurotypical people, and are now pleasant individuals at 40-something. I know other guys who are still weird in a bad way at 40-something who have no more than the average number of autistic traits.
You can't conflate "creepy" with "autistic". You just can't. Some people will benefit from being taught the social skills which they were unable to learn "naturally". Other people take pleasure in upsetting others - and it doesn't really matter whether it's due to a personality disorder or past abuse or just because they're not very nice people. Unless they actually want to change, to stop upsetting people with their weirdness and creepiness, it doesn't matter why they're that way.
Wow, not only does he attack people with social difficulties, he attacks people with unusual hobbies and people who look different! Glad to see the comments to the article are horrified.
The "office creep" is usually, in my experience, a man who is testing the boundaries of female (and lower-ranked male) staff to see what he can get away with. He's entirely socially adept, though may pretend not to be in order to get away with more, and is the walking embodiment of male entitlement.
It's true that people are creeped out by ambiguity - specifically by people they can't read. It happens just as much with women (being an autistic woman, I am that woman - I don't have facial expressions or body language that people can easily interpret, and I don't know how to say the things people need to hear to be reassured that I'm safe to be with) - but the word 'creep' isn't likely to be used with a woman. Our ambiguity is less likely to be interpreted as something sexual. But we'll be seen as weird, and people will be uncomfortable with us. It's the same phenomenon, described in different words, with women
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Thank you for mentioning gender here. I think that Frank McAndrew's research, reported in his article, was biased towards conventional views of what's 'normal' for each gender. Perhaps including the notion that autistic people are extremely male, so there can't be autistic women. That notion's been disproved already, hasn't it?
In my er, extensive research (this thread and a chat with my female partner) I see an assumption that 'creeps' are male. Which sometimes they are - the examples that come to my mind are men - but there are creepy women too.
I think you're right that ambiguity is key. My disability confuses people, esp because it changes so often. Quite often people react with aggression. It's one of the reasons I love my wheelchair: a badge of 'real' disability.
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I know creeps. I know people with autism. I know some guys who were weird and creepy when they were 20-something, spent their 30s reading about Asperger's and how to interact with neurotypical people, and are now pleasant individuals at 40-something. I know other guys who are still weird in a bad way at 40-something who have no more than the average number of autistic traits.
You can't conflate "creepy" with "autistic". You just can't. Some people will benefit from being taught the social skills which they were unable to learn "naturally". Other people take pleasure in upsetting others - and it doesn't really matter whether it's due to a personality disorder or past abuse or just because they're not very nice people. Unless they actually want to change, to stop upsetting people with their weirdness and creepiness, it doesn't matter why they're that way.
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The "office creep" is usually, in my experience, a man who is testing the boundaries of female (and lower-ranked male) staff to see what he can get away with. He's entirely socially adept, though may pretend not to be in order to get away with more, and is the walking embodiment of male entitlement.
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In my er, extensive research (this thread and a chat with my female partner) I see an assumption that 'creeps' are male. Which sometimes they are - the examples that come to my mind are men - but there are creepy women too.
I think you're right that ambiguity is key. My disability confuses people, esp because it changes so often. Quite often people react with aggression. It's one of the reasons I love my wheelchair: a badge of 'real' disability.
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