can we have some neurodivergent arizona hcs?
Okay this is going to be significantly more than what you asked for, because I honestly— honestly!— believe that most if not all of Arizona’s neurodivergent behaviors are showcased in canon
And if this is not the post for you, then it’s not the post for you! Keep on scrolling, I will not be offended. But if you keep reading, you’re gonna have to take this for what it is: My interpretation of a fictional character. Interpretations vary. Mine is not gospel. But it is mine, and I like it, and I stand by it
I specifically headcanon Arizona as autistic, and this will be a post discussing that, but I've also seen some people say that they interpret her as ADHD and I'm all for it! That wasn't my reading, but there's a lot there to support it in canon. I just don't have an already developed argument for it
Disclaimer 1: Disclosing my autism here through Arizona— because let’s be real, there’s no way I would have noticed any of this if I wasn’t autistic, so there’s no way to avoid disclosing if I want to discuss this— is extremely vulnerable. Most of the people in my day to day irl life don’t even know that I’m autistic. I present in a very palatable, easily digestible way. People like me, and I get away with a lot because people like me. To me, Arizona screams autistic-but-charming, gets-away-with-a-lot
Part 1: Thank you for asking though... I'm super flattered. Super!
Or: Autistic honesty and masking to compensate
Arizona consistently exhibits straightforward, honest behavior that reads as rude to others. Like, all of the time, from day 1
As in almost the first words that come out of her mouth.
Arizona walks into her new position with roller-skates and a smile, immediately insults her predecessor to one of his coworkers, and then is genuinely confused when Bailey doesn't like her
One of the strongest arguments for autistic Arizona is the way she just says blatantly insulting, brutally honest things and genuinely believes that because she's smiling, and because it's true, that it won't be offensive. Which-- works? Kind of? She does get away with it! She's just out here saying whatever she earnestly believes all of the time and getting away with it
She also follows very specific social scripts, and very specific rules for engaging with other people (particularly in seasons 5-6) regardless of if those social scripts/rules are actually appropriate in the moment
The first example we see of this is 5x12 when Alex confronts her for asking him about his Valentine's Day plans-- Arizona knows that in a situation where she is left alone with a colleague for an extended period of time, she's supposed to make conversation. It does not occur to her that the timing might be inappropriate, because while she understands and acknowledges internally that they are both having feelings about what just happened, those feelings do not override her social script. She is unable to recognize the nuance of the situation, and thinks that Alex won't either-- and while she is ultimately positioned as "right" within the narrative of the show, it's interesting that she maintains this behavior (politeness script > genuine social tact) in situations where the show positions her as "wrong"
If you pay attention, Arizona is consistently very regimented in her politeness. She's been taught how to be polite, and she follows that script regardless of the situation. And when people react negatively to that, she's frequently confused
It's also important to note that 5x12 is an episode about empathy, and that Arizona is positioned as being the more empathetic person in this conversation with Alex. I've heard people--psychiatrists, even--describe autism as an "empathy disorder" which is something I choose not to engage with, and something that does not represent all autistic people. If we think of autism as an empathy disorder, then obviously we will not be able to conceptualize Arizona as autistic (Arizona who loves so much and so deeply, who goes into spiraling depressions every single time she loses a patient, who wants to be liked so, so badly)
Arizona is everything but unempathetic, but she does script and she does mask
The deliberateness she approaches casual conversation with, and her consistent inability to recognize when this script becomes inappropriate, reads as autistic to me!
Part of what makes her have such a distinct character voice is that hyper-specific scripting. You can always predict how Arizona is going to react, what Arizona is going to say, because she uses and reuses the same words/sentence patterns throughout her run on Grey's. Her way of speaking is always running along the same pattern with little to no deviation, even across years. I mean lbr, I'm calling it: script script script script script
Another perfect early example of Arizona's hyper-polite, overexuberant scripting is when she turns Callie down in 5x16
We have the smile-- and come on, that smile is masking if I've ever seen it
The rejection, followed immediately by an earnest but abrupt apology
And then-- then!!-- she literally insults Callie ("I work in peds. I spend my whole day around newborns, so I try not to in my personal life") and finishes it off with a thank you
So many viewers had an immediate negative reaction to Arizona after this scene, because it's "condescending" and "rude"-- which, yeah, that's a fair! But what's relevant here is that not only is she being entirely earnest, she's completely unaware that she's being insulting
Arizona genuinely believes that if she follows her scripts exactly, all of the time, nobody will notice. Which works insofar that people don't notice that she's autistic, they just think she's, like, super fucking rude
And isn't that interesting? Because we, as fans, recognize Arizona as someone who's extremely polite, who values politeness. But that's not how people react to her when they meet her
Arizona is straightforward to a fault, and she does not understand (and frequently does not notice) people reacting negatively to her because of it
You could argue that Arizona is completely aware that she's being insulting, but that argument would involve saying that Arizona doesn't care what people think about her, and I really do not see any canon support for that. Az deeply cares what people think about her. She cries when her boss is mad at her. She cries (rejection sensitivity much?)
This scene is also really interesting. Arizona says something truthful but insulting, and Bailey-- who knows her, and who is one of the people who unintentionally helps her manage how she's being perceived-- steps in, and she immediately backtracks. Because someone she trusts has indicated to her that she said the wrong thing. And maybe she would have gotten that just from the Chief's reaction, but at the end of the day she still said it. She said it, and she wasn't trying to be insulting-- she was just being honest. Arizona doesn't know where that line is.
I really cannot emphasize this enough: Arizona. Just. Says. What. She. Thinks.
All of the time!! She can't help herself-- she would stop if she could, but she can't, so she covers it all up with the biggest smile you've ever seen and lots of the most polite things you've ever heard in the most inappropriate contexts they could possibly be said in. And it works! Somehow, her raggedy duct-tape solution to accidentally insulting everyone she meets is remarkably effective
To me, this is masking. She's diverting attention from autistic behaviors specifically so people will continue to like her; through the smiling and the bubbliness and the gregarious chattiness, she's distracting from the fact that she regularly says extremely honest, inappropriate things
Speaking of Bailey-- let's take a look at this scene.
There's something about the genuine confusion in how JCap plays this scene that really stands out to me.
Arizona knows that Bailey has lost someone, and recognizes, empathizes, with the fact that she may be struggling to think about work-- but getting a negative reaction does not occur to her as a possibility until Bailey responds negatively (see image below)
Within the text of the conversation, Arizona says directly that she does not mean to be insensitive, but her values are too rigid for her to change tracks. More on that later.
Part 2: Maybe I don't understand people. I don't see things.
Or: Guessing how other people feel and sometimes getting it super, super wrong
This part is going to be pretty short, but I can't not include it
At the end of s5, Arizona says it, point blank:
And this is so early into her run on Grey's that it has to be understood as something fundamental about her character. The writer's want us, explicitly, to understand Arizona as someone who occasionally misses out on social cues and knows it
In either 6x1 or 6x2, After George dies Callie says, "And Arizona keeps sending me doughnuts." and we learn that that's what Arizona did when her brother died. She ate doughnuts. Doughnuts made her feel better, so she sends Callie doughnuts when George dies. That's how Arizona expresses empathy in times where she knows her script is inadequate, by treating people the way she wanted to be treated-- by caring for them in the way that makes the most sense for her
Something that a lot of autistic people do, and that a lot of non-autistics read as unempathetic, is connecting their personal experiences of an emotion to another person's experience of that same emotion. I.e., if you've recently lost a loved one, an autistic person may express empathy by sharing about when they lost a loved one. Another example is if you've just gone through a breakup, and autistic person may tell you about a breakup they've been through
This reads as self-centered and unempathetic sometimes, because it feels like the autistic person is centering their own emotions in a situation about you-- when really, they're just trying to connect
Which makes this conversation in 12x4 between Arizona and April hilarious, because she can recognize it in others but not herself
(April and Arizona are two non-diagnosed later in life autistic women with advanced masking, btw. Not only that, April and Arizona are the same kind of autistic, which is why their friendship is so special!)
Part 3: I'm a good man in a storm.
Or: Black and white thinking, moral codes, and autistic sense of identity
I've said this before, and I will say it again-- Arizona is a fundamentally moral person. She stands on her morals, and she suffers for her morals. Only the disruption of her fundamental sense of self takes this part of her away, because her sense of right and wrong is her sense of identity. Arizona sees herself as someone who is good, and she knows what, specifically, it means to be good
Love your country, love your family, protect the things you love. She doesn't deviate and she doesn't play around with it, ever. Arizona decides on something, and she follows through
In order to understand Arizona as a character, we have to isolate her fundamental beliefs. To me, these are kindness, service, and autonomy. We also must understand that outside of the post-crash decimation of her fundamental "self", Arizona does not behave in ways that go against her morals. Ever.
Arizona the idealist, Arizona the self-righteous, Arizona who lives and dies by her beliefs, who does not break her own rules. There's no room for interpretation; there's right, and there's wrong
One of the ways this manifests that I keep coming back to is her belief in autonomy. In 7x18 when it comes down to a choice between Callie or Sofia, Arizona chooses Sofia not because she, personally, values Sofia over Callie but because it's what Callie would want. It's the choice Callie would make. And, yes, Arizona hates that choice, but she honors it. Even if it means the love of her life, the woman she just proposed to, dies. Autonomy is a core value, which means she'll suffer personally to make sure it's upheld
And in s9, when her own autonomy is stripped away, she loses her shit. Not just because of the leg, but because it was her decision. Hers. And autonomy is a core value.
"What's different now? No, say it, 'cause it was perfect. It's not a decision that I should be making for you."
This isn't good and it isn't healthy, but it's a direct reflection of Arizona's sense of morality. She isn't being hypocritical here-- she's already shown that she's willing to let Callie die to respect her autonomy. It's not a 1:1 comparison because the situations are wildly different, but this is about idealism. It's not about what's best, it's about what's right.
Returning to that scene with Bailey from part 1. At first, Arizona does not realize that she is being inappropriate, but this scene is significant for more than that. In almost every situation (see: You're my old friend. Older. Older friend.) where Arizona misjudges the social landscape, she pivots very quickly.
This scene is a key example of Arizona's exception-- when being polite contradicts her core values. (In this case, service). Despite realizing that she has crossed a social boundary with Bailey, she pushes the conversation forward anyways, because not doing so would mean worse care for her patient.
"Dr. Bailey... I hear that. And I don't mean to be insensitive, but this kid? This kid's still alive. And I don't know what's wrong with him, not a clue, so I need you to work."
There are several scenes like this one, where Arizona makes this exception and only this exception to her sense of social propriety
It's rigid and uncompromising. There are specific closely held ideals, and a script, and those closely held ideals are the only reason to deviate from the script.
And she's super. freaking. judgmental. particularly when it comes to morality
One of the most horrific examples of Arizona's black and white thinking is when she tells Jackson about April's pregnancy, because it's the right thing to do. Or, it's the right thing to do... to Arizona. Because she fails to recognize the nuance and emotional undertones of April's specific situation. There is right (being honest) and wrong (lying) and she absolutely cannot recognize of the many choices between those things until she receives the overwhelming feedback that actually, she is wrong here
Arizona is an incredibly rigid character. She very rarely understands or seeks nuance unless specifically forced to. I think, in large part, this is why the cheating is such a significant character deviation for us as an audience-- and why Arizona never fully forgives herself for it. Everything that goes wrong in her life from that point forward is punishment for the cheating, and Arizona truly believes that she deserves it.
Even retrospectively, I believe there is a part of her that thinks back on the cheating as earning the plane crash, that wraps those two things up in each other until they're indistinguishable, and then justifies all of her future suffering in perpetuity through it.
The first time we see Arizona truly go against her own ideals has to be post-crash, because it would take the complete destruction of her sense of self for her to go through with something like that. She has to be completely detached from her identity first, because there is no separating her morals from her "self". There's no bending that code until she's so far gone she no longer knows who she is. Arizona simply does not compromise. When she does, it is the kind of compromise that is so unreasonable, so extreme, that it ruins her life-- and she never forgets that. No nuance, ever. She is either living and dying by her morals, and setting fire to them in one wildly destructive action
April does something pretty similar during her crisis of faith, and it reads as autistic there as well! "If I live in a world where my extremely strict morals no longer make the world make sense, then nothing matters and I must set fire to the world."
Part 4: Grey's Anatomy and accidentally writing autistic characters.
So here come the disclaimers: I do not think that Arizona was intentionally written as autistic, and if you asked Shonda Rhimes about it, I think she'd be deeply confused. Like, really confused
But, like, since when has writers writing autistic characters accidentally stopped those characters from being interpreted as autistic? Just look at Dan Harmon and Abed from Community
And Grey's is just so, so consistently guilty of this, because Grey's deals in these huge, larger than life personalities. It has to. Being larger than life is the heart of the show. Look at Cristina and April! They're these extremely different, complicated, deeply autistic-coded women, each with their own self-expressions and relationships to empathy. April is annoying and perky and lacks empathy and carries around a tear-stained notebook of self help book affirmations. And Cristina... I don't even think I have to go there, honestly
These are not characters written to be portrayals of women with autism, and frankly they'd probably be way worse representation for autistic women if they were. We don't let autistic women have varied or diverse presentations. We don't think of the pretty, charming, talkative doctor who likes babies and cigarettes as possibly being autistic but that doesn't mean she isn't. Undiagnosed adult autistic women are everywhere. Everywhere.
(And don't get me started on autistics and addictive tendencies, or how smoking is a great way to have something to do with your hands and mouth without looking weird)
I think a lot of the knee-jerk, negative reaction when people interpret beloved characters as autistic comes down to the belief that autism manifests in exclusively bad ways, ways that inherently make the character less likable
But a lot of the things I like about myself are associated with my being autistic. I'm meticulously detailed, I care very deeply about the things I'm passionate about, I approach my intimate relationships with intentionality and consistency, and it makes me a better writer. It makes me dedicated to being better. I like that I'm autistic! I wouldn't want to be neurotypical, even if sharing that with people is a vulnerable thing
So, I don't know, you don't have to agree with me but at least consider it
