#autism doesn't ruin people's lives. ableism does

[lunathewafflelord]

It just occurred to me that if you replace every instance of the word "autism" in I Am Autism with "ableism" it'd actually be accurate. So I made it a thing.

(under cut because it's long + the ableist connotations of the original commercial)

I am ableism. I’m visible in your children, but if I can help it, I am invisible to you until it’s too late. I know where you live. And guess what? I live there too. I hover around all of you. I know no color barrier, no religion, no morality, no currency. I speak your language fluently. And with every voice I take away, I acquire yet another language. I work very quickly. I work faster than pediatric aids, cancer, and diabetes combined And if you’re happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails. Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain. I don’t sleep, so I make sure you don’t either. I will make it virtually impossible for your family to easily attend a temple, birthday party, or public park without a struggle, without embarrassment, without pain. You have no cure for me. Your scientists don’t have the resources, and I relish their desperation. Your neighbors are happier to pretend that I don’t exist—of course, until it’s their child. I am ableism. I have no interest in right or wrong. I derive great pleasure out of your loneliness. I will fight to take away your hope. I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams. I will make sure that every day you wake up you will cry, wondering who will take care of my child after I die? And the truth is, I am still winning, and you are scared. And you should be. I am ableism. You ignored me. That was a mistake. And to ableism I say: I am a father, a mother, a grandparent, a brother, a sister. We will spend every waking hour trying to weaken you. We don’t need sleep because we will not rest until you do. Family can be much stronger than ableism ever anticipated, and we will not be intimidated by you, nor will the love and strength of my community. I am a parent riding toward you, and you can push me off this horse time and time again, but I will get up, climb back on, and ride on with the message. Ableism, you forget who we are. You forget who you are dealing with. You forget the spirit of mothers, and daughters, and fathers and sons. We are Qatar. We are the United Kingdom. We are the United States. We are China. We are Argentina. We are Russia. We are the European Union. We are the United Nations. We are coming together in all climates. We call on all faiths. We search with technology and voodoo and prayer and herbs and genetic studies and a growing awareness you never anticipated. We have had challenges, but we are the best when overcoming them. We speak the only language that matters: love for our children. Our capacity to love is greater than your capacity to overwhelm. Ableism is naïve. You are alone. We are a community of warriors. We have a voice. You think because some of our children cannot speak, we cannot hear them? That is ableism’s weakness. You think that because my child lives behind a wall, I am afraid to knock it down with my bare hands? You have not properly been introduced to this community of parents and grandparents, of siblings and friends and schoolteachers and therapists and pediatricians and scientists. Ableism, if you are not scared, you should be. When you came for my child, you forgot: you came for me. Ableism, are you listening?

[averagekindergartenfan]

I don't really like describing my characters because it ruins the surprise but oh well.

TW FOR S3LF H4RM, GR--MING, SA, 0V3RD0SE AND R4PE MENTION‼️

Biography and personality

Linda is an 18 year old girl (as of epilogue), who is born in the United States and is white. She's AroAce, has undiagnosed autism and diagnosed depression. She usually has an intimidating stance in public, but is actually emotional in private. Speaking of public, she rarely goes outside nowadays because of mental issues. She also regularly does self harm and will try to hide the scars so that people don't worry about her too much. She always thinks that she's a bit of a burden to people and actually harming them. Anyways, she would try to help others in unhinged ways but when receiving help, she gets a bit awkward because she doesn't expect anyone to help someone like her.

Relationships

She then got groomed into dating Lucas (her psychology teacher) at age 15. He would lovebomb her a lot after telling her explicitly about sex. One time she had to visit his office for a little chat, she got her drink spiked and woke up on a bed...and got sexually assaulted and raped by him and 2 other guys.

Aftermath and trauma

This is why she doesn't really like being touched or like slimy texture (to be real, slimy texture is a bit gross). She doesn't like creepy guys much, and if she saw a possible red flag, it would be ON SIGHT. She also has a tendency to attempt overdosing but she always manages to live. She also has experienced ableism throughout her life, she would be told to smile when meeting relatives or to look at people in the eye when talking. She also smokes weed and sometimes does LSD.

On a neutral note, her special interest is greek mythology and she likes to collect random stuff off the ground

TLDR; She is mentally FUCKED up, so please don't provoke her

[hyped-ace-tistic]

I agree with both of these. As a late discovered autistic person myself, TDA was a place where I first started questioning whether I was autistic. In that sense, I can see how it would help a lot of people. However, as someone who's been in the autistic community for sometime now, and in online neurodivergent spaces, it's been becoming more apparent to me that Ty was written mainly not for the autistic community, but for readers who might not know much about autism, whether those readers are autistic or not. Now, this is better representation than most pieces of media portraying autistic people as Ty isnt written as a completely unempathetic psychopath (like most movies/ TV shows like to do) but it's still heavily reliant on stereotypes. It just seems to me like Cassie did some surface level research and went in with writing the character (Ty's speacial interests in Sherlock and animals, and his sensory difficulties, etc. were written well) but he is sometimes portrayed as a "burden" to those who care about him. An example that pops to mind is how Julian is always shown to be hurt by Ty not being particularly affectionate: some autistic people find physical and eye contact draining and even physically painful,so this approach towards Ty's boundaries are harmful, as it can have readers thinking things like "Oh, why doesn't Ty try harder to be a better sibling? Can't he see that he's hurting Julian?" without realising the full scope of the situation or seeing things from Ty's pov. Autistic people are not, and should not be portrayed, as burdens to anyone, because they simply aren't, and also because there's still so much stigma that comes with ableism surrounding not only autism, but all neurodivergencies and disabilities. For someone who has never properly been introduced to autism, Ty's character might be extremely helpful, but for someone who's familiar with the autistic experience, the portrayal can sometimes feel shallow and under researched. Perhaps more so because we don't see Ty's pov in TDA so other characters' comments on Ty can sometimes feel a bit like "Ohh look an autistic person! How interesting and weird!". That just feels to me like Ty's some sort of attraction for curious onlookers and that's... not ideal. Another point to note is that Ty generally doesn't feel the need to mask a lot as he's never had much of a reason to, but on some occasions he's still expected to by Julian (Julian wanting Ty to make eye contact) even though he knows full well that Ty finds it uncomfortable. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE Julian and everything he does for his siblings (seriously, he's absolutely amazing), I just think this is a lack of awareness on Cassie's part about how harmful expecting autistic people to act neurotypical actually is. I did read somewhere a long time ago that Cassie mentioned that there's a possibility that Kit also might be autistic, and seeing as he's not a character that "looks autistic", and therefore definitely masks, I'm excited to see how that plays out. I'm both very excited and very terrified for TWP because it has potential to go both ways, and I really love Ty as a character thus far and don't want that ruined. ( I have no doubt I will continue loving Ty regardless of the representation, but I just want to see it done right). I hope Cassie takes the time to do proper research this time around, especially seeing as we're getting Ty's pov in TWP. I hope Ty's experience living as an autistic person will be portrayed in such a way that its not the main focus of Ty's character, but rather written in subtle ways that both makes autistic people feel seen and validated in their experiences and also manages to get people who aren't that educated about autism to go, "Huh, so THAT'S what being autistic actually is like." Overall, it's not the worst representation out there, but there's definitely room for a LOT of improvement

Hey so I know you’re currently mauling The Mortal Instruments but I wanted to ask because it’s driving me fucking nuts: is Ty a good representation of autism? If so or if not how come? I ask because I feel like he isn’t but for the past 5 years I’ve been really afraid of criticizing his writing

I don’t think it is and I’ve even read many posts saying it’s very stereotypical. I also don’t like how Julian treats Ty as he’s this defenseless child who can’t be told anything. they treat him as if he can’t do anything and then act as if Julian is some hero for taking care of Ty. I just don’t like the way it’s written.

CC makes Ty to be this very cold hearted person with no emotions, whose only interest is Sherlock Holmes. it seems very stereotypical to me. but it’s also been a very long time since I read TDA so I can’t remember every little detail of Ty.

I can’t pinpoint a time where CC actually did any kind of good representation. it’s not there. unless you like toxic and abusive relationships, incest, and more then CC is your writer! she won’t let you down!!!!

I’m sorry if other fans have made it difficult for you to criticize. some of them are mad scary 😭 I will bitch and bitch and bitch about CC day or night. she’s very problematic and I didn’t find out all she was capable of until I had almost completed the books. I don’t get why people think they’re “better”. you can complain and vent and rant all you want!!!!! I just love tearing her shitty writing apart. it’s so therapeutic 👏🏼

[grungekitty-77]

You know what pisses me off? (Besides the blatant ableism. That's been covered above.) They ruined some good ideas

You COULD tell a story about the parents dealing with their child's autism. There is a story there. It does effects their lives too. (The child will always have the worse problems and the fact that it effects others should never be used as an excuse to ignore any child's needs. Just because you have it hard too does NOT mean your child's struggle is less valid.)

That could've been a great story from a different perspective. Could've been a great way to have allistic see a story about how to cope with not knowing what to do and not do. A story about a parent struggling with both their own grief and not knowing how to lessen their child's pain, trying to figure out what their kid needs and how to be that. Could've been a brilliant.

But they butchered it. Made such a shitshow that they may've soured the idea permanently.

The puppet idea could've been something. It could've been symbolic about the dehumanization. There could've been a point to that. A dramatic moment where the audience is faced with how much seeing this child as an object has been affecting their views, bringing it back to viewing real life children as people and not trinkets parents carry around. Slapping people in the face with the fact that a child is not a doll like some people seem to believe. They are not there for you to dress up and play with. You don't get to be disappointed that they aren't acting the way you wanted because this isn't a toy, this is a human.

But they butchered that too. (And I'm not just talking about the face) There was no meaning behind it. Or maybe there was. They seemed to have used a puppet for the opposite reason. Like they didn't want the audience to see this character as a person.

They made everything so gross and ableist that they turned things that could've been impactful and meaningful into garbage.

Instead of saying "Dealing with autistic children is hard, but that doesn't mean you just abandon them. Some things in life are just hard. We still have to do them." They just stopped at "Dealing with autistic children is hard." And called it a moral.

Disgusting. Prejudice. And a waste.

Puppetgate

Those of you who aren’t on autistic twitter are missing out on Puppetgate.

Hold onto your pants because this is going to get UNREAL.

1. A London playhouse reveals that it will be doing a play about a family whose non-verbal autistic child is being sent to an institution.

The autistic child will be represented by a puppet.

2. Autistic Twitter: “A puppet? What the fuck? Like we already feel like we are treated as inhuman things with no voice.”

3. Play supporters: “but Julia from Sesame Street is okay right?”

4. Autistic twitter: “…true but why a puppet?”

5. Playhouse: “because of child labour laws. You can’t ask a non verbal autistic child to perform in a play day after day.”

6. Autistic Twitter: “but why couldn’t a small adult actor just…”

7. Playhouse: “okay and here is the puppet!”

8. Autistic Twitter: “Oh dear god what is that unholy abomination?”

9. Playhouse: “it’s great right? This puppet is going to be SO MUCH more like an autistic child than a human could ever be!”

(Seriously)

https://twitter.com/allinarowplay/status/1092410318960148481?s=21

10. Autistic Twitter: “how could that creepy goblin represent an autistic child better than an actor could?”

11. Playhouse: “Well you see because he’s a non verbal autistic and aggressive so things get pretty physical and also it would be stereotypical and insulting to make a human play an autistic person but if we use an inanimate object it’s fine.”

12. Autistic Twitter: “We are NOT okay with this.”

13. Playhouse: “You haven’t even seen the play. We consulted with so many autistic people.”

14. National Autism Society: “Yeah you consulted us and we told you that this play was problematic and that you should make some major changes including dumping the puppet.”

15. Playhouse: “And we took those notes under advisement.”

16. NAS: “But you didn’t make the changes.”

17. Playhouse: “No. Because you just a read a script and we know you’ll all feel differently when you see it.

18. Autistic Twitter: “So… can autistic theatre critics get free tickets so we can see if?”

19. Playhouse: “No we can’t afford to give out free tickets to critics.”

20. Non-Autistic Critic: “Actually you offered ME free tickets and I turned them down saying you should give them to an autistic critic.”

21. Playhouse: “…Hey look, opening night!”

22. Non-Autistic Critic: “So I went to see it and… it’s really weird. The parents are terrible people and I cannot for the life of me understand why they thought an adult man with a grey faced goblin sprouting from his groin making autistic noises was more realistic than an autistic actor playing the child themself.”

23. Non-Autistic Autism Advocate: “I went to see it and it was SO GOOD. I totally forgot that Laurence was a puppet he seemed so much like a real autistic child in that he was not human and he didn’t even feature that much in the play.

The heartbreak of the family dealing with the tragedy of autism was so real and honest and I have NO idea why people are offended by this wonderful play that portrays autism as a family-destroying evil.

24. #ActuallyAutistic Critic: “GUYS I WENT TO SEE IT AND OMG. Theatre isn’t sensory friendly, non sensory friendly performances, no trigger warnings on anything even though it’s full of ableism and screaming people.

Plot of the play is that the kid is being taken by social services to go to an institution.

Big plot twist is that the mom called them herself because she couldn’t handle the autism anymore.

Puppet just flaps around and occasionally attacks people. I actually really love puppetry but this was messed up and not well done AT ALL.

These people are all terrible. Dad has been taking shits on the Mom’s pillow and blaming it on his non-verbal son.

Puppet gets pinned to the ground in that move that can kill people.

The puppet’s care worker says that autistic people are animals who have reincarnated as people, and he’s still the best human being in this play.

This is play is an ableist shitfest written by allistics for allistics about the tragedy of autism and how it destroys families.”

25. Autistic Twitter: “Sorry, did you say the Dad SHITS ON HIS WIFE’S PILLOW AND BLAMES HIS SON??”

26. Allistic Twitter: “This play was SO brave to be so honest about how awful autistic children are! So refreshing to see a play showing the PARENTS’ viewpoint for once!

(SERIOUSLY)

So that’s where we are right about now. If you want to go be angry the hashtag on twitter is #puppetgate

Here is a link to Shaun May’s amazing and horrifying review of this tire fire of a play.

https://shaunmay.co.uk/allinarow/