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Autistic Donnie - Blog Posts
Bro I thought Donnie was gonna get absolutely bodied–
Keep the 'tism turtle alive, folks.
@autismswagsummit
Do not despair rottmnt fandom! We still have a ninja’s greatest weapon—hope! If we keep hoping, Donnie just might win! But why should you vote for Donnie, you ask? Well…
Donnie is canonically autistic and has so much swag it’s unreal.
Donnie has helped educate people on autism and neurodivergence in general. He may or may not have been the driving force for my realization that I might be autistic. Donnie seriously changed my life with that piece of information.
Donnie is very realistic autistic representation. He’s just an autistic character who’s allowed to exist and exhibit autistic traits without being scrutinized for it. I love when he stims!
Donnie presents many autistic traits such as low empathy, monotone voice, sensory issues, difficulty with emotions and feelings, special interests and stimming!
In conclusion, please vote for the autistic turtle! Maybe it’s because I’ve been fixated on rottmnt and autism for the past seven months but I genuinely believe that he deserves to win. I hope that you can give Donnie the support he needs to win this competition with his clear superior autism swag! 💜💜💜
@autismswagsummit @autismswagreblogs
(I am way too invested in this competition, someone help. Even if Donnie doesn’t win, he’ll always be a winner in my heart!)
🐢💜
I’ve been cooking this one for a while, but with the most recent “The Bad Batch” episode, I feel this is timely.
Before I go into it, I want to get it out there that there is NOTHING WRONG with HC-ing an autistic character or an autistically-coded character as Aro/Ace, and there is NOTHING WRONG with being an Aro/Ace Autistic/Autistic person. My issue is with a PATTERN and not any specific HCs that I’ve come across. I also need to say that my Autistic experience is not the same as anyone else’s, I cannot and do not speak for all Autistic people. We exist on a spectrum here. I will also be using Autistic and Autistic person interchangeably here because I have no personal preference, though others might.
That being said, I notice that A LOT, if not MOST Autistically-coded characters are popularly headcanoned as Aro/Ace in their respective fandoms. Sometimes there’s canon evidence and sometimes there’s not. Some of them I agree with and others...make me wonder if they’re just being thought of that way because of the pervasive stereotype that Autistics are incapable of romantic or sexual feelings.
In my own experience, I’ve had a handful of encounters where people are really shocked that I’m in a committed romantic relationship and that I am very comfortable with my sexuality and sexuality in general. It goes hand in hand with the typical “you don’t LOOK Autistic” response from people. It’s all part of a wider stereotype that infantilizes neurodivergents, separating them from commonly recognized markers of adulthood (and by extension, personhood) like a developed sex drive, desire to be romantically close with others, and independence. None of these things actually define what an adult person is, by the way.
In those encounters, I usually feel infantilized and talked down to. It’s an unpleasant reality of my life that I can usually escape from in my fandoms, but echoes of it resonate in previously safe spaces with this pattern. I have to wonder if everybody is actually thinking their HCs through or if they’re just slapping “Aro/Ace” onto the character because they subconsciously don’t think of Autistic people as capable of romantic or sexual feelings, especially with characters that actually have canon romantic/sexual feelings ON SCREEN or CONFIRMED by the creators. (I thought about providing examples of Autistic/Autistically-coded characters that get Aro/Ace headcanoned often here, in spite of canon evidence to the contrary, but headcanons are supposed to be fun and I don’t want to start an argument about these characters here, especially if that headcanon is important to someone).
In summary, the Autistic community is an incredibly diverse one with people of all walks of life. Please don’t shunt us into just one way of being because of stereotypes, even if we’re just fictional characters.
Also, please watch Overly Sarcastic’s Trope Talk on Robots for a nice little lesson on coding and how it affects the Neurodivergent and Aro/Ace communities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZGRdxP_8Js&t=1s
I am pretty bad at finishing projects but at least I finished it! I will be celebrating with a plain Rice Krispies Treat now :)
Finished version: human!Donnie
Donatello "Donnie" Hamato. 16. Japanese/Chinese American. Donnie is my favorite and I just love all my silly little ideas about him and all his autism. I am the same and I can’t get enough. You go, you Funky Flat Fuck (I’m not waiting till Friday to post, sorry.)
Some lil Donnie doodles I did today because I needed to make SOMETHING and this is cute.
I am also an autistic bean and although I wasn't diagnosed until I was 14, I definitely showed signs as a small child and I feel like Donnie DEFINITELY did too.
I HC that Splinter, you know, KNEW something was different from the beginning and knows Donnie is on the spectrum, but he can't get an official diagnosis for him because of This Whole Situation TM. But he's done a lot of research and knows Donnie loves music and dancing, so he teaches him bō-jutsu (known for its kinetic flow) to help him improve his proprioception and help them bond.
Bonus lil Leo because he's freakin cute AF, LOOK AT HIM.
