One Single Leaf Turns Orange

vintage dragoslavas from early 2018

i was walking to class and turned a corner and stopped in my tracks because there was a dachshund and i did not know how to respond

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.

me saying I can’t control my volume bc I’m autistic and ppl being like “okay well no matter what some people might view your loudness as aggression especially if they have triggers.”

babes I’m well aware that being autistic affects the way people perceive me in ways that are detrimental & socially isolating LMAO you don’t need to explain that to me. i say that with empathy & understanding to people who can’t be around loudness genuinely but it’s so funny to be like “I have an autistic trait I cannot control that doesn’t align with social politeness” and ppl saying “okay well I hope you know some people won’t like you.”

YEAH!!!!

We got a grand total of five trick or treaters and I missed them all because I was stuck in meetings 😔

All after I stayed up late last night turning the house into a giant monster.

So if you see this I am mentally handing you a goodie bag. Happy Halloween! 🎃

being in your 20s is like. every day i am playing with forces i can barely understand

On the discussion of book accurate depictions of Sherlock Holmes, one thing I really want is accurate Mycroft. In the books Sherlock is very… autistically coded. At least to me, an autistic person. And Sherlock basically states that Mycroft has more “severe” autism. Sherlock says his brother is more brilliant than he is but absolutely cannot function in society and hates social interaction so much he founded a society for the purpose of minimizing it as much as possible. In addition it’s implied he becomes overstimulated so easily he has to curate his environment to be devoid of disturbance and noise.

Give me the autistic brothers but one has it much much worse

Enough of this Mycroft as the more sociable of the two who is a powerful politician. This man would have a meltdown if he had to be that social!!!

My oil painting of an Uncrustable