i actually have so much to say about shane and food, and how in general, shane is a perfect example of why the functioning model primarily used is psychology is so inadequate when applied to autistic people. i think shane has a pretty gnarly relationship to food, but i don’t think it meets any ED criteria without some exaggeration. mostly bc shane is fully functioning and not losing any weight and he’s a pro athlete.
“so when i do it, it’s an ED but when a pro athlete does it, it’s good and fine and normal—” yes exactly, that’s the whole thing, right? what we consider abnormal or inherently patholoical behavior/experiences are constructed. stars are real, but constelltions aren’t, right. we could interrogate why the mild depersonalization of your own body and wonky relationship to personhood/food is basically required to become a pro athlete, and what it says about our society that this is consider de facto okay, but like. that is not what most shane ED fics are digging into.
shane’s whole Thing is that he Functions. he functions at all costs. he will cognitively amputate anything that threatens his ability to function. this is not gonna get a psych doc in your business, you feel? i think shane would have a hell of a time finding a therapist, and CBT would be an hour of useless frustration.
this is why “distress is disorder” is the model many disability activists are pushing bc functioning misses so many ppl who are suffering but who function. (and obv many ppl will eventually slide into dysfuction after long enough.)
anyway i’m exploring all this in a fic rn so. ig if anyone’s interested in that, keep an eye out!
