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flappy-owl · 4 years ago

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I remember that episode! I agree with most of what you said, particularly in reference to the misinformation. However, I will say that I do think that Farkle (who is the character who they thought might be autistic) does show a lot of signs of autism throughout the show, particularly socially. He has issues with social cues, has a tendency to infodump about history and science (which I think are his special interests), wore the same type of turtleneck for the entire first season and a half of the show, etc. So I think it is entirely plausible for him to have at least been evaluated for autism, and also I headcanon both him and Riley (another character) as autistic in addition to Smackle (the character who was revealed to actually be autistic).

I don’t love different characters’ reactions to the possible diagnosis and the actual diagnosis. Riley is the one whose reaction (denial that it was even a possibility for Farkle) bothered me the most, partially because I identify with her a lot and also because she’s usually the most accepting character in the show, but I think part of it might be some of her traits that make me think she might be autistic (hatred of change and lack of empathy/inability to see things from other’s viewpoints). She also later is seen trying to make Smackle (again, who has an autism diagnosis) hug her even though it is not a natural response for Smackle, so I don’t love that either, but hugging is also something Riley does A LOT to the point that, if she were autistic like I think she is, it seems to be a sort of pressure stim, which doesn’t excuse her insistence on Smackle changing her response to the action, but does help explain it.

I do love Smackle though, and though she isn’t amazing representation in that I think they could have shown more of her symptoms beyond infodumping and issues with social skills, there is a pretty key episode (Girl Meets a Christmas Maya) where it is shown that she both doesn’t plan on trying to mask all of her symptoms, and also in which other characters make it clear they don’t want that for her either, which I think was important. I do think she is good representation overall, especially in the third season when she becomes a more prominent character.

(Sorry for the mildly-incoherent infodump; this used to be a huge special interest for me, so I wanted to add my take on it).

Girl Meets World did an episode that touched on autism, and let me just say that as an autistic myself, I was not impressed with the episode at all. For starters, the one character that they wanted to portray as autistic didn’t even have any traits other than being extremely intelligent. That in and of itself does not make someone autistic. Then they said he “has Asperger’s syndrome, a FORM of autism.” Hold it right there. Aspergers is autism. It’s not a form of autism. Autism isn’t like a cancer, where there many forms of it. Autism is a spectrum. Totally different than “a form of anything.” Aspergers has been part of the autism spectrum since 2013 when it was removed from the DSM-V as a separate condition and added to the ASD family. GMW aired after this change, so I don’t know why there was so much emphasis on him having “a form of autism called Aspergers.” When this character’s friends found out he may be autistic, they didn’t want to accept him for who he was and wanted to change him. So much for acceptance 🙄 The only positive point this episode gets from me is that at the end it turns out he’s not autistic, BUT a girl who goes to another school is. They showed that females can be autistic, not just boys.

GMW could have done a bit more research into autism before airing an episode with outdated and inaccurate information and representation of autistic people.

#Girl meets world #gmw #asd #Smackle #isadora Smackle #Farkle minkus #Riley matthews #boy meets world #bmw #girl meets farkle #girl meets a Christmas maya #actuallyautistic

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