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Stoogebie Since: Apr, 2011
Oct 1st 2013 at 5:25:12 PM •••

Funnily enough, my own family does this to me all the time. Not my immediate family though; but some of my relatives have been talking to me like a brain-damaged five-year-old since I was seven. I'm in college. And it so happens that I have high-functioning Aspergers Syndrome.

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Stoogebie Since: Apr, 2011
Oct 1st 2013 at 5:21:32 PM •••

I want to be clear: Is this trope an instance when someone with a disability is assumed weak, helpless, or incapable (at least less capable than reality) because of said disability, the above plus said disabled person proving the former's assumption(s) wrong, or when a disabled person actually is as helpless and feeble as the less informed would assume? I ask because there seem to be a few "subversions" of this trope, even though it seems the whole "Actually, there is an 'ability' in disability," is par for the course when this trope is in play.

Also, wouldn't it well be combined with Handicapped Badass, given that this would be a rather egregious way of Underestimating Badassery?

Ju Since: Jan, 2014
Feb 8th 2011 at 3:05:42 PM •••

It sucks how everyone makes the assumption that if you are disabled, you ought to be treated with the most condescending patronization humanly possible. However, what if said disabled person used this trope to their advantage? Obfuscating Stupidity, anyone?

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