#old draft ughk

[sodiumpop]

i dont care what ANYONE says, mel is the best autsitic representation ive seen as a main focus in a medical show yet (of course, that ive seen so far) … i see either infantilism or just spite filled hate but no one could ever convince me that she's bad rep !!! if it means anything, my emotional ass cant help but want to cry over all the things i see in her that i see in myself: the way she holds her hands, her quick and subtle speech, the little twitches of her face, the uncontrollable-subconscious-safe-person-application to langdon, her inability to entirely pick up on certain jokes because the environment that shes in doesn't necessarily provide the right context to know whether or not someone is kidding ,, !!! i love everything about mel down to her silly glasses and i wouldve killed to have seen a character like her as a child who wanted nothing more than to be a doctor whilst unsure if i could even handle it because of who i was

im so sick of seeing autistic characters in media not only being completely debilitated by their disorder but half of them all being copy and pastes of the same male character written by allistic writers and acted by allistic actors — to see genuine care and understanding from a show thats already reached a high following makes me so SO overjoyed because it provides a deeper dive into characters (and real people for that matter) who are on different levels of the autism spectrum, especially for autistic women and afabs

its such a breath of fresh air to see a character who does have ASD and is not completely defined by it, who is not presented in an absolute dependent and, honestly, "stupid" image — of course, this is never to downput those who are in need of social help — but just knowing that media, even if in just the smallest amounts, is learning and growing and no longer demonizing us is so relieving.

i really do hope that representation like this progresses because the best that can come out of it is acceptance from those who couldn't necessarily understand the ASD experience, but want to at least have some semblance of discernment