RR did not write Shane as autistic for the representation, she did it because she wanted to make him oblivious and "selfish", and in her mind autistic people are self-centered and uncaring.
She did not write him struggling with his diet and being extremely nervous about food to explore his anxiety, perfectionism, fear of judgment, the pressure he feels as a wasian athlete, she did it because she wanted to make him a bad boyfriend, "annoying" and "self absorbed", too focused on his diet to notice his partner's depression, and for Ilya to make fun of him.
(She'll never admit she gave him an eating disorder because THAT would frame ILYA as the selfish, uncaring one for mocking him and never noticing it was something serious, she tells us over and over that Ilya is the most perceptive character in the GC universe, and yet he completely ignores Shane's anxiety, fear, control issues, and how race plays into all of it)
She did not write him as a Wasian athlete in the whitest, most racist sport to criticize and call out hockey culture, she did it to fetishize him.
Shane's ethnicity is only acknowledged when he's in bed with Ilya. A Wasian man in a white, racist sport? Doesn't matter. His Japanese heritage is only acknowledged when his his small-hairless-feminine body is being compared to Ilya's big-strong-masculine one.
Any struggle she gives Shane is not for Shane's character arc, it's for Ilya to react to, be either turned on or victimized by.
People don't have issues with Shane having flaws. We have issue with the REASONS RR says are behind his flaws.
A big part of the fandom is queer (a lot of us closeted and scared as shit to get outed, just like Shane), poc and neurodivergent. And she's telling us we're all selfish, stupid idiots.
But hey, that's just Canadian humor, right?
Also... "Shane is imaginary" is a shitty excuse coming from the woman that in interviews said criticism of Ilya (and only Ilya!) hurts her deeply and who ran to write the Vegas scene from his POV because people were EMPATHIZING WITH SHANE too much for her taste.
Her flippant, sarcastic response completely missed the point. And on her ig stories she KEEPS DEFLECTING and ignoring the elephant in the room.
I really feel like she's gaslighting us.
"Shane has always been my favorite" WHERE? WHEN? When you "joked" about him being a stupid, selfish idiot? About him having a small dick and other racist microaggressions? Or when you wrote him as a walking fetish? A stereotyped Asian bottom, hairless, feminine and submissive?
"I created him first, before Ilya" and yet in q&as she said that while writing Game Changer she thought about making it Scott x a Russian player who later became Ilya and even wrote a first draft about it (Ilya had a different name), and that she decided to write HR as that story, and only THEN Shane's character popped in her head.
Seriously, we're all being gaslit here. And why? Because we dare call out her racism, ableism and homophobia.
Also... in that video she said she calls her children "stupid idiot". One of them was assessed for autism and is neurodivergent. And she said that without batting an eye. 0 awareness.
Personally I think the inverse happened with her deciding to make him autistic, because she could have made him selfish/self-centered/stupid without doing that even if she does associate those traits with autism. I think she wrote HR, a lot of people interpreted him as autistic and she had an autistic son, and maybe, she decided to intentionally characterize Shane as autistic in tlg - and then her biases just bled into him.
That is what happened with his diet yeah, but what's worse is I know or at least I think (and I'm not going to go out of my way to find the quote so if I'm wrong correct me, or take it with a grain of salt) she said at some other point she also gave him the diet so that Ilya would have something to tease him about, which is sure something.
A few people have said to me now that she'll never admit she gave Shane an eating disorder because it would implicate Ilya, and while I agree that's why she would never give word of God it's an eating disorder, I really can't stress enough that I don't think she intentionally gave him an eating disorder and is just denying it. I think people on tumblr greatly overestimate how much the average person, especially the average person's Reid's age, knows about eating disorders and how seriously they take eating disorders. Orthorexia is not even an officially recognized eating disorder. Majority of people would not see anything wrong with how Shane eats or thinks of food. I don't think Reid is just refusing to admit it's an eating disorder even if she also never would anyway because of Ilya - I promise you that woman genuinely does not believe Shane has an eating disorder.
But anyway, the point your making is true. Basically zero choices Reid made with regard to Shane's characterization or conflicts had anything to do with Shane as a character. He was created as a vehicle to explore Ilya through.
Has she fr said she created Shane first? That is just blatantly not true? She has admitted that? We have textual proof of that? What the fuck is she talking about? That is a very disprovable lie?
I don't know, like I said, the reason people are defending her by trying to simplify this issue and act like it's just people being mad she gave a character flaws, or mad she doesn't like a character, or mad because they're too sensitive and don't get her humor - is because that's the only way she can be defended. The only way she can be defended is by insisting the issue is something it's not, because when you actually confront the issue at hand here, it's inexcusable.
And thing is, let's say that all of the people criticizing her right now really are being too sensitive. Let's say that we really are all in the wrong, and we're needlessly upset.
There's still no reason she has to mock her own fanbase for the crime of being too sensitive or not understanding her writing. That apology video was kind of the last straw for me, because it showed what she really thinks of her fans who are hurt by her depiction and treatment of Shane. She could have made a video explaining herself while being respectful and understanding to the fans who are upset with her even without conceding any wrongdoing or agreeing with them, and she didn't. She didn't even do that. She instead chose to post an extremely insensitive apology making a joke out of the entire situation.
And like, when this many marginalized fans are upset with the author for something, if you are still insisting outright that they are all just overreacting and too sensitive and just witch hunting the author - you need to fucking reflect on that. You need to reflect on why it is more plausible to you that this many fans of color and neurodivergent fans are overreacting and getting upset over nothing than that maybe Reid has actually done something offensive. You also need to examine why it is more important to you to defend one white woman than all of the marginalized fans she's offended.