User blog comment:WillTheArthurandBusterFan5050/Should TLH Include a Character with Autism?/@comment-4618045-20171106012605

If done properly, I would support the move. The Loud House has succeeded in incorporating other types of people in the past (CJ comes to mind). For the sake of this comment, Im gonna assume such a character would be a new addition to the ensemble rather than revealing a preestablished character is on the spectrum.

Now as much as I would like there to be an autistic character on the show, I would also like the character to be a fair representation. In my experience, however, that is easier said than done. On one hand, there are characters that are played for comedy. You know what I’m talking about: they’re loud, “random”, and throw the most uncomfortable tantrums known to man. I don’t think the LH writers would have the sense of humor to pull that stunt, luckily. But what I have also seen are autistic characters that display an unrealistically advanced savant syndrome. While these characters do still struggle with socializing (which is, of course, a common feature of the spectrum), they more than make up for it with photographic memory, a mastery in a certain field that puts even the scholars in that discipline to shame, and a mind too fast and complicated for anyone to keep up. These are not bad people of course, but they make up such a significant percentage of autistic representation in the media that it leads people to believe that it’s the only alternative to “harhar” autism. As someone who lives on the spectrum myself, the pervasiveness of the savant can be alienating and lead to feelings of inferiority when I can’t equal mastery in the things I’m most interested in.

The best thing Loud House can do to make autism both respectable and fair is to make it balanced and honest. Think about what your life on the spectrum is like: all the strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and fears that define your life. Do you find yourself lying on or in the middle of the extremes that make up a large portion of the media representation? Whatever your answer is, would you be happy if the show reflected that?

And furthermore, what I also find is that many media representations are limited in scope. Autism is a complex spectrum that encompasses many gradations. Unless you had multiple characters with autism (which is not something I expect Loud House or any one show to do), then the representative cant embody the spectrum in a universal or complete way. Therefore, the one character the show would use would need to reach to as many on the spectrum as possible in order to avoid alienation.