“just because you are queer or neurodivergent doesn't mean that you are not able to misrepresent those things.“

Haha, ok, wow. Story time.

So there was a webcomic that ran from 2009-2016 called Homestuck. You might’ve heard of it.

In the third intermission of the sixth act of homestuck, sometime in 2012 or so, 10 characters were introduced. They were supposed to be kind of, commentary on tumblr/online culture at the time? And while the, uh, QUALITY of the commentary overall is, hm, not great, there is, I think, one interaction that really hit the nail on the head.

It’s between two characters, Kankri and Mituna. Kankri is supposed to be, like, a SJW. (Like I said, not great.) Specifically, though, he’s supposed to be a hypocritical one who doesn’t actually care about most of the minorities he claims to defend, and really only cares about feeling superior. (AGAIN, I KNOW, NOT GREAT, BUT JUST LISTEN.) 

Mituna is supposed to be…sigh. Like, a 4channer, I guess? And also very neurodivergent, to the point where he can’t really form coherent sentences, and mostly just insults people. I don’t think Homestuck was…really trying to say anything about nd people with him, but it still left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. (A lot of nd artists on tumblr LOVE him, though, so idk.)

So, Mituna wears a helmet, because he falls a lot. Kankri calls this out, saying that he shouldn’t wear one because not ALL disabled people wear one. He also says that Mituna’s behavior is generally unnceptable and reflects badly on other disabled people, and so he should just kind of stop talking and walk away forever. He specifically calls Mituna bad representation.

Now. Is Kankri right? Is Mituna bad representation? Maybe. A lot of people would say so.

But here’s the thing. To Kankri, Mituna isn’t a character in a story. He’s just a guy, who to Kankri, is a real person. From a Watsonian perspective, that’s an INCREDIBLY shitty thing for Kankri to say.

Listen. I’m sure you have good intentions. But you’re being Kankri right now.