non-autistic authors write autistic characters all the time. they just don’t realize it. they’d rather not admit it most of the time, either.
the thing is, non-autistic people have met autistic people more than enough times. however, due to their stereotypes about autism, they often can’t identify it as autism. they see something is up, but they can’t put their finger on just what is up.
so they see people like us and they know the ‘archetype’ which is autistic people. they write us all the time: airheaded professors, awkward nerds, pent up geniuses, etc.
when autistic people point out how strikingly obvious it is that this character is autistic, they usually deny it, or at best, they say the character is ‘if anything, extremely high functioning’, which is more of a kick in the gut than a confirmation. we hardly get those, either.
so, here’s the thing: there are some characters that are very obviously autistic to actual autistic people. pearl from steven universe and papyrus from undertale are two of the most agreed upon examples that i’ve seen. nearly ever autistic fan of steven universe i met says, “yeah, she’s autistic”, and the same goes for papyrus.
when we, as a community, bring this up, however, we are shot down. “oh, he’s not autistic.” i once was told that - ironic as it was - my headcanoning papyrus as autistic offended autistic people or hurt autistic people. but i’m autistic and they weren’t.
two autistic people were both agreeing - damn, this character is blatantly autistic - but non-autistic people felt the need to but in and say how horrible it was to “project” onto characters with such a horrible thing.
listen, if you aren’t autistic and you’re reading this -
if an autistic person says a character is autistic, can you just shut up about it?
because if you’ve watched any amount of tv, read any amount of books, whatever - if you’ve consumed stories, there are tons of autistic characters in them.
just because neither you nor the media’s creators knows shit about autism doesn’t mean that the character can’t be autistic.
either way, it’s none of your business.
we have little to none confirmed representation that isn’t terrible and inconsiderately offensively written.
find something better to do with your time.
goth women. you agree. regoth
Seeing a lot of trains discourse going around so I wanted to remind you all of this
The word garbage sounds like it should mean clothing
Most people don’t understand how easy and common it is to develop psychotic symptoms or that everyone literally everyone has the capacity to experience psychosis
In fact if you’ve ever been sleep deprived including being able to sleep in shorter bursts but unable to get several REM cycles or you use substances to cause sedation rather than sleep you’ve likely experienced mild hallucinations already
They’re called disturbances. The things like thinking you heard someone call your name, feeling crawling sensation on your skin briefly, seeing things move in your peripheral but nothings there when you look.
This is (one of the reasons) why I really hate the “I’m [anxious/ADHD/depressed/etc.] not crazy!” The divide you draw between yourself and people with psychosis and psychotic symptoms only serves to harm. Not only those you alienate but also yourself. Because you have no guarantee that you will not join us one day.
We are all several nights of poor or no sleep and several bad things away from psychosis. It serves no one to be ignorant of it.
Trick-or-treating is a derived from the much older practices of guising, souling, and mumming
guising was a Scottish tradition of children wearing “disguises” to protect themselves from evil spirits, and going door-to-door to receive food or money. it dates back to at least the 16th century!
souling was a British/Irish practice of soulers (mainly children & the poor) going door-to-door and receiving soul cakes (’souls’) in exchange for song & prayer. this practices dates from the 15th century.
mumming was a similar British practice, though more commonly performed on Christmas and Easter. Amateur actors (mummers) would visit houses & pubs to perform folk plays in exchange for money. These often involved sword fights, and occasionally sword dances!
Immigrants brought these practices to North America, where trick-or-treating itself developed in the 1920s. It’s gained popularity in a number of other countries since them, with different countries developing their own variations, but is still most commonplace in the U.S. and Canada.
Guising, souling, and mumming are still practiced today in certain parts of Britain (and elsewhere), though not on the scale that trick-or-treating has reached. Soul cakes look like this:
I’m not intersex and I’m not deaf and I don’t have a TBI or a learning disability or schizophrenia but I still care very deeply about issues that affect these people because nobody deserves othering and social ostracization just for being born and being alive and having a body or neurology that is different from others
Me after I licketh the wāllpaper in my bedroom
i am a menaceMy name is Baby🦇they/them/theirs dey/deren/dessen it/its🦇🦇This is my blog about all my favourite things: Bob's Burgers, The Simpsons, Halloween, Literature, Witchcraft, History 🦇🦇 A-gender 🦇🦇A-sexual 🦇🦇A-romantic🦇🦇 A-utistic 🦇🦇A-DHD🦇🦇I like peppermint ice cream, sour gummybears, salt'n'vinegar chips, pickles, ranch dressing and peanut butter m&ms 🦇🧛♀️🦇🦉🕸️🎃🧟♀️👻🌕
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