Tag: autism

blenderx06:

oc-character-development:

EDDIE REDMAYNE SAID HE THINKS NEWT IS ON THE AUTISTIC SPECTRUM!!!! BUT UNDIAGNOSED BECAUSE ITS THE 20’s/30’s. IT’S MADE ME SO HAPPY THAT ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS EVER COULD BE AUTISTIC (I had considered he might be but I was too nervous to say it before) AND I’M AUTISTIC AND JUST IT’S MADE MY DAY THAT EDDIE REDMAYNE THINKS THIS!!!!! 😊😊😊😊

When I watched the first movie, I turned to my husband and said, ‘He acts just like me! That never happens!’ I didn’t even know I was autistic yet. I feel so validated knowing that this was intentional, at least on the actor’s part. Eddie does a great job representing autism in a positive, unstereotyped way.

I have no interest in watching the sequel because I hear it’s a hot mess, but one of the things I loved about Newt was—just like me, he avoids making eye contact, and it’s not presented as something that makes him weird or unlikable. He’s the hero and he doesn’t like to make eye contact and it’s just part of who he is. I don’t know that I’m on the autism spectrum—never been diagnosed, although I did have a therapist suggest it—but a lot of things I read on Tumblr about autism sound very familiar to me, and it’s just…really nice to see something kind of unusual in myself represented onscreen without judgment.

growing up autistic / growing up gaslit

theoriginalmkp:

I.

this is the first lesson you learn:
you are always wrong.

there is no electric hum buzzing through the air.
there is no stinging bite to the sweetness of the mango.
there is no bitter metallic tang to the water.

there is no cruelty in their laughter, no ambiguity in the instructions, no reason to be upset.
there is no bitter aftertaste to your sweet tea, nothing scratchy about your blanket.

the lamps glow steadily. they do not falter.

II.

this is the second lesson you learn:
you are never right.

you are childish, gullible, overly prone to tears.
you are pedantic, combative, deliberately obtuse.
you are lazy, unreliable, never on time.

you’re always making up excuses, rudely interrupting, stepping on people’s shoes.
you’re always trying to get attention, never thinking about anyone else, selfish through and through.

it’s you that’s the problem. the lamps are fine.

III.

this is the third lesson you learn:
you must always give in.

mother knows best. father knows best.
doctor knows best. teacher knows best.
this is the proper path. do not go astray.

listen to your elders, respect your betters, accept what’s given to you as your due.
bow to the wisdom of experience, the education of the professional, the clarity of an external point of view.

what do you know about lamps, anyway?

Autistic Lifehack: Hearing Problems

chimericaloutlier:

nossavyara:

cdrshiphard:

thischick25:

laughingmyaspergersoff:

If someone says something that you only partially understand:

DON’T ask for clarification with a generic “What?” or “I’m sorry?” (In my experience, people will repeat the phrase the exact same way without helping you to understand).

Example:
Them: “Hey, do you like pahganabasa?”
Autistic Person: “What?”
Them: “Do you like pahganabasa?”
Autistic Person: “I’m sorry, what?”
Them (annoyed): “Do you like pahganabasa?”

Instead, DO repeat the part that you did understand, and substitute a “What?” for the unintelligable part.

Example:
Them: “Hey, do you like pahganabasa?”
Autistic Person: “Do I like what?”
Them: “Pineapple pizza?”
Autistic Person: (Understands the words!)

I’ve also had successes with “I’m sorry, I only heard the first half of that sentence,” or actually verbalizing my interpretation of the part I heard incorrectly as a question: “Pahgana… basa?”.

Sometimes that makes the speaker think that they might be mumbling, or verbalizing in a way that makes them difficult to understand (because there are times it’s really not your brain–it’s their mouth).

This is also a lifesaver if you have Auditory Processing Disorder. It stopped the amount of annoyed sighs because ppl thought I was deliberately ignoring them or them saying the same thing but louder (which does not help when volume isn’t the problem)

I do this a lot- I have really shit auditory processing and ADHD, and we often get sensory issues. I have to be on the phone a lot for work and my auditory processing isn’t good enough for me to really deal with phones. I’ve def done the repeating thing a lot.

Customer: “Do you have the green car with the akj;ldfjksal;fjda?”
Me: “The green car with… the flux capacitor or the mobile pizza oven?”
Customer: “The pizza oven!”
Me: “Okay cool! Yeah, we’ve got that, and in lime green too!”

Makes my life a zillion percent easier, especially since phones add an even worse layer of difficulty to my words-to-brain lag time.

I’m definitely going to try these!

Things to Watch/Read/Play instead of Atypical

autismserenity:

vanshira:

myautisticpov:

Okay, I haven’t watched it myself because I’m ill and stuff like this takes up spoons, but it looks like Atypical isn’t good.

So, I thought I would make a list of my favourite games/shows/movies/books with autistic characters for people to read/watch instead.

1. Power Rangers (2017)

Making the blue ranger autistic was possibly the most obvious thing for any Power Rangers reboot to do, and yet I still can’t believe that they did it. Billy is truly the heart of this movie, but not in the patronising way NTs say that about autistic characters. The film uses the idea that the suits are powered by friendship and Billy is the first one to activate his. It’s truly amazing to watch an autistic character portrayed like this in a blockbuster movie.

Link to my full review. 

2. On the Edge of Gone

On the Edge of Gone uses the end of the world to ask, Who gets to decide who is worth saving? When so much post-apocalyptic fiction treats throwing away disabled people as a given, On the Edge of Gone takes a look at the end of the world through an autistic girl’s eyes and has her ask “But why?” I would highly recommend reading.

Link to my full review.

3. To The Moon

Warning: This Game Will Make You Cry.

No, seriously. A bittersweet tale about a man – Johnny – whose dying wish is to visit the moon, To The Moon follows two doctors who specialise in creating artificial memories as they go back through his life to give him that lunar journey. The man’s wife, River, is autistic, as is his best friend’s wife, Isabelle, and as I have said a thousand times, having more than one autistic character can mean the world for making them seem real. You might expect that, as we are seeing the world through Johnny’s memories, the depiction of River would be incredibly one-sided, but by having Isabelle there as well, it adds a character who can stand up for River.

I won’t say much more about the game’s plot to avoid spoilers, but I will say that if someone had told me before I played this that they wanted to use an autistic person’s different communication style as a way to add heartbreak to a story, I wouldn’t have believed that it could be done in a non-gross way. This game manages it and I cannot listen to the soundtrack without crying.

4. Queens of Geek

NOTE: I still haven’t read the final version of this book, just the pre-release one, so some changes might have occurred in editing.

Another YA book, Queens of Geek is a story about a group of friends going to a convention together. One of the main characters, Taylor, is autistic and her story revolves around how she manages her anxiety when it comes to putting herself out in the world, both in new experiences and relationships. It’s a really sweet story and I would definitely give it a read.

Link to my full review (it used to be called What Happens at SupaCon).

5. Community

Community is hit and miss, I will admit, but when it’s good, it’s good. A comedy following a Spanish study group in a community college, every character in this show is amazing, including Abed Nadir, who is also autistic. While later seasons can get patchy about representing Abed, I would definitely at least give the first one a watch.

Link to my full review.

6.

The Xandri Corelel Books

I haven’t actually finished these books, I’m only about halfway through the prologue, but I already love them so much that they have to make the list.

One of my favourite things is having autistic characters in sci-fi and fantasy and really doing something with how their traits interact with the world. The main character of these books – Xandri Corelel – is autistic and, as such, doesn’t bring the same assumptions to communication that allistics bring, allowing her to better communicate with alien species.

Again, I need to finish reading, but so far, I would highly recommend it!

7. The IT Crowd

A British comedy following two autistic IT support workers at a large company, their clueless boss, and a random goth who lives in the server room. A really funny show that once again proves that having multiple autistic characters really helps to round out representation.

NOTE: This show has some really dodgy/outright offensive bits, including a rape joke and an episode-long transphobic joke. It’s good when it’s not doing this, but yeah, it has not aged well.

Link to my full review.

8. 

Trial and Temptation

*cough* So, is this the part where I admit to reading sci-fi romance books unironically?

I actually read the Mandrake Company series of books before the hero of the second book – Gregor Thatcher – was confirmed as autistic by the author, and I cannot stress how awesome it feels to have a headcanon become canon.

Gregor is the head pilot of a galactic mercenary company and the book follows him and a new recruit he used to know getting reacquainted and learning to communicate. If you want a realistic yet optimistic romance with an autistic lead, this is the book for you.

Honourable Mention: Archer

Archer has not been confirmed or denied as autistic by his creators, but Lana speculates that he might be in the show, and that’s good enough for me.

Whether it is for you or not is another question, but looking at Archer through an autistic lens definitely makes for good TV.

Link to my full review.

Feel free to add your own!

…I have to say, Archer has never once set off my autidar.

me neither but hmmmmm

palpablenotion:

themadcapmathematician:

“Autistic and a-spec coding often go hand in hand because NTs use both of these identities to Other a character and make them seem ‘not quite human’” is a good breakdown of the problem, not “making autistic aspec characters is automatically ableist/aphobic” and CERTIANLY not “lack of sexual attraction dehumanizes characters” and otherwise throwing irl autistic aspecs under the bus

This.

A-spec and autism are both often used to dehumanize. Autistic characters are portrayed as lacking sexual (and usually romantic) urges, attractions, feelings because they “can’t comprehend those emotions.” A-spec characters are often stripped of any emotional “intelligence” and uncaring/ignorant of societal boundaries.

Specifically because autistic coding is usually lacking emotional intelligence and completely ignorant of how to act in public/manners in general and specifically because a-spec coding is usually lacking any sexual/romantic urges and feelings (which is different than lacking sexual/romantic attraction) and often as if the character feels “above” such base urges…

Because the stereotypes that don’t automatically go with being either autistic or a-spec essentially uses the same ridiculous coding as each other, it’s virtually impossible to tell if many writers meant to code autism, a-spectrum, or both. Perhaps no coding was intended at all.

These issues aren’t the fault of a-specs or autistics or a-spec autistics. And they aren’t the fault of a-spec autistic headcanons. These issues are society’s, these issues are with allosexuals and allistics that don’t even try to understand what either of these identities mean or how they intersect.

I’ll continue to headcanon autistic a-specs, because I’m an autistic a-spec, because I know this identity isn’t ableist or aphobic.

There’s a post going around criticizing people who headcanon Sheldon Cooper as ace, because he’s autistic-coded, the implication being that it’s…ableist to see an autistic-coded character (who canonically expresses disinterest in sex, I mean come on) as ace. I’m no TBBT fan but I was just like… 😒😒😒😒😒