Fucking ableist bullshit
Sep. 13th, 2017 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelI have for whatever reason been on a horror movie kick lately. Because sometimes it's fun watching people be horribly surprised when a ghost summoning in a haunted mansion goes horribly wrong or whatever. Especially when they do stupid stuff along the way.
One movie had a somewhat satisfying ending (bad guy gets trapped in a room rull of angry ghosts of people that were killed as a result of his douchenaggery!) in a way that was completely antithetical to the setup (spooky ghosts that were scaring the protagonist and family, are ... suddenly friendly to her wtf).
But the one I just finished watching makes me want to *kick things*. And I don't know what's worse, the fact that it was written this way or the fact that I saw it coming.
CW: anti-autism wtfery. Also spoilers for unnamed movie.
The movie is one of the "horrible things happen in house, new owners are oblivious until paranormal stuff happens" movies. And among the neighborhood is a mom caring for her autistic son -- I think he's supposed to be junior high or high school age? Hard to tell with movies. Anyway, clearly autistic.
I glared at the movie and said, "I hope like hell he doesn't turn out to be the bad guy, especially one who is deliberately autism-ing to cover".
Anyway. Stuff progresses. I make mental headcanon that one of the leads is really the actor's character from another movie. And the climax of the movie comes, and it turns out that the mom of the autistic boy has been poisoning people because reasons. And the protagonists basically adopt autistic boy.
And then he gets a few moments alone with his mom, and of course his facade drops -- he is really the psychopath mastermind that was behind everything, she helped but he is still loose, and since she's basically being treated as crazy, no one will believe her that the sweet innocent autistic victim is really behind everything, but he threatens her with the knowledge that he will basically me s time bomb waiting to explode, and if she tries to convince anyone of his guilt, things will "accidentally" happen, blah blah standard villain psychopath bs, a very cold goodbye, and then the facade goes back in and he goes outside as the happy autistic kid who finally gets ice cream awww.
...and the thing is, I probably don't need to remind you guys of this, but media portrayals of disadvantaged classes are seen as portrayals of all of that subtype. You can have a white male Christian villain without serious repercussions, but a Muslim villain is problematic, a disabled villain is probkematic, etc. I am totally not at all phrasing this in any comprehensible way, but -- it's so fucking infuriating to have an autistic character turn out to be a cardboard villain with bonus faking-it. And it means that more people will think all autistic people are like that.
Flail.
That beauty and the beast project I'm playing with? I keep being tempted to make the Beast autistic, and the enchantress or fairy or whoever cursed him into beast form just totally misread him (or he said something true but impolite and pissed her off) and is an asshole for what she did, or something.
I worry about doing it wrong, because -- as much as I suspect I have some aspergers-y traits, I am totally not autistic, and risk falling into cliches -- but at least I wouldn't be *points upward* THAT fucking wrong
One movie had a somewhat satisfying ending (bad guy gets trapped in a room rull of angry ghosts of people that were killed as a result of his douchenaggery!) in a way that was completely antithetical to the setup (spooky ghosts that were scaring the protagonist and family, are ... suddenly friendly to her wtf).
But the one I just finished watching makes me want to *kick things*. And I don't know what's worse, the fact that it was written this way or the fact that I saw it coming.
CW: anti-autism wtfery. Also spoilers for unnamed movie.
The movie is one of the "horrible things happen in house, new owners are oblivious until paranormal stuff happens" movies. And among the neighborhood is a mom caring for her autistic son -- I think he's supposed to be junior high or high school age? Hard to tell with movies. Anyway, clearly autistic.
I glared at the movie and said, "I hope like hell he doesn't turn out to be the bad guy, especially one who is deliberately autism-ing to cover".
Anyway. Stuff progresses. I make mental headcanon that one of the leads is really the actor's character from another movie. And the climax of the movie comes, and it turns out that the mom of the autistic boy has been poisoning people because reasons. And the protagonists basically adopt autistic boy.
And then he gets a few moments alone with his mom, and of course his facade drops -- he is really the psychopath mastermind that was behind everything, she helped but he is still loose, and since she's basically being treated as crazy, no one will believe her that the sweet innocent autistic victim is really behind everything, but he threatens her with the knowledge that he will basically me s time bomb waiting to explode, and if she tries to convince anyone of his guilt, things will "accidentally" happen, blah blah standard villain psychopath bs, a very cold goodbye, and then the facade goes back in and he goes outside as the happy autistic kid who finally gets ice cream awww.
...and the thing is, I probably don't need to remind you guys of this, but media portrayals of disadvantaged classes are seen as portrayals of all of that subtype. You can have a white male Christian villain without serious repercussions, but a Muslim villain is problematic, a disabled villain is probkematic, etc. I am totally not at all phrasing this in any comprehensible way, but -- it's so fucking infuriating to have an autistic character turn out to be a cardboard villain with bonus faking-it. And it means that more people will think all autistic people are like that.
Flail.
That beauty and the beast project I'm playing with? I keep being tempted to make the Beast autistic, and the enchantress or fairy or whoever cursed him into beast form just totally misread him (or he said something true but impolite and pissed her off) and is an asshole for what she did, or something.
I worry about doing it wrong, because -- as much as I suspect I have some aspergers-y traits, I am totally not autistic, and risk falling into cliches -- but at least I wouldn't be *points upward* THAT fucking wrong