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Star Trek's Autistic & Neurodiverse Representation (Patreon)

Published:
2020-11-06 19:03:31
Imported:
2022-07

Content

Easily one of the most requested topics I get is to discuss the  representation of Autism within Star Trek. And it’s not surprising why.  Star Trek’s most popular and enduring characters have often been those  who have neurodiverse personalities, from Spock to Data and Barclay to  Tilly. Star Trek has been littered with numerous characters that  autistic people have identified into. So let's analyze why Star Trek has  continued to speak to the neurodiverse community for over 50 years.

Files

Star Trek's Autistic & Neurodiverse Representation

Easily one of the most requested topics I get is to discuss the representation of Autism within Star Trek. And it’s not surprising why. Star Trek’s most popular and enduring characters have often been those who have neurodiverse personalities, from Spock to Data and Barclay to Tilly. Star Trek has been littered with numerous characters that autistic people have identified into. So let's analyze why Star Trek has continued to speak to the neurodiverse community for over 50 years. LINKS ✔Star Trek Book on Autism - https://www.amazon.com/Explore-Strange-New-Worlds-Understanding-ebook/dp/B0794VZKFP ✔Spock and Autism video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1vcEXpQNhI SUPPORT THE CHANNEL ✔ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jessiegender ✔ PayPal: https://paypal.me/jessiegender ✔ Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/jessiegender ✔ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessiegender/ ✔ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessiegender ✔ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessie.gender1/

Comments

GeekFilter

That was really nicely done!

Zoe Alden

I'm so excited to watch this!! ❤️

Anonymous

I've loved your videos before, but this is the one that inspired me to become a patron. You are doing great work with your show, and I'm proud to be able to help you out in a small way. Thank you for your hard work. (PS, I'm @podweirder on Twitter.)

Anonymous

I'm still crying a bit, from the ending montage. At 20:49, omg that is my exact experience. I haven't been diagnosed, but I've long suspected that I'm on the spectrum. I really appreciate these researched long-form video essays.

Hannah F.

I've never been diagnosed, and I never had sufficient reason to suspect I'm on the spectrum. But I always felt I was verbalising more than maybe usual, especially emotions. It's not like I cannot read people, but the anxiety to be _wrong_ never leaves me. And I very much relate to the noise thing. I have a new upstairs neighbour, and they're a lot noisier than their predecessors. And I have a really hard time adjusting to it, and I get anxious every time I hear them moving about, not to mention when they put on loud music. I have started to wear earplugs at night regularly, and even though they kinda work, I have trouble sleeping. In any case, empathising with others and realising similar quirks can be a good thing in my opinion. We are so used to looking at how we are different, maybe we ought to ask ourselves more often in which ways we are the same. Especially when it is about perceived weaknesses.

Hannah F.

By they way, was it just my impression or has the list of Commander level patrons at the end of the video grown a lot longer this month? That's cool. 🤔☺️

Anonymous

I loved this, it was really good. It got me in the 'I felt this but didn't have words for it for most of my life' area. Especially the way that it has been very difficult to persuade myself that people like me if they don't explicitly tell me they like me. I think my autism contributed to my ability when I worked as a cataloguer, but my difficulty reading social prompts hurt when I moved into front room work in libraries. I made some of my co-workers uncomfortable unintentionally and when I had finally gotten most of my social skills levelled up I didn't realize that I was well liked by patrons as I was. I wish I'd learned about the spectrum when I was younger. When I learned I was on it I was mid-thirties and the media representations I was familiar with were... unflattering and unrelatable. Nowadays it's better. I am afraid I'll have to retrain myself after having spent most of the year in social isolation, but I'm better at reading people and being upfront about things instead of just assuming what people think (and they were always the worst assumptions). There have been a few characters I've read autism onto where it may not have been intentioned. Whether they're meant to be on the spectrum or not, they feel more real than the characters who were there to teach us that autism was a thing and we should be nice to the people who have it.

Anonymous

I need to thank you for inspiring me to watch Star Trek Discovery (in reaction to your video about your joy about the arrival of a non-binary character). I have since binged seasons 1 and 2 - I am in love. I also discovered (sic!) that there are surprisingly deep emotional roots within me that started with watching occasional isolated episodes of the original series as a kid. For some reason, it didn't draw me in so deeply at the time, but it made me cry regularly (the first time when the first introduction ended with the original theme). I have been digging into my emotions since then to find out the context. This episode of yours gave me a lot of pointers - I learned about two years ago that I am not neurotypical - which is a relief as well as an adventurous process after decades of trying to "fit in" and spending tons of energy to do things "the same as everybody". It would fit that kid-me felt some of the feelings you discribe of yourself when watching Star Trek, but without the reverence frame of diagnostics and information on mental health in general, kid-me was still lost. Still processing all this - feel the need to let you know about the impact you and your work have over here. Thank you and all the best from Germany!

Jessie Earl
>>47650098

<3 I agree, character who were not intentded to be autistic representation often teach us more about how to live our lives on the spectrum then those meant to explicitly represent autism. Perhaps because they aren't looked down upon or pitied by the typically not on the spectrum writer.

Jessie Earl
>>47722832

Thanks Frau! I'm so glad that I was able to help and giving you some context. also, I'm so glad I helped you discovery (haha) Discovery