#being autistic inevitably means having to sell yourself short

[shego1142]

You know what I’m tired of in media right now? Like, as an autistic person?

That whole “tell me about the thing you like” bit where the (usually autistic coded) person starts to infodump

And the text gets like incomprehensible, too big, too close together, going by too fast or even outright turns into “blah blah blah” over and over again

Or they begin to talk about what they like and they start talking a lot, getting excited, and then the audio just

Drones out, to show that the person they’re talking to isn’t listening, isn’t interested

Or the “wow I wish I hadn’t asked” interruption thing

There’s a lot of examples of this in most media forms…

And it is a clever writing trick, one I’ve probably used before too,

where you don’t know about the thing you’re character is interested in

so you just make it “annoying” for them to actually talk about it 

so you don’t have to research anything, instead you just have people be too annoyed to listen. Too annoyed to care.

But I’d love to see a character actually get to talk about their special interests.

I’d love to come away from a comic or a show or a fic and actually have learned new information from a passionate source.

I’d love to see characters have actual interest in the niche thing the autistic coded character has to say, and to respond with “wow that’s so cool, thank you for telling us about that!”

Or to ask deep meaningful questions about the topic.

I’d love to see what an impact it makes on the characters, the autistic coded (or even canon autistic bc one can dream) person finally feeling listened to, validated, and the other characters, getting closer to their friend, understanding them better…

And what’s more, I’d love to have something to show to someone and say

“This! This is how you react to infodumping! This is how to be a good friend to an autistic person!”

I still have trouble infodumping to people… years and years after I was told that I was “too annoying” “too much” years after I was told “I just drone you out” “you talk too much” “I wish I could put you on mute”

I have a wonderful and accepting friend group of mostly autistic people now, and I have trouble infodumping even to them at times…

I’ll speed up, abbreviate, not include the parts I want to include. Make it shorter, less, make it something more “suitable”

Thankfully my friends are great and will be like “tell me more 👀” and I’ll remember I’m safe with them

That they’re never going to tell me I’ve talked about something too much, they’re never going to call me annoying.

But seeing that in media would be refreshing.