Me When They Mentioned Autism In Hannibal: Ofc The White Guy With The Special Abilities Is Autistic.

me when they mentioned autism in hannibal: ofc the white guy with the special abilities is autistic. Wow how creative /s

me when I realize that will is not canonically autistic: guy with superpowers?? Without me?? :(

It was so fun!!! I got a picture with them (which I don’t think I’ll be posting because my sisters and dad are in it and I don’t know how they would feel about me posting it). The pictures were very rushed so we literally had like 5 seconds but it was still cool. I went to the panel too, which was really fun. I also got an autograph from Mads. He spent most of the time I was up there looking for a silver sharpie (there were like 3 in front of him lmao) but he was really nice

I’m meeting Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy at Fan Expo Boston tomorrow!!!!!!

I’m not sure if any other trans people relate to this but even though I’ve been going by Alex for around 3 years now, getting things with my name on it still feels big and important for me. Seeing it in writing reminds me of how far I’ve come in my transition. I just got an autograph (from Mads Mikkelsen ☺️) and that reminded me how comforting it is to have my name associated with important moments in my life. On certificates, souvenirs, birthday cards, etc. I don’t know if that makes sense. I can’t seem to find the right words.

I just ordered something at Starbucks and was actually happy with how my voice sounded????? For the first time???

✨✨testosterone✨✨

I find it kind of crazy how misinformed Hugh Dancy is about autism- especially considering him playing Will Graham and Adam. And not only that, but the fact that he talks about it somewhat frequently in interviews/panels. I wanted to break down a couple things that he said so that we all understand why they’re wrong

“We’re all on the spectrum, it’s a spectrum”

While autism is a spectrum, not everybody is autistic and therefore not everybody is on the spectrum. A good way to think about this is in terms of pregnancy. If you’re pregnant, you can be in the first, second, or third trimester and it just depends on the person and how far along they are. That being said, if you’re not pregnant, you’re not on the “spectrum of pregnancy” if that makes sense. You’re just simply not pregnant. I think this rhetoric is extremely harmful because it gives the impression that you can be “a little” autistic. While this does somewhat humanize autism, it also diminishes the struggles that autistic people go through. So no, not everyone is on the spectrum. It being a spectrum simply means that not every autistic person has the same traits to the same severity. It means we all experience each trait differently to one another.

“He’s too porous. He’s shut down because he receives too much information from people and it’s painful as opposed to not being able to read them”

This part bothers me the most because it’s such a blatant misunderstanding about what autism is. He literally describes the daily experiences of autistic people and then uses that as a defense as to why Will is not autistic. Autism quite literally is being too porous. Autistic people’s brains don’t have the filter that allistic (non autistic) brains do- this is a proven fact. This means we can’t filter out what we need to, hence sensory issues, extreme empathy, and general processing issues. I’m tired of hearing “Will Graham can’t be autistic because he experiences extreme empathy” as if differences in empathy aren’t autistic traits. While some autistic people can have no empathy or little empathy, there are plenty of autistic people who are hyper empathetic, to their detriment, just like Will Graham. Will’s inability to separate his connection with people from his daily life is almost an obvious indicator to autistic viewers (or anyone who knows about autism) that Will Graham is autistic. And the part where he says he absorbs too much instead of simply not being able to read them is a gross oversimplification of what happens in an autistic person’s head when we socialize. We do absorb everything, which is why it’s so hard to process it all. We absorb more than an allistic person. This can be incredibly painful, which seems to be Will Graham’s experience. It’s just crazy to me how he can basically describe the autistic experience, and then claim that’s why this character isn’t autistic.

pleeeeeaaaase let me talk about hannibal I promise I’ll be normal this time