fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2741 ]

[ SECRET POST #2741 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2741 ⌋

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I'm starting to hate Tumblr's attitude of "representation headcanons are the best!!"

I just had an argument with someone who took offense to my suggestion that people actually do some research and see if a character fits at least a large amount of autism symptoms before claiming they're autistic.

With few facts to back it up, it's less "interpreting them as such" and more "pretending they're are like me so I can feel better" Heaven forbid you actually think and do research before declaring someone autistic (even fictional).

Edited 2014-07-05 21:34 (UTC)

The "everyone's autistic" tumblr fans are so annoying, do they not realize they are damaging their own cause by doing so? Autistics get less slack now because they've kept on shoving it everywhere, even and especially where it does not fit.

I know

and when I point it out to them I get the "but representation" argument and a HDU attitude.

"Let us do what we want, we're not hurting anyone" bull shit

"do they not realize they are damaging their own cause by doing so?"

This is WHY they are doing it; anyone who has not realized by now that SJWs are everything they claim to hate, is sorely deluded.

'Taking offence' is Tumblr's default setting though, isn't it?

I sympathise. There's something very unhealthy about this trend of bending all characters to fit your own personality traits*. Every fic is starting to smack of reverse Mary Sueism. No longer are we exploring the characters' world, instead we're exploring the author's world and desires through the character and fandom of their choice.

Maybe that's the way it has always been, although to me it seems like a growing problem.

As for labelling a character autistic, or something serious like psychopathic or sociopathic - I see all three bandied around the Sherlock fandom with no understanding whatsoever. People will happily slap these labels on as if it were a quirky fun aspect of a character. The lack of research and understanding of the reality behind these subjects seems somewhat tasteless.

*I don't mean sexuality. Obviously a large portion of fic is exploring kinks, sexuality and gender. To me it's separate because you write a character as any sexuality and have them still be the same character.

Oh yeah...reverse Mary Sue...kinda fits.

I just hate it because you can't argue with these people because they will always take a position of self righteous anger and twist you as some kind of horrible person.

It's exhausting. Tumblr SJW is like a little brat that is convinced it can do whatever it wants.

Is this the Hermione headcanon thing that went around yesterday? Because the writer actually... is autistic. Shock, horror. It was a list of interpretations for things that are fairly common to the autistic spectrum, not, "Here is the diagnostic criteria according to the DSM V, I'm going to go through each one for a professional diagnosis!"

Also, I note that nearly all of the negative responses were either trolls or people going, "OMG you can't say that I have a sibling/neighbour/family friend/goldfish that's autistic and you're insulting autistics!" and just... stop, okay.

Caveat, I've identified with Hermione since book one, when I was ten. I wasn't diagnosed as autistic until I was eighteen, and have read Hermione as autistic ever since then. So yes, I support the autistic!Hermione headcanon. (Also, autistic!Carlos from WTNV.) It's not about 'omg I want these characters to be like me!', it's recognising familiar traits in characters you like and realising, hey, that works!

What makes you think that people coming up with autistic headcanons HAVEN'T done their research? If you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person. There are commonalities, though, and THAT'S what people are picking up on.

Edited 2014-07-06 00:22 (UTC)

I'm judging it based purely on their interpretations and arguments. They brought up things like her 'special interest being magic and that somehow makes her super good at magic school. That's too broad and it sounds like an ass-pull. She would probably be good at one or two subjects. I am interested in writing as my special interest...but only specifically fiction writing.

Also they kept on about mentioning she 'struggled in regular school' and that seems off canon because Hermione seems to just naturally be a bookish studious type who is extremely interested in homework and always nagging at Ron and Harry to do their homework. This doesn't strike me as someone who would be struggling in school. Also they claimed she was autistic because she always went to the library because she couldn't focus and that's why she got mad at people for talking in the library and being disruptive. ...Um That isn't a solely autistic behavior. A lot of people prefer to study in the library and a lot of people would get pissed when people disrupted them.

Also consider that throughout the books Hermione actually picks up on other people's feelings quite well - and picks up things that Ron and Harry don't. That's like the antithesis of the social issues that autism usually includes-something that is a HUGE symptom. She actually has amazing skills at reading people and understanding their emotions and their point of view.

"It’s also why she is so upset over not doing well in divination, because she feels like she did back in muggle school where she didn’t fit well"

This is a total misreading. Hermione's issue with Divination is that it's unspecific and wooly. It's something she can't read and just understand and she doesn't like that it's something she can't do well at. Hell her reaction actually says to me that not getting good grades and being able to ace a subject is new. Her issues with Divination have nothing- NOTHING- to do with anything regarding 'how she fits in. And again that's NOT something that just happens to autistic people. I saw it happen to both my sisters- who are not autistic.

"She used the time turner back in her third year to give her lots of extra time to decompress and stim and relax "

Hermione was actually the opposite and was against using the time turner in ways not related to school. She only used it in the way she was allowed and the responsibility of it stressed her out. In fact in the books she was stressed constantly through that year and she was if anything not getting enough relaxation.

I don't have a problem with it because I consider being autistic to be an insult. I am autistic, I have researched the symptoms and parts of it, and I am in my own original work trying to create more diverse autistic characters.

I have a problem with this person's reading because the headcanon willfully ignores the mountain of evidence to the contrary and misconstrues events and stuff to force it to fit in the creator's AU vision. I have a problem with it because the signs and evidence tell me it does not fit.

Yes all of them are different but there are still some symptoms that most of them meet.I'm sorry if this upsets you but....I'm just going by what the facts in the story say.

I mean maybe if something explained their vision and explained it better, I could see it. But that particular explanation is full of holds , misinterpretation and reaching.

Okay, that's fair enough. Some of the specific items there didn't fit with my experiences, although others would have had quite different ones, and I was going with that. (The time turner one was one I did actually disagree with - even if she was using the extra time to decompress, it clearly wasn't working!)

"Also they kept on about mentioning she 'struggled in regular school' and that seems off canon because Hermione seems to just naturally be a bookish studious type who is extremely interested in homework and always nagging at Ron and Harry to do their homework. This doesn't strike me as someone who would be struggling in school."

That one I could see, actually. I was labelled as 'gifted' when I was seven or eight, and that gave me a MASSIVE complex about having to be the very best at everything. I was bullied pretty badly (from everything due to being fat to... well, being as awkward as an undiagnosed autistic in a private school with a LOT of rules!) in primary school, and latched on to 'intelligent' as my main identifier - my thinking was basically, who cares if I'm not pretty or popular, I'm still smarter than everyone. And that created this massive fear of failure that, by high school (Australian high school, starts in seventh grade, so only about a year later than Hogwarts would start), I was actually starting to UNDERachieve because I would rather not do something and get failed for inactivity, than try something and fail. When I started a new school, I ramped up trying to succeed in everything because it was a new place to make an impression on, but that fear of failure was still lingering around. Hermione may have had similar issues in primary school, decided that Hogwarts was a new place where she WOULD succeed, and actually did manage to do pretty well by overworking herself to the extreme, but never could shake off that fear of failure (her Boggart! HER BOGGART!).

Whoops, long paragraph.

Anyway. Short version is, I still see Hermione as autistic, but not necessarily for all of the reasons on that list. Some of them, however, do ring true. (Particularly the one I mentioned above, the info-dumping, although I think she'd be more cautious around Muggles, the one with the schedules, and yeah, I can see being autistic as being a factor in seeing the library as a safe, quiet space.)

*Nod*

I apologize for coming off hostile. I felt like there were being made assumptions about me, and I also just dealt with this person on tumblr who came at me all "how dare you".

I actually am on the spectrum and in my own personal works I try to include a diverse range of autistic characters.

I can actually see your reasons more and they make more sense. I just kinda get wary about people jumping the gun so much with autistic headcanons. It's not so much that I find it an insult to consider a character autistic, I just find that when such headcanons are tossed around so carelessly , it seems almost fetishizing or "slapping on labels" especially on tumblr where some people think it's all just wonderful and grand to make characters have some disorder.

(In the comments of that one person's headcanon I picked apart there were comments like "AUTISM IS GLORIOUS" that really rubbed me the wrong way. Like I don't think it's horrible but...I feel like calling a disorder 'glorious' is sugarcoating it and insulting to people who are nonverbal and suffer from severe versions of the disorder. Just ...tumblr's whole treatment of mental disorders bothers me)

Maybe that's just my bias.

Edited 2014-07-06 02:05 (UTC)

(reply from suspended user)

Thank you. ^^

If it's done in a fetishy way, I can understand why that'd bug you, yeah.

The 'glorious' part I don't actually mind? And it's kind of a generalisation to say that everyone who's nonverbal and has a 'severe' version would find it insulting - look up people like Amanda Baggs, who is nonverbal and was diagnosed as 'low-functioning' but is also an articulate (with a computer) autistic advocate. It's definitely not a Tumblr thing - I've seen very similar sentiments for around the nine years I've had a diagnosis for, and that well and truly predates Tumblr.

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[ SECRET POST #2741 ]

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