#autistic Astronema

[pinkrangerv]

Did I promise to update The Stars Shatter frequently? Yes.

Did I vastly overestimate how much I could ignore a screaming four-year-old? Also yes.

So here, have me confirming that apparently a key detail of characterization for my fic is that Andros and Karone are autistic twins. It didn't make my notes. Because I didn't realize I was writing that. In my defense, I kind of suspect a lot of Rangers are autistic, the whole 'Do The Right Thing No Matter What' programming is usually tempered by 'also make sure you live longer than two seconds' in allo people...which is probably why humans survived longer than ten minutes.

[everyonesonthespectrum]

Today’s Autistic character of the day is:

Karone/Astronema from Power Rangers

Requested by @sadiejwolfblood

[pinkrangerv]

SO LET ME RAMBLE ABOUT POWER RANGERS AND AUTISM

Because my earlier post on that wasn’t enough for my very-much-PR-loving brain...

Power Rangers has a LONG history of incorporating people who are different--they’ve toned it down to just skin color lately for...some bizzare reason...but it’s THERE in the older, pre-Disney stuff, ESPECIALLY MMPR. The whole point of Power Rangers, summed up, is that ANYONE can be a superhero.

And that applies to life. EVERYONE can be a hero--meaning EVERYONE has value. Everyone can be IMPORTANT.

Autists are not all Billy. We have variation--a LOT of variation. But we ARE all still important, just like you.

Organizations like Autism Speaks don’t believe in that. ‘Therapies’ like ABA exist mostly to make us seem normative. This message gets hammered in a LOT in the real world, because people think that conformity is important. Instead of helping with our impairments and caring about us as people, they want to hammer us into painful positions and leave us that way.

But it’s not. Power Rangers is a great example of that--EVERYONE can be a hero. Always. Bulk and Skull, the bullies, end up saving the world from Astronema; a D\deaf friend of Kimberly’s is immune to a monster and alerts the Rangers to a kidnapping; Billy is honestly autistic-coded in EVERY iteration, and it saves everyone’s ass constantly; Andros is an undocumented immigrant to Earth and saves the world...the list goes on and on.

Everyone can be a hero. Everyone is important. And autistic people are, too.

So think about what people say this April. Are they implying we autists are lesser, stupid, infants, freaks? Or are they saying ‘hey, we’re all important, let’s live together well’? Support autists, and people who support autists. If you like satire, Tone It Down Taupe is another good place to look--they mock the autist-haters really well.

Don’t believe the people who say we’re lesser, or that autism is a burden, or that we’re lacking. Believe Power Rangers--we are ALL important, we are ALL worthy.

Because we are.