#also yeah sunmi has a bpd diagnosis but i srsly dont mean anything by it i just mean moreso how broadly inept

[mobiused]

lil bit of a question based on one of ur replies to that ask, you don't have to answer! - do you think hypothetically speaking a person on the spectrum would be allowed to become an idol? to be clear I'm not saying that's what she is specifically, I could never tell if she or really anyone show clear signs of that, but just in general. I feel like they wouldn't? Or maybe it'd depend on the severity?

For starters, I think there are already idols with undiagnosed/unpublicised autism in the industry. Also I don't believe in autism severity - it alienates those classed with severe from the rest of autistic society, and puts those who would be classed as mild in a class above the rest, as well as minimizing their struggles by calling it mild.

But this kind of poses a really interesting question on the nature of autism, which I think will become more and more relevant as the Covid Kids grow up - Will a lack of healthy social development during childhood be incorrectly conflated with autism? What impact might this have on society, and how will it shape conversations and attitudes towards autism? There are many studies which suggests this causes development issues, but impairments aren't the same as neurodivergencies. Having worked with a lot of kids with special educational needs, I learnt the difference between overdiagnosis of boys with autism (who really were boys with CPTSD/boundary issues), and underdiagnosis of girls (who are notoriously brushed off as quirky and not disordered and only get their struggles acknowledged in adlthood after masking for years), and this is reflected in adulthood too with how many autistic women are incorrectly diagnosed with BPD and not autism, and not enough men are correctly diagnosed with BPD. This alone shows how misunderstood autism is by the people who are supposed to diagnose it. I guess by saying this, I also mean the idol trainee system can inadvertently create symptoms in trainees which mimick autism - and it might genuinely be impossible to differentiate between the impact of this... unique *twitches* upbringing of a trainee, and an autistic trainee.

As many people allege, neurodivergency is often considered a spectrum and even if someone has symptoms, it might not necessarily warrant a diagnosis, or even if it did, they might not want to ID with it for whatever reason. This, combined with a culture that massively underdiagnoses autism for both boys and girls due to how stigmatized it is. Despite a study which claims 1 in 38 children in SK have traits that would qualify for an Autism diagnosis (compare with 1 in 100 in USA which is probably inaccurate but w/e), only 1/3 of the kids that were flagged were actually diagnosed. Many families with a diagnosis keep it secret, even from the kid, many families who suspect autism in their child won't bring it up due to the shame associated with a diagnosis, and many don't even know what it is or what to look for, and it won't even cross their minds. Of course, these attitudes aren't unique to Korea, these ableist attitudes are global, it's just that it seems the prevalent attitude in Korea is pretending it doesn't exist. (though attitudes are changing postively!) Taking this into account, I really doubt a company would even know if one of their trainees had an autism diagnosis. If any of the staff suspected autism, I don't think they'd push for a diagnosis, and if they did actually know, I don't think they'd make it public. With a global and local lack of understanding of autism, I think it makes it extraordinarily difficult for someone to "come out" as autistic in the industry.

I'm not sure if you the asker are neurodivergent/on the spectrum yourself, but I don't think autism would necessarily be too limiting to prevent a successful career. Not every autistic person has social anxiety despite whatever social difficulties they have, and a talent motivated by special interest such as singing or dancing might actually help them be more skilled than their peers. Of course there's sensory issues, but we've seen idols have meltdowns over sensory issues before and come out the other side mostly okay, and we also know that in groups with healthy friendships that the members are happy to accomodate other members' quirks or struggles. Autism or no autism, people who care about other people naturally accomodate for other people's needs and difficulties. Implying that autistic people couldn't succeed in the idol industry rubs me the wrong way a little - anyone with autism is going to struggle in any career they do, some people more than others, some careers more than others, but having autism shouldn't universally rule out any career of any kind.

While I was joking about Sunmi, I don't see why it wouldn't be possible.

#for transparency so nobody takes this the wromg way i have neurodivergent diagnoses plural #if it wasnt already obvious from my... everything... #i dont wanna link anything like sources cuz i dont have the bandwidth to check whether theyre like secretly evil etc #also yeah sunmi has a bpd diagnosis but i srsly dont mean anything by it i just mean moreso how broadly inept #the world is at accurately diagnosing and understanding neurodivergent conditions #long post