Autistic representation in media. by Moof

She-Ra and the princesses of power

monicapass — 2024-04-20 13:20:14 UTC

She-Ra and the princesses of power is the story of Adora and her friends fighting off the Horde, the enemy army which wishes to take over Etheria (the world). Entrapta is one of Adora's friend who starts off helping Adora, then moves to help the horde and in the end, she returns to Adora and uses her technology to aid in saving all Etherians from the Hordes mind control.

The rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles.

monicapass — 2024-04-20 13:20:24 UTC

The rise of the mutant ninja turtles is a re imagined telling of the original Teenage mutant ninja turtles. The four main characters are the brothers: Leo, Mikey, Raph and Donnie are the mutant ninja turtles who go on a series of adventures as they discover and learn about their mystic ninja powers. Throughout the series the brothers are shown to have a great bond and the show takes the time to explore each character and build them as the storyline goes on.

Dead end paranormal park

monicapass — 2024-05-03 13:15:25 UTC

Dead End paranormal park is a series about the two new employees at Phoenix Parks a theme park created by the Pauline Phoenix a famous hollywood style actress. The story is about the two employees Norma and Barney along with the pug Pugsley and Courtney a demon and their journey of exploring the paranormal aspect of the park and learning to understand themselves along the way.

Donatello.

monicapass — 2024-05-04 01:37:26 UTC

The representation of Donnie as an autistic character is another widely received as a positive form of representation as a character on the spectrum by the autistic community.

Donnie is similar to one of the most popular stereotypes, an autistic character who lacks empathy and is incredibly intelligent, his special interest is incredibly useful however what sets Donnie into being a more positive version of this representation is how these traits are shown, Donnie lacks empathy but not emotion, throughout the show he is shown to genuinely care for his brothers and understand others emotions.

He is show to struggle with just regulating his emotions in general often throwing tantrum like behavior, similar to an autistic meltdown, or going into long winded passionate rants. Giving Donnie the self-awareness to be able to learn and grown with understanding his emotions and communicating, which is what puts him apart from the stereotypical genius autistic characters.

Entrapta

monicapass — 2024-05-04 14:34:36 UTC

Entrapta is a bubbly and excitable character with a special interest in technology. Her character shows interest in socialising and communication however she struggles to reads others' emotions and often treats said socialising as an experiment, as that is how she views the worlds around her one big experiment.

Entrapta is a good character sample for diversity as she is an adult autistic woman who actively pursues trying to make friends and have a social life no matter how misguided her attempts may be. She is also another example of a low empathy autistic character who still has emotions and cares about others, successfully pushing back on the stereotype of low empathy autistic people being horrible people.

Norma

monicapass — 2024-05-04 14:38:54 UTC

Norma Khan is one of the main protagonists of the show, she is a socially anxious 17-year-old girl with a major special interest in Pauline Phoenix. She applies for the job at Phoenix Park to be closer to the actress she loves most. Norma is a passionate person who is still learning about herself and trying to navigate the world around her. She is a strict person who is set on following rules and keeping inline finding herself always feeling on edge and having to mask when outside of her room. Norma is a great example of how off putting and difficult the outside world can be to someone with autism but thought the show she is shown to improve and have some personal growth around her social anxiety.

A powerful episode for Norma is season one episode three, “Trust me.” where the employees at Phoenix Park are put into some team training and are forced to face their fears, in this episode Norma is pushed into revealing how everything is her worst fear, how just trying to exist in the world with others is difficult and terrifying and how she feels every day is a fight to just survive. Alot of people related to this episode and it was able to highlight the difficulties of living with anxiety.

Another great aspect of Norma’s character is that she is a diverse character, as autism representation tends to be lacking when it comes to minorities. As a Pakistani American teenager Norma bridges a gap for diverse autistic representation and allows so many more people to see themselves within her character.

Introduction

monicapass — 2024-05-05 01:45:53 UTC

For my curational Proposal I want to show case three different shows with varying degrees of successful autistic representation. Each sample is diverse with different characters, and diverse ways of showing character interactions between neurotypical and neuro diverse characters.

I want to show how diversity is slowly improving but still has a long way to go for autistic representation in media.

Donnie's soft shell.

monicapass — 2024-05-05 01:47:46 UTC

Allowing Donnie to have interests separate from his special interest, showing autism traits such as sensory issues with touch and affection (also shown through him being a soft-shell turtle) and having him stim when happy like happy dancing or spinning, or distressed stimming with scratching himself and rocking back and forth.

Entrapta's mask.

monicapass — 2024-05-05 02:15:50 UTC

Some nice additions to Entrapta's character design are aspects such as her mask a direct reference for autistic masking, the need to try and act like neurotypical people to be seen as more acceptable. When trying to hide her feelings or face a serious conversation she brings down her mask like a shield and dulls her voice. This is a way she sees to blend in but also protect herself from the tricky situation.

Another positive of Entrapta is how she sees no need to fix herself and accepts herself for who she is, never mind her insecurities, she knows she’s different and she’s okay with that.

The leash incident.

monicapass — 2024-05-05 02:31:23 UTC

Once of the worst incidents in the show is Perfuma putting Entrapta on a leash, she treats Entrapta as a child even though they are currently in Entrapta's element as she is a woman in her early thirties.

A major issue with Entrapta comes from how the other characters interact with her, they only start to value her as a friend when they see her technology is incredibly useful but when it comes to her other autistic traits, they treat her like a child or a burden, almost infantilizing her.