“Unmasked”
There’s something that I’d like to share that I’ve wanted to share for quite a while but I kept chickening out. I want to tell you all that I’m autistic and, though some neurotypical people seem to think so, being autistic is not a bad thing at all. It’s quite nice to see and view the world from a unique perspective, and I don’t know why some people view neurodiversity as a bad thing. I actually did not get diagnosed until I was older, I think mostly because I’m a female, so I’ve had to deal with comments from other people like “Oh no you’re autistic! I feel sooooo bad for you! I’m terribly sorry!” or “Oh you’re autistic! I’m so shocked because you act neurotypical all the time!” or “You don’t look autistic. You talk too much and you’re not a boy”. People have such stereotypes about autism/neurodiversity, mainly I think because of what they see in the media and hear from people who are more old-school. We rarely get to see autistic characters treated well in the media, and we get shows like “The Good Doctor” and “Parenthood,” which portray autism as being in Caucasian males. It’s rare to see autistic women or autistic people of color be portrayed in the media. The only portrayals that have been reasonably fine to me were Abed from Community and Entrapta from the new She-Ra show, both of which are never clearly identified as autistic in the actual shows though their creators have confirmed they’re autistic. I honestly prefer the portrayals that are more “autistic-coded,” mainly meaning while not written as autistic the neurodiversity community really loves and relates to the characters a lot (like most of the Winnie the Pooh characters seem neurodiverse and Lilo and Stitch from the movie of the same name and Dory from Finding Nemo/Dory). Also, while I don’t know if any of the Mulan or Frozen movie characters are autistic, I think the songs “Reflection” from Mulan and “Let it Go” from Frozen are relatable because they make me think of masking, which is what most autistic females do to hide their autistic traits; it’s like the girls/women cover up their true selves to fit into society. A lot of characters from comedies seem autistic-coded as well. I personally think most of the characters from Psych and Brooklyn Nine-Nine are somewhat neurodiverse. As great as a lot of these shows and movies are, things still need to change; we need to see more well thought out autistic characters in all forms of media who are not treated poorly and who are not just autistic-coded. We need portrayals in media where autistic people aren’t viewed as weak/helpless or in the words of Sheriff Callie a “pain in the boots” or as unpleasant people to be around. We also need to make room to let autistic people talk, instead of having mostly neurotypical people making decisions that just might end up not working (like instead of just having autistic actors playing the characters we should have them work on the screenwriting as well). Now, regarding my blog, I’m going to change some things around a bit. While I’m still going to be making monthly posts about media, I’m going to be posting more about my experiences as an autistic individual. Oh, and one more thing (in the words of autistic-coded Colombo), autism is just one part of neurodiversity. If you are on my blog and you happen to have something like ADHD, Tourette’s, or Dyslexia or one of the many other types of unique neurology, then welcome to the club. You are a neurodivergent person too, and I think you’re pretty darn cool just the way you are!
10 Comments
Loyal Fan
I am impressed with your blog. People who respond to autistic/neurodivergent people in a negative, insensitive way are revealing their lack of knowledge. We are all created with a range of diversities.
More needs to be written to inform people in this area. I look forward to reading your future blogs relating to this.
EvangelineFiles
Thank you for reading my post! I’m so glad that it resonated with you and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my future posts on neurodiversity!
Walinda
Your courage inspires me to be courageous enough to take the mask off. Society doesn’t appreciate “different” and “uniqueness” and yet it is that very thing in which beauty exists. I’m so glad you’re unmasking and sharing more about you’re own journey. Lord knows we need to be clued in. Love you 💜
EvangelineFiles
I’m so glad that this post inspired you to “unmask” in your own sense and show other who you truly are so to speak. I agree with all that you said. Sending lots of love right back at you! <3
Kathy Falkner
Thank you so much for sharing this with the world. You’ve already taught me so much in the short period of time since we’ve gotten to know one another. I’m in awe of your insight and your many talents. I look forward to reading more.
EvangelineFiles
I’m so glad that this post resonated with you so much. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on future posts! Thank you for reading!
Sheilah
You are so talented and so intelligent, Evangeline. Thank you for the blog, very informative.
EvangelineFiles
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post! Thank you for reading!
Tiger
Hi, again, Evangeline! I’ve been your most avid reader (at least I think so), as I so love your writing/thinking; and after this post, I love what you do even more because I so appreciate your sharing this with all of us! I learned a whole lot about both media and autism (and the “marriage” of the two, so to speak) in your post and I cannot thank you enough for that! And I look very forward to hearing more about your personal experiences as well as your thoughts about different forms of media. Also, like you always do, you’ve given me some shows to research and maybe watch, some shows that I’ve heard of but know little about and some that are completely new to me. So thank you again for doing that! I really do hope that you will never stop sharing your thoughts, Evangeline!
EvangelineFiles
I’m so glad that you enjoyed the post and that I was able to educate you about both autism and media. I hope that you enjoy the shows that I mentioned and I hope that you will continue to read my blog!