#nd on main

[transmasc-wizard]

me: I find unintentionally autistic coded characters to often be more compelling and positive representation than characters who are purposely made autistic by allistics, because the latter is often extremely 2-dimensional. the traits themselves don't matter--whether they're nonverbal, literal thinking, have special interests, struggle forming relationships, need help doing day to day tasks, whatever--it's about how the character is SEEN and FRAMED in the narrative. often, unintentionally autistic characters such as Wednesday Addams are treated far more kindly by the narrative than intentionally autistic ones.

my mother: YOU JUST HATE ANY AUTISTIC CHARACTER THAT DOESNT ACT LIKE YOU AND YOU DONT APPRECIATE ALL THE HARD WORK NON AUTISTIC PEOPLE PUT INTO THESE CHARACTERS

[transmasc-wizard]

i was actually talking about this last night (with an extremely annoying allistic person), and i do have an answer.

first of all: im not going to come at this from a "neurodivergent" perspective as a whole. there are many ND-coded characters who are very cruel and poorly written rep, especially when it comes to psychosis, personality disorders, and OCD. hell, there's even a lot of accidental autistic "rep" that is infantilizing, demonizing, and/or makes us the butt of the joke (especially wrt 'savant autistics' and high support needs, the 2 sort of opposite sides of the spectrum), though for the purposes of this post i won't focus on those.

the answer to the question "why are the best written [by allistic people] autistic characters accidental?" is that they are the only ones not directly influenced by the creator's stereotypes and bigotry towards what autism actually is.

Take Wednesday Addams as an example, since Wednesday (2022) is popular right now. Her flat affect, odd movements, difficulty socializing and forming attachments, black and white thinking, enjoyment of routine, unique ways of showing affection, dislike of hugs, and strange sense of humour all pull together into a very autism-shaped character. This was probably not on purpose. Wednesday is the product of creators--from 2022 and all the way back to the 60s, when the Addams family was first created--who just go, "I wanna make a freaky character. a real weirdo. someone who doesn't fit in, but they're loved for it anyway", more or less. The creators then pull on their ideas of what someone who does not fit in looks like, which is often influenced by autism (and, in Wednesday's case, also probably antisocial tendencies, but i don't have ASPD or conduct disorder so I can't really speak on that) and the autistic people around them, whether they know it or not. Thus, Wednesday becomes heavily autistic coded.

However, because they are not purposefully making her so, they don't fall into the trap of assuming 1) autistic people have no traits outside of autistic ones, 2) autistic people don't 'deserve' arcs, 3) autistic people are only jokes and tragedies, or 4) autistic people should only exist to make allistic characters look better/kinder. They may or may not hold these beliefs about people whom they know to be autistic--regardless, because they don't realize Wednesday is autistic, they don't assign those things that "should" happen to autistic characters to her.

I firmly believe that if the creators of Wednesday (2022) had sat down and said "let's make Wednesday autistic!" and advertized as such, we would have gotten roughly the same personality, but with so much less nuance, subtlety, and kindness, because many (even if not all) or the creators and actors would be working with those previously mentioned assumptions.

Obviously this does not only apply to Wednesday Addams--it can be about any autistic or autistic-coded characters, I just think Wednesday helps get my point across pretty well.

TLDR: accidentally autistic characters tend to be some of the best rep because they're the kindest rep. The creators of accidentally autistic characters still view them as full humans, even when that may not be the same for purposely autistic characters. (This is why characters by autistic authors and allistics who actually listen to autistics also tend to be good. It's not about what traits they have--blaming it on that can fall into the trap of being ableist, especially toward "stereotypical" autistics--it's about how they get to be people.)

Could someone please tell me why the best, most well-written neurodivergent / autistic - coded characters are always BY ACCIDENT

[tippenfunkaport]

You know, it would be amazing if Hollywood learned the right lesson from the success of Nimona. Something like "Hey, maybe don't throw out a nearly done movie as a tax write off" or "people want queer stories" or even "don't be afraid to take some storytelling risks and be original" but you just know they're going to come away with some absolutely batshit takeaway like, "next time delete all the evidence and burn it to the ground so the gays can't make us look bad!"

[ruporas]

birthday party (id in alt)

[basslinegrave]

[karmelarts]

the get down circa 2017 literally shouldve had this website in a fucking chokehold like. shao and zeke shouldve had white yaoi tumblr ship levels of engagement..... we're in the worst timeline

[ubejamjar]

⚔︎ If you'll be my sword, I'll be your shield ⛉

[dniendos]

everytime someone interacts with my pro endo post i get a) immense positivity like yes gang pro endo joy !!!! you get it !!!!! b) new pro endo blogs to look through (because im weird and need to make sure id be okay to interact on a communitive level and im bad at talking in general c) reminders to talk to the people i already started a convo with were all winning /j

[haomnyangz]

thats not a dog tag around his neck thats a medal

[transmasc-wizard]

the newest echolalia I'm very randomly experiencing is "It's about drive it's about power we stay hungry we devour" and I am very tired

[hucklebucket]

That long? That long.

[upsidedowngrass]

yaa

[synthshenanigans]

the Identity lacking knowledge of its identity

[fun alt repeating thing above & neat alt versions below]

[7roaches]

very old nd very recent nm art in no particular order

[four-bastard-bustle]

Gee Zelda...

[rochenn]

obsessed with this critter