I Find It Kind Of Crazy How Misinformed Hugh Dancy Is About Autism- Especially Considering Him Playing

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.

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

tell me why media with killers who have to pretend they’re not killers (Dexter, Hannibal, etc.) is the perfect allegory for the experience of autistic masking 😩😩😩 like it’s so comforting to see characters like that because it really does feel like you’re hiding this awful secret sometimes

YOOOOOOO

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

Before starting testosterone, I was terrified. I heard people (mostly terfs) describing how it destroys perfectly healthy female bodies. How it changes you in a tragic and irreversible way.

Now that I’ve been on T for about 3 months, I’ve never been happier. The first time my voice cracked after starting T I felt an indescribable feeling of euphoria. When the peach fuzz on my face got more noticeable, I looked at myself in the mirror for almost 20 minutes straight.

I’m not saying testosterone is for everyone, but don’t let transphobic rhetoric scare you from making that decision for yourself 🩵