Last ramble before I do actual things, maybe:
Speaking as an autistic adult, I do not understand in the slightest why it is embarrassing for an adult to enjoy Doctor Who or Minecraft or My Little Pony. I do not understand why being passionate about something and finding connection with others is a bad thing. I really, truly do not understand this, speaking as someone who generally only easily talks to people with regards to a shared special interest or experience. I really do not understand why these things have been labelled โcringe cultureโ and why it took so long for people to understand the problems with this as a concept.
However, I really do not understand why the defense of these things has shifted to โitโs embarrassing, yes, but let kids enjoy thingsโ or โitโs embarrassing, but cringe culture is pretty ableist, so maybe donโtโ or โitโs embarrassing, but it isnโt hurting anyone, so let it goโ or โitโs embarrassing, but itโs someoneโs special interestโ. I see this all the time, this absurd defense of something Tumblr has deemed inappropriate prefaced by the person seeking to support me claiming that this media is still embarrassing.
The idea that some forms of storytelling and fandom (in a world where nothing is pure and everything has faults that hurt some minority group, because all creators are hampered by one form of privilege or another) are acceptable to openly enjoy and some arenโt, even though neither is labelled as particularly venomous or dangerous, is so ridiculously arbitrary to me. So far, Iโve seen no defense of this that I canโt chalk up to โallistics once again making no senseโ. I havenโt seen anyone explain why Minecraft is something no reasonable adult should touch. All I see is that fandoms and media often enjoyed by autistic adults get labelled โcringyโ, and when people who are slightly aware of ableism realise thatโs a bad thing to say, they shift to โitโs embarrassing but weโll defend an autisticโs right to enjoy itโ.
Thanks for your condescension, but if thatโs your defense of my right to enjoy a property that allistics deem inappropriate for arbitrary allistic reasons (probably the fear of being mistaken for an autistic person, ableism), you can shove that defense where the sun doesnโt shine.
(Iโm not talking about media that exists to damage, and Iโm not saying that the mediaโs flaws and the ways it unintentionally hurts people shouldnโt be discussed, or that people arenโt justified in not consuming them and discussing this. Iโm saying that I canโt see how Doctor Who is any more awful than whatever the current Tumblr TV show or game darling is, because there are few people in the world who are entirely lacking in some form of privilege and this shapes the media we consume. Stop requiring us to perform our activism about everything wrong with something in order to โacceptablyโ enjoy a TV show about a screwdriver-using time-travelling space magician.)
Autistic adults already deal with our disability aids and our coping mechanisms and our communication and our interests and our expression of emotion being deemed โchildishโ or โinappropriateโ. Iโve been told I am embarrassing for my emotions and reactions and interests and needs by my family and friends more times than I can even count. We are continually and routinely infantilised, dismissed and belittled. Tell me, how are you not doing this here? How are you not contributing to a world where you are shoring up the fact that only autistics or kids can enjoy whatever it is that Tumblr has deemed unacceptable for adults?
When you call our interests โembarrassingโ while seeking to defend us from those calling them โcringyโ, how are you not as ableist?
Until you can shut down the idea of anything being cringe culture (or in fact the entire concept of cringe culture) without using words like โitโs embarrassing, butโโ, youโre no ally of mine.
