Cassandra Clare and Autistic Characters; The Problem
Before I start, Iâd like to highlight that Iâm autistic myself, and if youâre not autistic, you donât have the right to comment your opinion on this issue. Of course, feel free to reblog. If youâre autistic and disagree in any way, or have another opinion, you can feel free to contribute and reblog or reply with your point of view. Iâve turned off anons because Iâm a minor and Iâm not ready to face hate due to this post, so if you want to ask me anything just send me a non anon ask.
There are two reasons I decided to make this post. Firstly, there are a lot of problems with autistic characters in Cassandra Clareâs work. (Yes, that is characters plural. Iâll get into this later.) The second reason, and the reason I consider this especially important, is that Cassandra Clare is praised by a lot of people for her autistic representation due to the canonically autistic character Ty Blackthorn. Therefore, as an autistic person, I feel it is important to speak about why I personally donât consider him good representation.
First, I would like to talk about Ty specifically. The main reason people regard him as such amazing representation is because heâs one of the only explicitly autistic characters in mainstream young adult books - especially in a fantasy book thatâs plot doesnât centre around the fact that Ty is autistic. It saddens me that the bar is so low that any character who is canonically autistic is considered revolutionary. Whilst I canât criticise everything about Ty - the fact that Cassandra Clare chose to include an autistic character IS good, and I like how his interests are things that are traditionally âfeminineâ - animals and mystery books - instead of the autistic science nerd stereotype, I still find him a very stereotypical and unoriginal autistic character archetype.
Ty is a skinny, smart, white boy. Whilst his sexuality does set him apart, these other traits apply to every other autistic character in mainstream media. Heâs shown as being non empathetic and even, at times, robot-like. This is completely unrealistic and is an untrue stereotype found in almost all autistic characters in popular media.Â
At times, his character is presented as being a burden to his family - specifically Julian, who Tyâs character is used to highlight how much weight he carries on his shoulders after being forced to become the father figure to his younger siblings. This encourages the ableist belief in readers that autistic people are burdens on their loved ones, and that those close to them are angels for putting up with them. Iâve seen this reflected in the way the Shadowhunters fandom interprets the ship Kitty (Kit x Ty) and treat Kit like some kind of angel for being friends with Ty and âputting up withâ his autistic mannerisms.Â
Throughout Queen of Air and Darkness, Kit deceives Ty, pretending to be on his side and that he wants to help him revive Livvy, when in reality, heâs trying to stop Ty. At the end of the book, he suddenly leaves Ty without an explanation to live with Jem and Tessa after the events of the book. Whilst Kit has his own personal reasons for doing these things, itâs a horrible, insensitive and selfish way to treat and deceive an autistic boy who is in mourning, especially considering how Kit is set up to be very knowledgeable about autistic people. Tyâs life is built on honesty and he will instinctively trust those close to him, especially Kit, who he considers his best friend. If he found out that Kit had been lying to him, he would be devastated and become unable to trust anyone, because he wonât know if they too are lying to him. Furthermore, by leaving Ty without an explanation, heâs making Ty think that heâs done something wrong to Kit, one of the people he cares most about in the world, leaving him wracked with guilt.
The problem here isnât that Kit did these things; heâs a literal fifteen year old boy, of course heâs going to make mistakes. What annoys me is how the narrative treats Kitâs behaviour, especially his lying to Ty about his intentions with the Livvy necromancy subplot, like itâs acceptable and the right thing to do. When he leaves Ty, itâs more of an angst point to set up the next series than the utter betrayal it would be in real life. If Cassandra Clare had done substantial research about autistic people or had her books sensitivity read by them, this would have been pointed out and should have been rewritten.
Which leads me onto my next point; Cassandra Clareâs research doesnât appear to be satisfactory. According to this tweet from 2016, the year Lady Midnight was published, for her research, she spoke to âparents of autistic children.â
If youâre not autistic, you probably wonât understand the problem here, so Iâll try to explain it as simply as I can. Parents of autistic children are notoriously unreliable. They tend to make assumptions about their children and say things that autistic people would wholeheartedly disagree with. Itâs common for parents of autistic children to view autism as a problem or tragedy, or something that children need to be taught out of. Cassandra Clare could have spoken to actual autistic people, who would have given her a much more well rounded view of autistic people and how to write Ty. Heâs a teenage boy; there are many autistic teenagers, myself included, who would be more than happy to tell her what and what not to include, and how to realistically write autistic characters.Â
She is clearly aware she is not the most experienced person on the topic of autism; she chose not to include Tyâs pov at any point in The Dark Artifices because she doesnât feel confident writing from an autistic perspective. Here is a screenshot of her admitting it on her blog a few years ago.
Therefore, she should have gone to the many autistic people who could give her advice, instead of parents who have no idea what itâs like to be autistic themselves.
Now, I would like to talk about Henry Branwell and Christopher Lightwood, from The Infernal Devices and The Last Hours trilogies. Both are very heavily autistic coded. This means that they show a lot of autistic traits, to the degree where autistic readers become certain theyâre autistic. A lot of the time, this is when autistic readers headcanon a character to be autistic. However, in this instance, they show so many autistic traits it would be hard for me to believe theyâre not autistic. I wonât go into specifics too deeply, but many other autistic fans have also noticed this. For example, both Christopher and Henry can get so lost in their work they donât notice other things taking place, and also donât understand social signals.
I find it offensive that Cassandra Clare, who has been hailed as an autistic representation saviour because of Ty, could write two characters who are so clearly autistic and refuse to confirm or deny it. Historical accuracy is irrelevant, she could easily discuss this on her tumblr, where she regularly answers asks about other aspects of her books. I have sent her many asks politely asking if Christopher is autistic, and have been ignored every time, despite the fact sheâs answered all my other asks about other things. She cannot consider herself a true autistic ally if she writes two characters who show many autistic traits and refuses to acknowledge it.
In conclusion, Cassandra Clareâs books do not contain the incredible autistic representation that many people paint them out to. Whilst I do appreciate that she included Ty, who would be the first autistic character many readers had ever encountered, we need to acknowledge the many flaws in her representation, not only for autistic characters, but her lgbt+ characters and characters of colour as well. I hope that if she sees this, she doesnât take this as mindless hate but takes into consideration what Iâve said and takes more care researching and writing Ty in the upcoming Wicked Powers trilogy, and speaks about her autistic coding of Christopher and Henry, especially considering Christopher will be a main character in two more books that are still to be released.
Thank you for reading! It would be very helpful if you could reblog this to help spread the word.
Edit: Iâm really sorry that I didnât include this in the original post but if youâre autistic and you love ty and consider him great rep thatâs totally valid and this is just my personal opinion, and Iâm really sorry if I made anyone feel guilty for liking him, every autistic personâs view is valid
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