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amberinwonderland
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28 Feb 2013, 3:47 pm

I am an author. I’m currently working on a series that attempts to work through pressing women’s issues through the lens of popular fairy tales ( the first tackles domestic violence through the story structure of Beauty and the Beast)
For my third novel I plan to delve into female autism using the story structure of Snow White. For perhaps obvious reasons the princes character was going to be a white preteen (calling on my own memories of being a preteen autistic). However I read an article for a paper I’m writing on autism rhetoric today and it talked extensively about how media presents autism as a white diagnosis. Not wanting to contribute to more of that misrepresentation I want to change my focus. I want to write a female PoC character with autism- but I obviously cannot do it justice without some research.
So what I’m asking is if the Wrong Planet community would be interested in helping me out- I would like to be able to get feedback on this idea and possibly get interviews with PoC autistic women? Commenting or dropping me a private message would work fine.


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starkid
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28 Feb 2013, 5:50 pm

how is race relevant to your story?



amberinwonderland
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28 Feb 2013, 7:27 pm

Its relevant in that it is a story intended to draw awareness to females with autism, and I, as the author, have become aware that there is also a woeful underrepresentation of PoC in media depictions of what an autistic is. Seeing as I feel that there need to be a better general acceptance of autism as a spectrum, I do not like that it is being portrayed as a 'white male''s diagnosis. So it's relevance is in broadening the idea of who the spectrum encompasses- which is not just white people, as the media often shows.


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-What if I'm a socialite who wants to be alone?- Emilie Autumn
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starkid
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01 Mar 2013, 4:12 pm

I meant, how is race relevant to your plot. Based on what you are saying, it isn't. If all you want to do is let your audience know that the character is not white, you can accomplish that by simply mentioning the color of her skin during a scene in which she gets a physical exam, for example. You do not need to conduct research for that. On the other hand, if you interview people, what you will be getting is the experience of autism from the perspective of certain personalities and one or more particular cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds – none of which are necessarily correlated with race.

As for the media's "misrepresentation" – I seriously doubt that the media is reporting or implying that only white people have autism. Mostly white people are being diagnosed, so that's who gets reported on. The difference in diagnosis is a matter of education, access to healthcare, and probably cultural differences to some extent. To see the media representation as a race issue is a misinterpretation, or a poorly substantiated interpretation at the least.