#i love good autism rep played by autistic people

[a-walking-fandom-reference]

i love edward not dead yet so much <3

[fics-n-stuff]

Heartbreak High honestly has the best representation that I think I've ever seen. Racial diversity and POC representation, queer rep including a non-binary person (an AMAB non-binary person which is so refreshing because so many people only think of non-binary people as being AFAB) and acespec rep, autism rep (an AUTISTIC GIRL which is so rare and I was so happy to see it, and played by an autistic actor). And it's also just SUCH A GOOD SHOW I LOVED IT. It was such a good and accurate representation of Gen Z, like I genuinely would believe that these people exist in real life. And the FASHION. MY GOD.

Please please go watch it because I really really need a second season it's just so good and it deserves more episodes. It's dramatic and comedic and serious and fun and just the right balance of realistic and entertaining.

Plus, on a personal note, because I really struggle with reading subtitles and the non-synching of dub I don't watch many things that aren't in English, and it was really nice to get a peice of media like this that is so absolutely non-American. It is so thoroughly and unapologetically Aussie and I loved it (I didn't understand all of it, had to google what eshay means, but I loved it).

Highly recommend.

[autisticgirliesbracket]

What makes Marcy Wu from Amphibia the autistic girlie ever of all time? Here's what the people have to say:

- I was also linked to this Reddit thread. Marcy-related asks/reblogs: x This post will be updated after each round!

Image ID in alt text and under the readmore.

[Image ID. White slide with a screenshot of Marcy in the top left corner, she is wearing her sleepover outfit. She is surrounded by text boxes which read,

"YOU KNOW WHO SHE IS. YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHY. I LOVE HERTTRRRR"

"Easily obsessed with her favorite media (and her girlfriends), has trouble forming connections (although it’s not impossible, as mentioned with the aforementioned girlfriends as well as the episode Maddie and Marcy), and enters The Zone often enough for it to directly affect the plot of the show she’s in."

"Khztixkgxgshckhxgic she's just iconic"

"Infodumps a bunch, stims a lot too"

"This girl infodumps constantly, is super smart but easily distracted, and is super clumsy. Also she totally does the raptor hands."

"I don't feel she has a *touch* of it. Everything about this girl SCREAMS autism. Her brain has no zoom out feature, her mouth has no mute button, her trust and knowledge have no bounds, and she will obsess over her interests to the point of ignoring everyone around her. And she made quite an impression on Amphibia viewers from her very first moments on screen. If Marcy doesn't win this tournament, there is something very wrong with this tournament."

"Please please please please she’s the most autistic ever please please she stims she can’t make eye contact she’s a nerd she has trouble communicating she’s got interests her friends don’t share and it hurts her when they aren’t interested in them like she is she makes mistakes she’s adorable she’s the most autistic ever please please please please"

"one of the writers of the show said they had autism in mind while writing her, also look at her, she's got it, you can't say that she doesnt"

"Marcy gets way too hyperfixated on her interests. She's very oblivious of her surroundings when she's focusing on something. She struggles with social interactions. Whenever she's in social places, she's either off in her own world or focusing on a video game. She speaks quickly and excitedly whenever something peaks her interest, and often doesn't give other people time to process and understand exactly what she's telling them. She reacts in an overly excited manner towards ‘new’ things. She is often too blunt for her own good. When asked if she's autistic, series creator Matt Braly said "She was not written with that intention but I think we get to know our characters better as we write them. In many ways they tell us who they are, not vice versa. I am so happy to see people identify with her in this way." "

"she stims, mentions having trouble with eye contact, and info dumps. and its 99% canon. (was made canon retroactively)"

"she has a lot of "typical" traits for an autistic/autistic-coded character, but personally i find her less insulting than some of those tend to be. she's described as very smart but oblivious, and she has a tendency to get extremely focused on things so much so that she starts to ignore her surroundings. i think she's especially good autism rep because she isn't just a quirky supergenius, she also has flaws that are also relatable to autistic people. one of these that i was especially happy to see is her clumsiness/lack of coordination, which is something which can be a trait of autism but isn't recognized or represented often. additionally, she can become obsessive about trying to get people to like and accept her, which is something i think a lot of autistic people can relate to."

"its canon!! also she infodumps, has a hyperfixation, and is scared of change :D"

"She often plays video games while everyone else is trying to work and often gets so invested that she doesn't notice things she's gonna trip over She regularly picks up new video games which she infodumps about Isn't great at picking up when people are having intense emotions, but still cares deeply for her friends For a while when the main characters are up to shenanigans she just reads books in a library" End ID.]

[owlets-outlet]

apparently a kdrama with a female autistic lead came out?? so my autistic ass is gonna watch it and let you know how good it is.

ok so first of all. i feel like this is the first kdrama with an autistic lead ever??? and she´s female too??? LOVE. IT. i am also not expecting perfect rep tho, because its... a kdrama. cmon.

episode 1:

things i disliked:

-first and foremost: the whole “oh no, shes autistic :(( horrible news for me as a dad...” thing is just not the vibe. props to him being a loving father tho

-the whole autistic genius thing is overdone by now

-her geniality somehow “made it better to bear” that shes autistic?? mm

-she´s played by a neurotypical actress. i personally dont care that much, especially considering that SK is a small country and its hard to look for autistic actors, but still

-she´s very much the autistic stereotype that we all know. again, nothing i hate too much, because the fact that theres an autistic female lead in a kdrama is a huge step

-occassionally in the outro graphics and in some of the soundtrack, there are elements of infantilization. guys pls dont play silly music while the mc is forced to relive childhood trauma and her personal space is being violently invaded by an angry, screaming man, thank you.

-this one im conflicted about: ocd like symptoms. yes, autistic people do sometimes who them, but sometimes autistic people have ocd as a separate disorder. also its a stereotypical symptom. but its okay i guess.

things i liked:

-the story is told through her perspective. we also get her narration sometimes, revealing that she is a three dimensional person, just cant express some parts outwardly.

-ramblessssss! theyre p good actually

-she is her own person, capable of making her own decisions and doesnt need saving. she is capable of expressing and communicating her needs. (unless shes having a meltdown, or overstimulated. many people on the spectrum cant, and thats okay, but im glad she has agency, ok,it doesnt happen often in media) only needs support when things get unbearable. very nice.

-law isn´t her special interest, whales are! many shows make the persons special interest their whole personality, glad they branched out lol

-accurate representation of overstimulation and anxiety in public spaces

-connected to the last point, her coping mechanisms and stims are accurate to real life and relatable: noise cancel headphones with white noise, pacing when stressed to ground herself, finger stimming...

-stims actually dont look a caricature!! even though they´re basic and stereotypical, they are real and not overexaggerated

-represents sensory issues well, they arent basic, but personalized to her, which is great! for example: her dad removes all tags from her clothes bcs they bother her, she has a specific safe food (bibimbap)

-lack of empathy is handled well too. she uses logic to determine how others may feel, but it is shown that its something she had to learn! very good

-also!! she. has emotions, just doesnt express them the way other people would!!

-a big one: THE VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF HER INSIDE WORLD ISNT TRIGGERING TO ME. it still may be to some people, but, unlike the music movie (ew), it isnt bright, flashing and fast paced: its flowing, with neutral, soft colors and calm noises

-her and her best friend are the perfect adhd and autism solidarity

-her aversion to touch seems to be handled well so far: she learns to tolerate it, not like it (thank god), for the sake of comforting other people (not to please them, but only when needed)

-its a kdrama. shes getting a love interest. an autistic person being treated as an adult?? with a love interest?? DAMN (the bar is on the floor, huh)

i will update this as i make my way further through the episodes, but im cautiously optimistic so far!

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Wednesday Addams (Wednesday (Netflix))

Y'all Hate Teens propaganda

(cw: bullying, ableism)

"Fans of other versions of the Addams Family often attack the show and her because she is... *checks notes* more cynical than she was when she was 6 (flashbacks show EXACTLY how she went from the ""cute spooky"" kid she used to be to a more cynical character and the answer is serious traumatic bullying)... and has more disagreements with her parents than she did when she was 12.

Many admitted they stopped watching halfway through episode 1 because ""this version of Wednesday hates her parents"" (no, this Wednesday makes some unfairly harsh comments when angry in ep1--please note, the widely praised show from the 60s had 6-year-old Wednesday outright tell her parents she hated them in one episode and try to run away over something very small, she's always had these rather dramatic tendencies because she's a flawed character--but flaws that were seen as cute when she's a kid make her a bitch when she's a teen apparently? or people straight up misremember the older versions and claim they never had any conflict between family members ever, which was never the case. And the conflict between her and her parents is resolved halfway through the first season of a planned five, with the later episodes of season 1 establishing that she does love her parents and the issues in their relationship were temporary). 

Others used her cynical attitude to claim her character and the show was nothing but empty edgy cynicism, comparing it to that Velma show, when her arc in season 1 is basically discovering the power of friendship. Again most of them admitted to having watched 1 episode at most.

There was also so much argument about autism rep, with people saying that if you viewed her as autistic you must hate autistic people because she's hard to get on with/unpleasant/harsh so ""you think all autistic people are jerks! she's not autistic, she's just a bitch!""...when personally I found her extremely relatable to what I was like when I was an autistic teenager, convinced the reason I was unpopular was ""everyone except me sucks and is stupid"" and interacting with people accordingly, and I know multiple others who feel the same way--the people who think she's not a plausible and relatable-to-many depiction of a neurodivergent teenager imo have forgotten what it was like being a teenager, it's easy for anyone at that age--neurodivergent or not, but her specific experience seems particularly neurodivergent-relatable--to become stubbornly convinced of inaccurate things about the world or to judge people unfairly or think of yourself as way more mature than you are, that's part of not being an adult yet. A lot of people who aren't bad people as adults were at some point *not very nice* as teenagers but people won't accept that.

TBH people wouldn't have been pleased no matter what because people resented the idea of a spinoff focussed on Wednesday at school rather than another show about the whole family. Some people complained she was ""too softened"" for doing some good things/not being evil incarnate (never mind that the universally beloved 60s Wednesday is shown convincing Pugsley to give some toys to charity!), others that she was ""too edgy"" for doing any violent things at all (previous adaptations have heavily implied the whole family eats people--tbh the ""half the fandom wants them to be harmless and never violent and the other half wants them to be literal serial killers when most canon is somewhere in between"" affects the whole fandom but it was strongest about her character). 

Others complained as soon as the casting call came out because they were casting someone over 18 to play a 15 year old (presumably for child labour laws or even just acting experience), ASSUMING this meant the show would be ""sexualising her""/""like Euphoria"" (??!?). As it turns out in canon she has one (1) kiss and never wears anything revealing or so much as talks about sex beyond an *ew I walked in on two people making out* type comment [the incident itself wasn't even shown] and a comment about *not* wanting all the boys to stare at her, so why tf did people assume her character would be portrayed in some graphically sexual disturbing way before even a TRAILER was released?? Just because people assume a show about a teenager will fall into every single worst stereotype of an ""edgy teen drama""??

It got to the point where both the weirdgirl bracket and the goth bracket, when Wednesday Addams was entered in them, got swarmed with people yelling about how much they hated the Netflix version of the character and determined to vote against her (rather than voting FOR her opponent,it was all about how much she sucks)...even though it was the 90s version and not the Netflix version who was entered into both brackets!"

[neonbutchery]

ME2 Overlord DLC, an autistic perspective

So, uh, this was a long time coming.

I must admit that I’ve never played the Overlord DLC until now, when I’ve gotten around to playing ME:LE, which included all DLCs-but I had heard about it both from casual players who commented certain moments, and other autistic ME fans who chimed in to give their thoughts. I’m autistic myself, and needless to say, I was very intrigued to see how Overlord dealt with autism, disability, and the horror inflicted upon the different. I will try and update this as I play the DLC, so I can put down my thoughts.

Obligatory disclaimer that this is just my own opinion and perspective, and I’m in no way, shape or form, a spokesperson for my whole community. I also want to make it very clear that this will not be a formal essay with citations and sources: this is a post on tumblr dot com written by a college student and that mainly draws from a) my experiences as an autistic person b) the stereotypes surrounding autism in media and c) the history of the treatment of autistic and neurodivergent people, including institutionalized torture.

CONTENT WARNING: mentions of ableism and torture inflicted upon disabled people. I will not include any graphic images. Also, Overlord DLC spoilers.

Overlord starts with the premise of a Cerberus research facility that had been researching experimental science going off-the-grid, which prompts Shepard/the player to go investigate. How shocking, the organization that also experimented on biotic children, rachni, husks and Thorian creepers is having problems with yet another of their questionable scientific projects. Who would have thought? (Clarifying that this is sarcasm).

Once you arrive at Aite, the planet where the base is set in, you meet Gavin Archer, the leader of Project Overlord, who vaguely explains you what happened, how everything went to hell, and how there's a rogue VI that has infiltrated the facilities' systems and now wants to take over the galaxy. Keep in mind that the VI situation is presented at first as the villain of the plot, which becomes relevant when you later learn what is behind it.

The first sections of the DLC aren't that bad. I really loved the gameplay, being able to use the Hammerhead for something other than picking minerals up, and LOVED the whole design of Prometheus station, which was like a crossover between Giger and Dead Space aaand now I want a full ME game in this style.

Then we get to Atlas station, and, in my opinion, that's where the trouble begins. The first log we encounter from Archer describes David's autism as a "handicap until now", evoking the stereotypes that autistic people are somehow impaired (because we don't behave like allistics do), and, at the same time, that we somehow have some sort of "superpower" thanks to our condition. What this log tells us is something I've unfortunately seen before: some people will demean us for being autistic until it's suddenly convenient for them. Autism is bad because we stim, can't make eye contact, or communicate verbally, and the only good thing from it is what society sees as "genius". We are not a burden just because we have different ways of expressing ourselves or needs that aren't often met by conventional society. We deserve to exist, even if we aren't geniuses or revolutionaries.

And that ties into my wider issues with David's characterization: he's another version of the only autistic characters we ever see in media, (mostly) white, cis men who aren't able to behave by neurotypical standards, and who are extremely good at memory, math, and numbers.

Is it the most harmful thing in regards to autism rep in media? No. But as someone who doesn’t fit most of those molds, and who knows many autistic people who also don’t, it’s frustrating. While probably unintentional on Bioware's part, it ends up repeating the same cliche and establishing one autistic experience as the universal one and erasing the rest that are across the spectrum. It's called that way for a reason, dammit.

You fight through the station, get into the weird virtual matrix VI-thingy, and finally learn what the hell happened. David is a mathematic savant and is able to learn how to communicate with geth; intrigued, Archer decides to take the project one step further and (forcibly) integrate his brother into a VI to control the geth. The result is horrifying in more than one way and looks like something straight out of Warhammer 40k, with a gratuitous dose of mechanical body horror. I won't put an image, but if you've played the DLC or google it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This is just a side note: while I'm not opposed to fictional depictions of violence, and ME is a universe with plenty of it, I can't help but think of the institutionalized torture autistic people are put through in real life under the name of therapy when I see what David went through. If you want an example, read about the Judge Rotenberg center.

Overlord's end has you deciding what to do with David: either rescue him from his brother and send him to Grissom Academy (where he makes a cameo in ME3) or allow him to stay with Archer (which leads to him continuing being part of the project and eventually, being euthanized by Gavin). Complaining about such a decision being available would be silly since this is also a game trilogy where you can commit genocide three times, but I still don't like how a) the agency of an adult autistic man is stripped away b) the narrative gives Gavin Archer room to cry a river about how he didn't mean for it to happen and oh poor him. Let me play you a song on the world's tiniest violin.

That's the point of the "essay" where you yell at me in the notes about how Gavin Archer is a character that you aren't meant to like, and with that, I agree. He's a POS who decided that experimenting on his brother would be a good idea, and one of the few ME characters I actually hate with a burning rage. And, as I said before, it would be hypocritical of me to complain about Archer doing and saying bad things in the game where you can befriend assassins and war criminals. But you, the player, Shepard, are the one who scorns Archer (as he should), and we never learn anything else about David or how he felt about the project other than he was in pain, or about the fact that, you know, his brother, who he trusted, tortured him in the name of science.

This is where my main issue lies: David has no agency in the entirety of the DLC or his characterization. His life and character arc are narrated through other characters, Archer and Shepard. Admittedly, when you actually meet David he really isn't in the position to make a speech, but we see him being able to communicate (in a neurotypical way) throughout flashbacks. One of, and probably the only, explicitly autistic characters in the history of the franchise is relegated to not being in charge of his own story and narrative. Again, this is not the first nor the last time this is done in media—autistic stories tend to be told both in and out of universe by allistic people, and we're constantly excluded from our own narratives, because we're infantilized and/or deemed as unreliable. When autism comes up in media it's to talk about how it affects those around us, but almost never about us. I'm not saying David needed to become a squadmate or romance interest, but getting to know and interact with him in a wider context that wasn't a full on torture scene, and getting to hear his story told by him would've been nice.

There's also the othering. Both the characters and narrative present David not as a human being, but as an other, with Archer explicitly calling him a human supercomputer. I'm a huge sci-fi fan and love my aliens and robots, but we're often seen as robotic, weird, or, well, alien. I would probably feel different if this had been written by an autistic person, and I'm not saying neurodivergence in non-human characters shouldn't be represented, but it's a nuanced topic and characterization with a lot of ways to execute it, and this wasn't one of them. The connection and similarities David might have with the geth only serve to hammer home what the narrative has been telling us this whole time: that autistic people are the others, and that because their brains are wired in a different way, they're akin to computers, not human beings. Hell, I even think that pulling a JKR (minus the bigotry) and saying that Mordin or Liara were autistic a decade after the game's release would have been better representation, even if that also has its fair share of issues. All of that combined with the fact that this is probably the only instance that we get an explicitly neurodivergent character in the trilogy—and it's a dehumanized caricature that relies on allistic conceptions and torture porn—just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

So, where do we go from here? Can we do something that is more productive than complaining about it on Tumblr? At least in my opinion, the harm is done. BW removing the Overlord DLC from ME:LE or the ME2 DLC or issuing a notes app apology via social media would just be performative and accomplish nothing. Overlord is one of many cases of bad autistic representation, and pretending like it never happened wouldn't be productive for anyone.

But Bioware isn't dead. They're currently working on new ME and DA titles, and personally, I think that this could be a great chance to put neurodivergent/autistic rep in their games and this time, do it well by hiring neurodivergent consultants or (better yet) writers. We're the ones who know the nuances and difficulties that our experiences carry, and even though the topic of good representation isn't black and white and has a lot of debate surrounding it, we should be able to tell our own stories and handle delicate topics in a way that doesn't feel outright careless or hateful.

As a final note, April is Autism Acceptance Month. If you’re interested on learning more about autism, autistic people, or helping our community, there are many resources out there, but I recommend starting with ASAN, an organization by and for autistic people based in the US. If you know of any local organizations based in your country that do good work and are led by autistic people, feel free to add them in the reblogs. The Twitter tags #Creatingwithautism and #CreatingwithASD are also good places to find artists and creators on the spectrum and support them. 

I encourage any other autistic folks out there to add onto this post, or if disagreeing with something, tell me about it. This is a free social media platform and I can't control what people do, but I'll prioritize autistic voices in this conversation. I'm willing to answer any questions as long as they're in good faith.

And before anyone comes here asking: no, liking ME2/the Overlord DLC doesn't make you a bad person. But refusing to listen to marginalized groups in regards of their representation in mainstream media and belittling their concerns does.

[falconwhitaker]

Good things about Chicago Med (as of Season 3): – There is a canonically autistic character who is a fully grown adult, a successful cardiac surgeon, Black, and openly Jewish (he wears a kippah and strictly observes the Sabbath to the point of not using light switches or elevator buttons). Dr Latham rocks.

– At one point, a non-autistic character says he envies Dr Latham his autism. It was in the context of being able to make difficult decisions in a crisis situation without letting emotions get in the way, but it still felt weirdly affirming to me. Just. The idea of a neurotypical being jealous of my neurotype rather than afraid of it.

– One of the main characters has a transgender sister who is played by a transgender woman.

Bad things about Chicago Med (as of Season 3): – The only canon autistic rep we have in the show is somebody very emotionally repressed who has been described as being like a robot, and he is undergoing magnetic therapy to make him more neurotypical. Which feels a bit... eh. Also the use of Asperger's, but this was from like half a decade ago when the term was in more use.

– Not a single main or secondary character appears to be queer. Aside from some patients who have been gay and the aforementioned transgender sister, this show is aggressively cis and heterosexual in a "Are the straights okay? No, they are not okay!" kinda way.

Changes I would make: – Have Dr Reese be autistic as well. She's very autistic-coded to me while also making emotional connections with other people in a way that Dr Latham doesn't, and that would broaden the representation a bit.

– Make Dr Rhodes gay or bi and give him a crush on Dr Halstead. I don't think Dr Halstead would reciprocate (he is Incredibly Straight) but having some gay pining would've made his constant pining and little-boy-pulling-a-girl's-pigtails behaviour over Dr Manning more bearable.

–Give Dr Rhodes a trans man as a love interest. I could be wrong, but I think there are fewer transmasculine representations in the popular media than transfeminine and it'd be nice to add something to the pile.

– Add a non-binary recurring character from another department in the hospital (an oncologist or a neurologist or something) who uses they/them pronouns without it being a huge deal.

[brw]

Tony Stark and Reed Richards for the character ask thing

TONY STARK

how i feel about this character: 😬 ngl i... don't care for him. at all. i don't vehemently hate him, there's definitely times where i appreciate him & his personality but it's few and far between and i... genuinely do not get the hype. i think its mostly mcu fans' fault for my dislike, its just he's fucking EVERYWHERE now, it's impossible to miss him? like he plays a big role in EVERY avengers comic now, he gets ongoing titles all the time, and it's just so frustrating especially when you consider characters who used to be more or less on the same level on them (like hank pym! who, by the way, has been dead for 6 consecutive years! that would never happen with tony!) or even more popular than him now get streamlined because of the mcu's popularity. by himself, i don't really mind him that much, but with how famous he is now and how large and frankly annoying his fan base is i just... now really do not like the character.

all the people i ship romantically with this character: short list here; reed, because i find their dymanic of reed as someone who does everything for his family and will do everything and anything he can to protect their interests above everyone else but also wants to keep his hands clean and believes, genuinely, in the good of the world, and tony as someone who will do horrendous things in the name of the greater good who always has the bigger picture in mind interesting. i also don't know a lot about it but he seems cute with rhodey? even if i think rhodey deserves a bigger chance to be his own character away from tony as is sometimes denied i can always appreciate a good best friends to lovers dymanic :)

my non romantic otp for this character: um? i honestly don't know 😭 i don't like him enough to say, i guess him n reed again? him n rhodey again? help 😭😭😭

my unpopular opinion of this character: he does not deserve the fame he has. like, i dont mean to sound jealous or whatever but pre 2007 movie he was not the most well liked character or even that popular. like obviously he had fans because he had solo series on and off for a very long time but it just feels SO ridiculous that tony stark has a bigger fandom than the fucking fantastic four. THE FANTASTIC FOUR. marvel's first superhero team, and yet??? like okay. he might have things to offer i don't see. he obviously does, i mean, he got three movies and multiple solo series. but he has most certainly not got enough as a character to overshadow the fantastic four, the x-men, etc and i will never forgive the mcu & mcu fans (and mark miller, he deserves blame too) for making it so. again, by himself he's fine but it is ridiculous to me that a one note white character that appeared in his third film (harley keener or... whatever) has 2000s more fics than THE PROTAGONIST OF INTO THE SPIDERVERSE, MILES MORALES. it is just... so vile and frustrating to me.

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon: he didn't exist <3 jk jk um i'm not sure? i guess it would be funny if he was like... stick thin underneath the armour. like idk. he's in the armour 24/7 it makes sense to me for him to be a skinny little nerd under there. like completely fucking small. like you can't be a superhero AND be a billionaire and avoid all those taxes AND run the avengers AND run multiple massive corporations and still work out... even if you take away eating and sleeping there's just not enough time... it would be funny if he was just a tiny little boy underneath all that djndndbf

my otp: gonna say him and rhodey again. like i say, can never resist a good best friends to lovers dymanic.

my cross over ship: jdjshdhdh literally none i don't think about him enough to consider it <3

headcanon fact: 100% think he was the one to offer reed that money to star in a p*rno it's just so funny to me to imagine dhsnndnd

REED RICHARDS

how i feel about this character: HE'S MY BOY! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! like i guess it's paradoxical considering how similar he is to tony in some ways but man i just love reed so much. i so genuinely think reed richards is what tony stark fans want him to be. like they (mcu fans) make up elaborate headcanons of him being a good dad and an ethical billionaire and its like no that's reed richards? canonically he's gone broke bc he refuses to get money off his inventions... u have the wrong man... anyway he's also an asexual LEGEND i do not take criticism and ofc. autistic icon. literally he's so autistic it makes me <3 i love him dearly.

all the people i ship romantically with this character: it would be easier to list the people i DON'T ship with him lol. sue, obviously, victor ofc, and ben are the big ones, but i just LOVE his dymanic with t'challa and i think they would rlly work it... i also love the idea of him with namor, idk with victor it's just so funny to imagine reed as like. bizarrely attractive to rulers of foreign countries. blackagar faces the same problem <3 i also do believe him n hank pym dated in college for a bit... all their weird little microaggressions towards each other just makes me feel that way... again i do like him w/ tony and i made this weird au where he and emma frost got together which if prompted i WILL talk about. probably. more but yeah <3

my non romantic otp for this character: while i do LOVE them together as lovers i just love. benreed generally <3 like they're LITERALLY besties they love each other sm and i'm tired of pretending they don't????? so many people ignore this relationship and it makes me so sad!!! they're best friends they love each other fight for each other fight with each other theyre literally besties... smh put some respect on the benreed name 😤

my unpopular opinion of this character: i don't think this is that unpopular but it is in certain circles so! i genuinely think reed is the best marvel dad! like you can talk abt others all u want but the fact is that reed is the only character i can think of who has always been there in his kid's lives and has consistently put their needs first. like not saying other characters are bad but even at his worst writing he's always done his best for his kids and certainly has been full of love for them. other characters at their worse have. murdered their own kids <3 genuinely he's the best marvel dad and sure there's not a lot of competition but. yeah <3

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character: I WANT A CANONICAL AUTISM DIAGNOSIS NOW. literally he is SO autistic & there are... no big autistic marvel characters! at all! literally none! the closest we have is legion (who was written in an incredible ableist way and autism hasnt been used to describe him in a solid 30 years) and monet (and it turned out it wasn't monet but one of her twin sisters impersonating her :/) so it would just mean so much to see a canonically autistic character like reed who is older & has a wife and kids who he loves and who they love in return on panel. like so much of the rep we DO have is like, young kids or teens and idk an autistic adult would just mean so much to me. especially one like reed who is as selfless & loving as he is.

my otp: tie between doomreed and reedsue! any option that gets this noodle nerd lots of love i'm good for tbh

my cross over ship: him and ralph dibney from dc should date... they have so much in common... stretchy autistic man who's very smart and kind of silly who loves his wife sue who pegs him 🥴 they'd have so much to talk about sjbdhdhd also imagining the look on ben's face realising there's TWO of them is. so funny.

headcanon fact: he's aromantic he's asexual and neither of these stop him from his very meaningful & passionate relationship with his wife :)

assorted character ask game!

[littlx-songbxrd]

Ok I meant to answer you're question about what I thought of the show ages ago but I forgot.

I LOVED IT OMGGGG! I got so many kitty vibes from Wilhelm and Simon! The touching! The softness! It's those vibes exactly! I want that energy in TWP.

COMRADE SIMON!! We stan! That speech he made at the very beginning about the differences in attitudes towards "tax evasion" vs. "Welfare fraud." Legend behavior.

Sara!!!! My girl!!!!!! An autistic/adhd character PLAYED BY AN AUTISTIC ACTRESS!!!! THIS IS SO HUGE!!! I would die for my problematic queen. I made an entire post on her but the gist is, I get where she's coming from and understand why she feels the way she feels but dear God girl make better choices and stay the hell away from August.

Speaking of.... I wanna run August over several times. Vroom vroom motherfucker. The fact that he

- filmed MINORS HAVING SEX AND TGE POSTED IT ONLINE

-kissed Sara behind Felice's back when they were still dating WITHOUT HER CONSENT BTW

- Wanted to blame Simon for the drugs because he knew it would be easy because Simon's family is lower class and doesnt have the same social standing as one of the "members of the society"

- Also it didn't escape my notice that the cult like faternety type group with all the rich, mainly white boys is called The Society. This shows commentary on class is vv interesting. Especially the little things like two girls just randomly advocating for THE DEATH PENALTY. The rich people audacity.

-Anyways back to August, when he tried to excuse his actions with Wilhelm and get all teary like no bitch you can't manipulate your way out of this one. And again with Sara! When he said "Wilhelm has everything" I wanted to scream! Like he's fucking closeted and clearly suffering from panic attacks and extreme anxiety you moron.

-Anyways!! I also think that Wilhem might be autistic because he just feels autistic. Like the vibes are there.

- The girl group is so sweet? And to have the popular girl be a Black girl who isn't "stereotypically attractive" with a more medium sized body and bad acne. As someone who has really bad skin I needed that. Felice is kinda awesome imo.

Let me see what else??

-Simon and his mom speaking Spanish consistently throughout the show. It sounded pretty natural to me? But I'm not a native speaker. (Or even fluent honestly lol.)

- Simon and Wilhelm are honestly so adorable and in love and it made my heart ache. (I am so touch starved I swear..)

-My only main beef is the outing plotline and the show using an outdated medical term for Sara, aspergers. It's literally just autism. Also it's kind of offensive because Hans Asperger was a n*zi who literally killed autistic children because they weren't useful to capitalism. SOOOO yeah.

As for the outing plotline, I feel like the cishets have like three plotlines that they use for queer stories. Outing/coming out, one of them dies, or one if them bullies the other until they both fall in love. It's tired.

But overall I really loved it.

HI SORRY I HADNT REPLIED

I wanted to correctly talk to you about this series so I logged in through my computer to make it easier for me :D

LOOK AT THIS POINT IVE RELATED THEM TO LITERALLY EVERY COMFORT SHIP I HAVE LIKE. I've compared this to kitty, I've compared this to Thomastair, I've compared this to my friends to ocs who she has obsessed me with (youd actually like them if you liked this tbh) IVE COMPARED ME TO MY OCS

BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY I JUST LOVE THEM

IF KITTY DOESNT HAVE THIS ENERGY IN TWP WHAT WAS THE POINT

what was the point cc??

S I M O N

OH GOD WHEN HE SAID THAT I WENT OMG YEAH

new favorite character

Great

SHES PLAYED BY AN AUTISTIC ACTRESS?? Sorry I hadn't known! Haven't actually gotten to obsessively look at the cast I've been trying to get over the last episode BUT THATS SO COOL. SARA IS AMAZING AND I ADORE HER. I'll read your post after this! But of course STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM AUGUST GIRL PLEASE

Tbh I understood where she was coming from with everything with Simons image falling apart and her having to suffer when she had just started having friends , just after finding he had been lying to her. But love, AUGUST?

A U G U S T ???

WHO JUST FOUND OUT OUTED YOUR BROTHER

Also random and stealing this from @marzzinaa i totally hc Sara as a demi girl for some reason

Im kinda sad we didnt see her speak spanish as much we did simon :(

But oh well I LOVE HER AND YEAH STAY AWAY FROM AUGUST GOD

FAE WE RUN HIM OVER TOGETHER BROOM BROOM

You already said it all, I just agree

Ok I'll bring a machete you bring whatever you wish and we kill him sound good?

ALSO YEAH I TOTALLY NOTICED HOW THE ECONOMIC DINAMICS CAME INTO PLAY AND HOW IT BASICALLY LET YOU KNOW HOW THE PRIVILEGED ELITES COULD GET AWAY WITH ANYTHING

meanwhile they wanted to pass off to Simon who came from a lower class family the blame

Also I'd like to mention how that would also play into the stereotype latinos are all drug dealers

Which I love how they didnt make his dead beat alcoholic man the latino parent, when I first read the description I thought they might do that, but im so glad they didnt

I think it might have been a comentary idk i liked that they DIDNT make the poc parent the dead beat

THE FRIEND GROUP WAS SO COOL AND I LOVED ALL OF THEM AND YES FELICE WAS JUST <3

I love how they didnt make her stereotypically perfect AND YES MID SIZED REP WAS AMAZING TO SEE

Also im so glad you got to see that represented!!

So I am a native speaker and him talking to his mom MADE ME CRY

it was WONDERFUL I WANT MORE OF IT

pls most her phrases reminded me to my own mom

Autistic wilhelm you say?? omg tell me more (if you want)

Oh thats awful, well I'll just refer to Sara as autistic and hope the showrunners fix that next season because if they dont-

Yikes

Oh yeah, thats valid critisism. But in my opinion they actually wrote it pretty well so I wont really be complaining about an overall media problem with queer stories rn. If so I'll be here all day. But yeah its an overall problem but it wasnt done bad in my opinion so!

I'll shut up, for now

IM SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT FEEL FREE TO KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT WITH ME PLS ITS MY OBSESSION NOW IM GONNA BE ANNOYING ABOUT IT ALL MONTH

[echo-bleu]

Hey Emma! I adore your writing and I was wondering if I could ask for your advice. When writing an autistic character, are there any characteristics / plots etc that you don't like seeing? Or anything stereotypical that is overused or often portrayed incorrectly in writing?

Hi! Thank you so much 😊 I’m always willing to talk about autistic rep! This is a very interesting question and I’m so glad you asked.

Obviously this is going to be my own opinion (and to some extent, things I’ve talked about with other autistic people) so it’s not representative of the whole community. There is no absolute do/don’t rules here, because autistic people are as different from each other as allistic (non autistic) people are, so the rep is and needs to be varied and complex.

There are many overused tropes when it comes to autistic characters. I think the most obvious one is that a very large portion of autistic characters, especially in general media, are white, male and mostly cishet. It is a misconception that autism is more present in men, and autistic POC deserve rep. I’m not sure how widely known this is, but there is also a much higher fraction of queer autistic people than among the general population. (I tried to find some more articles to link here but I don’t have any on hand and looking this up is a minefield I noped out of immediately. I’ll try to come back with clearer resources).

The usual autistic character is usually of one of two types: little white boy who doesn’t speak, where the story is invariably about his parents/siblings/teacher and never about him, or adult white man who has “Asperger’s” (or maybe isn’t even clearly identified as autistic) and is socially awkward and a genius, usually in math or computers. Those are very much overused stereotypes. Both are often portrayed incorrectly as well: the nonspeaking child is usually only portrayed through the eyes of allistic people and not given any kind of personality, and the adult man often has very little personality other than their genius and their bluntness, doesn’t seem to have any other autistic traits than the ones allistics are meant to admire or laugh at (think Sheldon of TBBT).

That is not to say that all those characters are bad rep, but it would be really nice to see more variety. I want to see autistic POC. I want to see autistic women and nonbinary people. I want to see autistic WOC & nonbinary POC. And I want to see more diversity in the autistic traits that they have, but also in their personalities. Autism isn’t a personality, even though it is part of a person’s identity and affects who they are directly. Autistic characters should have their own likes and dislikes, dreams and hurdles to overcome that aren’t linked to their autism, and their own agency. This last one is especially important in the case of any disabled characters (and doubly if it’s not a man) because this is something that isn’t often given to disabled characters.

Now into slightly more details:

- Autistic geniuses do exist, but that trope is way overused and usually portrayed badly. That doesn’t mean it should never be used again, but it should be done carefully. Characters like House (House, MD), Sherlock (BBC Sherlock) or Sheldon (TBBT) have imo done actually harm to our community, and definitely to me personally (because identifying with a character who self-identifies as a “high-functioning sociopath” is didn’t really help my mental health when I was 16 and depressed). They are either assholes to the people around them, or their awkwardness is played for laughs. You’ll notice that these are also characters who aren’t formally identified as autistic in the shows, even though they are clearly autistic-coded. I do have examples of autistic(-coded) genius characters I think are quite well done, like Sherlock in Elementary or Flynn, Cassie and Jake in The Librarians. Parker, in Leverage, could go into this category, but I’d say that her ‘genius’ is of a different sort, and it’s an interesting twist on the trope.

- Nonspeaking/semi-speaking autistics are underrepresented as full characters (ie outside of the trope mentioned above). That would be really nice to see, but please do proper research before trying to write it. I would love to see characters using AAC tablets or sign language, for example.

- A lot of autistic people also have other disabilities. That can range from other neurodivergences & mental illnesses (ADHD, bipolar, dyslexia, PTSD, etc), physical disabilities, chronic illnesses (some illnesses like EDS have a high co-occurrence with autism). A lot of autistic people are queer. Both of those are things I’d really like to see more of.

- Stimming. The stimming I’ve seen portrayed, when it’s even there (it tends to be mostly forgotten in the genius-type storylines), tends to be very stereotypical. We all have different ways of interacting with our environment and of communicating. There are a lot of ways to flap (clapping, hitting fists together, fluttering fingers, etc), to rock, to self-soothe. I’d like to see characters who use chew toys and stim toys, who stim-dance, who sing, who echolalize a lot.

- Meltdowns. [mention of self-harming stims] This one is a bit delicate. Writers who have an autistic character tend to want to show them in a meltdown at some point to sort of “drive home” that they’re autistic and what it means. I get that, but I also think that it’s something that is hard to portray respectfully if you’re not autistic yourself, and maybe you should really think about whether it’s necessary. If you do decide to do it: not all autistic people will hit their head or hurt themselves or get angry. I tend to just burst in tears and be unable to stop for hours. There are many ways to melt down.

- Specific interests. While math and computers are common specific interests, they are way overused. Specific interests can be anything. Mine is currently Shadowhunters, but also medieval swords and sailing ships and autism and linguistics. Specific interests can be lifelong, they can change overtime, they can last a month and be over. They can coexist simultaneously. Some autistic people don’t really have any.

- I would like to see more stories of late-diagnosed people, though maybe leave the stories about diagnosis and identification to autistic writers. I’d like to see older autistic people. Especially older autistic people who are more visibly autistic. I’d like to see autistic people who are thriving in life, who are in love and have a partner who loves them back, who are good at their job (but not geniuses), who don’t have a job but volunteer and create and do things, who have children or pets.

- Sensory stuff. Hypersensitive hearing tends to be the most common trope, though not necessarily overused, but there are so many other things you can do. We have a lot of senses (more than the usual 5), and autistic people can be hyper and hyposensitive to each of them, sometimes both at the same time. So you can have your character struggle to feel pain, but be bothered by lights. They can be hypersensitive to color, or inversely seek it. They can love listening to the same music over and over again (that’s also a stim).

- As far as plots go. Again, agency is paramount. Their autism shouldn’t be their personality and their motivation. They shouldn’t be striving (or be required) to “overcome” their autism, and even less be cured of it. Accessibility barriers are a reality that should be reflected in fiction, but the story needs to be about more than that.

Here’s a post with some advice and things we’d like to see more of. I hope this was what you’re looking for!

[a-walking-fandom-reference]

30 Days of Autism Acceptance Month

day 10: representation (how important is it to you? is the rep out there good or bad? what is your favorite rep? what would you like to see more or less of?)

representation is EVERYTHING to me because there is so little. being able to see myself in characters and headcanoning characters as autistic is a life line. it’s made me love myself more and love being autistic.

the canon representation is very little and most of what we have is bad. (which is why headcanons are so prevalent and important) my favorite canon autistic characters are:

Abed from Community: being able to see an autistic character that’s special interests are related to film, tv, and such is amazing!! especially since a lot of them have science or math interests and i could never relate

Billy from Power Rangers 2017: this movie is underrated in general but also first live action autistic superhero and he’s Black so!! and it was done well! his rambling and social skills were very relatable

Renee from Loop: this is a disney animated short if you aren’t familiar but it stars a nonverbal autistic girl at a camp and she is partnered with another kid and over the short the boy figures out how to read her actions and communicate with each other and they end up friends. that’s probably a bad description but it’s really good!! i got really emotional seeing such good nonverbal rep and also Renee is played by an autistic actress!!

lastly i’m just gonna add this in here but Scott Summers specifically in Marvels Snapshot X-Men: Scott has always been very autistic coded but in this comic he was written by an autistic writer who also related to that and he said he wrote scott as autistic in his comic. and it really shows. scott was always one of my favorite marvel characters and this comic is near and dear to my heart. it shows scott being the odd one out, being seen as weird, and bullied by peers for it. having a special interest in the fantastic four. hyperfixating. wanting to be prepared for everything. trying to make sense of the world and himself. ahh anyway it’s amazing and i definitely recommend.

okay what i’d like to see more of, i mean there is so little good rep so i mean there’s a lot i’d like to see. mostly tho just not being shown as a burden or bad, and more non science related special interests, more stimming, just more of different. every autistic person is different we are all different and that hasn’t been shown people think we all act one way or are interested in the same things or look one way. i’d love to see queer autistic characters. autistics are more likely to be trans and so we deserve trans autistic characters.

[autisticgirliesbracket]

What makes Woo Young-Woo from Extraordinary Attorney Woo the autistic girlie ever of all time? Here's what the people have to say:

Young-Woo-related asks/reblogs: x This post will be updated after each round!

Image ID in alt text and under the readmore.

[Image ID. White slide with a screenshot of Woo Young-Woo, portrayed by Park Eun-bin, wearing her headphones while on the train. She is surrounded by text boxes which read,

"She's canonically autistic, she's one of the only autistic characters on Korean television (possibly THE only, I don't want to speak for all of Korean TV but I know she's a big deal in terms of autistic rep in SK - in-universe she's the first openly autistic lawyer in SK), she's a lawyer and her neurodivergence is frequently presented as a positive in that it means she approaches cases differently than NT people, she has a lot of vocal and movement stims and wears ear protectors on transit, she loves to infodump about whales, her dad makes her the same thing for breakfast every day because he loves and supports her, she has a great love interest who she infodumps to (and they negotiate stuff! like he loves to hear her infodump but he wants to be able to talk to her too and they figure out an amount of infodumping that they're both happy with, which is such a real conversation people need to have sometimes!), SHE HAS A WHOLE MONOLOGUE ABOUT HOW SHITTY ASPERGER WAS, she's just so!!! She doesn't pass as NT at all and I feel like that's so rare for humanized autistic characters, to be recognizable as autistic just immediately, and it's so real for me and I love her so much, Young-Woo's so important to me and I just want everyone to know about her"

"She is literally canonically autistic. I binge watched this show after seeing a few gif sets from my mutuals on Tumblr and I fell in love with her. She's an attorney (as it says in the show title) and even though she isn't very good at talking to people, she's really good at winning her cases because of how observant she is (and her secret autism powers). She didn't speak until she was like 5 or something, and even then, the first thing she said was straight out of her dad's lawbook she had memorized. Her special interest is whales and they somehow help her in literally all of her cases, so good for her. The way her dad treats her sometimes makes me a bit sad, but I guess he's trying his best. He just didn't get any advice on how to treat autistic children, but oh well. At least he tries to be supportive. Like he cooks her safe food for her every day and is so proud of all her accomplishments. She has her daily routines that must not be crossed and she's so real for that. She's also obsessed with palindromes (including her name! :D)"

"Canon autistic queen! Not only is she canonically autistic, but her autism isn't shown to be a deficit or burden! She's also a kickass attorney! She's honestly one of the best representations of an autistic person I've ever seen"

"It's cannon. I almost cried when watching certain moments so... yeah it's pretty nice."

"it's canon. So canon. Like the whole point of the show is that she is on the spectrum. basically everything she does makes me feel like she is exactly who she was written to be."

"IS LITERALLY CANONICALLY AUTISTIC AND I LOVE HER VERY MUCH"

"Canonically autistic. Special interests are law and whales. Memorised this entire book of law at her home before she had ever even uttered a word. Her room is filled with whale related stuff from her alarm to random decor etc etc such her room is the coolest tbh. Wears headphones that play whale sounds instead to avoid sensory overload, echolalia, same breakfast everyday and memorised her route to the office cus routine etc." End ID.]

[drake-the-incubus]

What’s Bad for You is Good for Me

Or otherwise called, conflicting needs in representation. Which is most certainly a thing.

Sometimes we have specific needs ton representation that isn’t met due to certain circumstances. Recently I posted something about how Lazy Eyes are portrayed as inherently ableist, despite the fact I grew up with it being incredibly disabling and being treated poorly for having one, and in a discussion with other people, have been told they feel the same way.

Today, I saw a post about how someone being transphobic, complained about how trans characters gave him dysphoria. While he was incredibly transphobic about him, I realized that there’s intersectionality on representation no one really talks about.

We don’t talk about how it’s weird to define representation as good and bad depending on how stereotyped it looks. We just sort of do it.

Like, for example, a flamboyantly gay, gender-nonconforming man who is very open about his sexuality and might even be sexual. This is considered a horrible stereotype. I... I've known gay men like that who genuinely enjoyed the nice representation of those characters.

I think the issue is the difference between how it's played off, and why it's being done. And I'll use a few examples.

Power Puff Girls has the Devil who suspiciously borders on a transmisogynistic and homophobic stereotype, being a villain. The femininity that the character displays is part of the villainous routine, and there's not much to the character outside of this. When the character feels like it, he drops his femininity to become masculine and aggressive. Top it off with being the devil, it's pretty bad. This is bad representation, if not for the villain part, then for the fact that there's no substance to it at all.

Which is actually what the problem with representation usually is. It's two-dimensional, and it's villanizing. The character is not only that way because it makes them more villainous, but it also helps make us look horrifying to the viewers.

What changes when you include Lil Nas X's recent release, MONTERO (Call me by your name)? It's a form of self-expression and it's inherently fighting back against the need to sanitize oneself for an oppressing class. It's fighting back against the idea that in order to exist, we need to be pure. To be accepted into heaven we atone for being gay. It's a rejection of Modern Religion and society's base treatment of us.

And it's necessary. We can't have the soft, loving, sanitized rep. It can suit plenty of us. Being accepted into heaven- in spite of our flaw of being gay? I've been told that before- isn't what everyone wants. In order to have reached acceptance, we must not readily display the "bad" part of ourselves.

If a straight woman was to want for a dude, it's highly more accepted than if a man were to do it. Regardless of the man's input?

I can't go to a conversation, openly as a trans man, and discuss my attraction to men as a man, and not get shut down, "because it's weird" but I do have to sit there and hear talk about anime boobs. Sometimes for hours. Because you know, that's acceptable in society, me liking men as a dude isn't.

And the thing is, neither is bad. A gay man being openly sexual and open about his sexuality in media, so long as it's not his defining trait and he's not demonized for it in the media- aka villainizing a gay man who is flamboyantly gay and gnc is very common- it's good.

A gay man who is soft, caring and understanding for his partner, emotionally mature and shies away from his sexuality is also good. It's not representation I need, but for younger audiences it is.

A gay man who is selective in his men vs a man who isn't. We need both.

Representation makes us feel human. Like we're not horrible for existing, and one set is never going to be enough.

For example. I'm a very androgynous trans man. I wear dresses and makeup.

I enjoy the feminine trans characters because they can exist and so can I. I also enjoy the masculine trans characters.

I hate the written trans experience and I absolutely cannot stand fanfiction regarding trans man, regardless of which it is.

It's dysphoria-inducing. Why? Because it focuses on the aspect of being trans rather than the aspect of existing as a man, and those aspects tend to center around dysphoria or being AFAB. Either way, the experience is uncomfortable for me to interact with and can really bother me.

That form of representation isn't for me. I live the trans experience. I don't need it in my media. I want a person who lives the average life and happens to be trans. Where being trans isn't the center of the story.

Other people need it the exact opposite, and if being trans isn't integral it bothers them. They feel like being trans is on a higher level of their identity and their rep needs to reflect that.

In fact, I talked to another trans friend of mine, who said that the kind of stories that focus on the body being AFAB was reaffirming to them and it helped them along. They loved content like that. Where as I couldn't bear it, it caused me issues and I saw it personally as harmful.

The thing about rep isn't actually the stereotypes, most of the time. IE a feminine trans man character isn't bad rep, so long as he's an actual human being.

I also think the person making it and the intent behind the character are important.

Example 1: A cis woman who makes a trans woman villain the epitome of masculinity who is pretending to be a woman, and is defeated by a woman, is just bad rep.

Why? Because a) it targets and puts down another minority to uplift women. b) it intentionally tries to erase trans women from being women. c) it reinforces the stereotype that trans women are just men trying to pretend to be women and are inherently violent. d) it demonized masculine trans women who may have been denied- or do not want- to medically transition.

Example 2: Created by someone who is LGBT+ with input from a trans man. A trans man is flamboyantly gay, talks about how much he loves men quite a lot, and is known for being fairly feminine. He enjoys hobbies such as boating and fishing, and his story is about connecting with his community and accepting himself as a person without needing to give a part of himself up.

Is example 2 real? I hope it is, I'd enjoy that. But this is good rep. Yes, it plays on stereotypes, but this is a person. Their story is about their identity and they have traits outside of the stereotype. For a flamboyantly gay trans man, this would be perfect. If you challenged toxic masculinity in the movie and addressed how trans men feel the need to overperform into toxic masculinity for acceptance and how it ruins our connections with our emotions, it would be pretty great.

Example 3: Created based on a real person. A character who is clearly autistic, and struggles with communication, who acts childish and clearly has a prominent lazy eye. This character struggles with tasks but gets them right. This is done with input and the person's input

Bad Rep?

If you said yes you'd be wrong. A character based on a real human being can't be bad representation. Because a) they're human, and b) there's a nuance to people that needs to be addressed.

Human beings will never be a monolith and having a monolith idea of representation to show oppressors what we're like ignores the fact of human diversity.

I can only speak for myself. This means the topic of race and how to handle racial issues in media vs the sanitization of the culture people of colour have, is not one I can speak on, and I wish I could have input on it.

I'll add if I'm not cohesive enough, it's usually because of Autism and possible Comorbid ADHD fighting each other.

If someone better at the topic can handle this, feel free to reblog and add on, I'll reblog additions and reply to any concerns made.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

ok I haven’t been participating in that Autism Acceptance Month Challenge thing because... executive dysfunction lmao.

but yesterday’s theme was autistic representation, and I’ve seen a lot of people use this subject to say they wish there were more complex autistic characters, more autistic characters who get more to do than Being Autistic, more stories addressing ableism, more autistic adult characters, etc.

and it’s made me think about one of my favourite canon autistic characters ever, who is sadly underrated because no one outside of the UK has heard of the show he’s from, but whom I think a lot of people would appreciate.

So. LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT DYLAN KEOGH.

He’s a character from the BBC show Casualty (a medical drama series about the staff of a hospital emergency department), and some of the best canon autistic representation I’ve ever seen.

Dylan’s autism heavily impacts him as a character, but he isn’t just there to be The Autistic Member of the ED team. (In fact, there’s another autistic character on the show, a paramedic named Ruby Spark. No tokenism here, folks! Ruby is awesome too, but her autism is less directly focused on in the series - and confirmed by the actress rather than on-screen - so I’m mostly talking about Dylan in this post because his autism actually gets directly addressed in the series.) [ETA: As of May 2020, Ruby has left the show because the actress wanted to pursue other projects. She was a great character while she lasted though.]

He’s so much more than that. He gets to fall in love with people who aren’t good for him, to mentor younger staff members, to help refugee kids, etc. He gets to do everything the other characters do.

When his autism comes up, it’s handled fantastically. He’s no savant, the show makes that very clear - he’s very talented and intelligent, but he’s not a genius who can figure out what’s wrong with his patients right away or anything like that. Dylan wishes he could be a savant, sure, but he’s not.

Which is where one of my favourite aspects of Dylan’s character comes in. On the surface, he may look like an “asshole genius” stereotype. But! In reality, he’s quite the opposite. He can often be sarcastic and snippy and impatient with people, and very closed off, but this doesn’t come from his autism so much as it comes from rebelling against the way the world has treated him. It’s a “You think I’m weird and rude? Fine then, I’ll be weird and rude!” kind of thing more than anything, but he can still open up and be a lovely man when he wants to.

Part of Dylan’s backstory is that his father physically and emotionally abused him for being autistic, and the show makes NO ATTEMPT to justify this or go “but Brian [Dylan’s father] was under such stress raising an autistic kid!” or anything like that. It’s portrayed as what it is: repulsive, abusive, and just flat-out morally wrong behaviour.

Throughout the show, Dylan has often had to deal with ableism of all kinds. It’s ranged from the past abuse and recurrent ableist comments from his father, to an Autism Mum who assumes he’s ‘not like her child’, to little microaggressions even from well-intentioned people. (In one episode from 2015, Dylan’s best friend at the time, a nurse called Lofty, makes a comment about Dylan not really seeming human and probably being “an alien sent to study us”. It’s all in jest, but Dylan overhears and is hurt by it - and by the end of the episode, Lofty realises what he said was wrong.) They don’t make this into a Very Special Episode or a “zomg please don’t bully the poor autistic angels” kind of thing, either, it’s shown as a legitimate and unfair form of prejudice.

I want to expand on the part about the Autism Mum for a moment: this was Series 26 Episode 10, ‘Sanctuary’, and for the love of god, even if you never watch any other Casualty episodes, please just watch that one. In fact, it’s the one I took the gif earlier in this post from. It calls out ableism and allistic parents who paint themselves as martyrs, and features Dylan (the sort of character they easily could’ve made into a ‘shiny Aspie’) bonding with an autistic woman who has higher support needs and treating her as an equal. The episode shows that even though many would class Dylan as “high-functioning” and the autistic woman, Angela, as “low-functioning”, they have more in common than what divides them. It’s fantastic and incredibly ahead of its time.

There are so many more reasons I love Dylan, but this post is long enough already, so I’ll just stop here and hope I’ve already inspired some interest in his character. Dylan may not be perfect representation (he is, admittedly, another white straight man, and the show plays his touch sensitivity for laughs a little too often for my liking), but IMHO, he’s pretty damn close. And I think he deserves much more recognition and appreciation as autistic rep than he gets.

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

I think we need to talk more about what I'm going to call 'autism baiting', because I'm noticing it more and more and it's really starting to bug me.

Look, there are some characters where there's no indication that any of the creators actually sat down and said "let's make this character autistic", but they somehow manage to tick enough of the right boxes that the autistic community ends up adopting them. That? That's fine. That's not what I'm talking about.

Aziraphale from Good Omens is a really good example of this. Like, I don't get the impression that Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett or Michael Sheen necessarily intended to write/portray an autistic character, but for a lot of people that's what they did. Especially with the TV series (although the space-ship conversation in the book will always be one of the top autistic Aziraphale moments for me) people have started recognising their own traits in Aziraphale and headcanoning him as autistic. And Neil and Michael have even acknowledged this headcanon on Twitter and responded positively to it.

So, once again, to clarify, that is not what I am talking about. Just because I know people are going to try dragging innocent characters and creators into this if I don't make it clear.

What I am talking about is those other characters people tend to headcanon as autistic, where it's pretty obvious that the creators did sit down and say "let's make this character autistic", and then one of them added "and let's constantly deny it so we don't have to do any proper research."

That annoys me a bit.

I started watching Community recently, and I love it, and there's a character in it called Abed who I really like as a character, but who is probably the best example of autism-baiting I can come up with.

Like, his introduction is him telling another character that he's been told there's "a disorder that I might want to look up". Then later that same character tries to insult him by telling him he has Aspergers, and everyone else in the room immediately reassures him that he doesn't while all looking awkwardly at each other over his head.

The whole 'dancing around Abed's autism' issue is actually a running gag throughout the show. There's an episode where he's referred to as "Abed the Undiagnosable" and another where he uses "I might have a developmental disorder" as an excuse to get out of being lab partners with someone.

It's really obvious that he's meant to be autistic, but the fact is never acknowledged in canon. (Full disclosure: I'm only on series 3, but I looked it up and multiple sources confirmed this.) He's never officially diagnosed.

And this may not seem like such a big deal until you consider that if he's never actually canonically diagnosed, then no matter how obviously autistic-coded he is, Autistic!Abed will always be headcanon.

And you can't write in to tell creators that they're getting your headcanon wrong.

Autism-baiting sets creators up with a win-win scenario. They still get the benefits of having an autistic character in their cast. I got into Community after I saw a post talking about how great the autism rep was, and I've seen shows like Big Bang Theory and Sherlock praised for their portrayal of autistic characters.

(Though, in fairness, Sherlock is officially diagnosed with sociopathy— though from what I've heard they don't portray it that accurately. But they do have a scene where John says something "appeals to [Sherlock's] aspergers" in a mocking way, and honestly I can't believe I have to say this in 2019 but please don't have people call your autism-coded characters 'autistic' or 'aspergers' as an insult.)

But they don't have to put too much work in. They don't have to worry about whether they're getting it right, or whether they're playing into stereotypes too much— they can just relax and get on with it, confident in the knowledge that if they mess up too badly they can always fall back on "he's not autistic!" (it's usually a he) "that's just a headcanon!"

And honestly I think this problem could be solved if we as a community stopped settling. I mean, I get it. We're all starved for rep, but it would be great if we could stop praising shows for their 'autistic representation' when they feature characters whose autism is never acknowledged in canon.

[the-lincyclopedia]

My Top 5 Fics of 2019

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2019. Tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I was tagged by @f-ing-ruthless-baz. Thanks, Paisley!

I published 31 works of fanfiction in 2019, an average of over 2.5 per month. If I’m doing the math right, looking at my FFN account (which I’ve had for much longer than my AO3), I’ve averaged about one fanfic per month since 2011, so 2019 was unusually prolific for me. (There are three main factors here: entering a new fandom, not having any really long multichapters taking up my creative energy, and--most importantly--being out of school and not having homework anymore.) I entered 2019 firmly ensconced in the Carry On fandom, which I still love dearly as a community, but I’ve spent the past several months migrating to the Check Please fandom, which has been a delight to discover. I also wrote some fics for Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Good Omens last year, but Carry On and Check Please have been my homes as of late. Anyway, in chronological order, here are some fics I wrote in 2019 that I think are pretty cool: 

1. Love in the Time of Influenza (Carry On, SnowBaz)

This is my most-read fic on AO3, almost certainly because @vkelleyart drew a sketch to go with it and then shared the link to the fic. (Thanks, Venessa!) Anyway, mutual feelings of inadequacy are kind of my jam in fiction, and I feel like I did a pretty good job creating that dynamic in this fic. It features Simon getting sick and trying to hide the fact from Baz because he thinks Baz is afraid of germs; Baz realizes Simon’s lying but draws the inaccurate conclusion that Simon’s cheating on him. (If you’re wondering why almost the exact same progression of illnesses occurs in “The One Where Jack Is Sick All Winter,” it’s because both fics draw on my experience being sick all winter during my junior year of college. Bad times.)

2. Thanks But No Thanks on That Bridge to Nowhere (Carry On, Baz)

Did I ever think I would use a Sarah Palin quote as a fic title? Probably not, but it happened. This fic doesn’t have a lot of views, probably because it has zero romance, but writing it was super personal for me, and I’m proud of how it turned out. Spring of my junior year of high school, I almost ran away from home, and this fic is a bit of an exploration of the “what if” questions surrounding that thing that almost happened, informed by an internship I did in college with the Youth Law Project at my local Legal Aid office where I learned about resources for runaway youth. (If you read this one, mind the tags: there’s a lot of homophobia and suicidal thoughts.)

3. Everything I Need and More (Check Please, Zimbits)

The latest in my series of asexual headcanons. I don’t actually headcanon Bitty as asexual, but I wanted to explore the possibility that he might be. I also wanted to write a fic where one character is sex-repulsed and the other character isn’t 100% perfect about it right away. Jack is good in this once he figures out what’s going on, but he’s a little slow on the uptake and that’s almost a problem. Anyway, one of the reasons this fic is on the list is that reading asexual rep in fanfiction is how I figured out I’m on the asexual spectrum, and I want to help other people find connection and validation the same way I did, and I feel like I managed that with this fic. 

4. Happiness, It Hurts (Check Please, Jack & Shitty)

This is by far the most serious fic in my series of fics inspired by misheard song lyrics. Basically it’s an exploration of how Jack and Shitty became friends their frog year. I made the extremely cathartic decision to name one of the minor OCs after my least favorite high school teacher and then have Shitty punch that OC in the face. That’s not what I love about this fic, though. What I love is how good Shitty can be, and how being happy after months or years of deep depression can be so good and so overwhelming at the same time. (If you read this one, mind the tags: suicidal thoughts again.)

5. Face the Future with You (Check Please, Zimbits)

This fic is basically a PSA about what autism actually looks like, but I think I managed to make the characters compelling enough and the fluff sweet enough that people enjoyed it and it didn’t just read like a PSA. This one got, relative to my other fics on AO3, a ton of comments, which made publishing it an absolute blast. (I really love validation.) If you read this one but missed the fact that it has a sequel, check that out! But seriously, autistic!Jack has my heart and probably always will. 

I tag @bazypitchandsimonsnow, @doggernaut, and anyone else who wants to play! (Some of my usual suspects haven’t put out a ton of fics recently--and that’s okay! Y’all are busy!--which means I don’t have as many people to tag as usual.)