Apparently, it’s a conspiracy.
Sesame Street introduced a new character onto our screens this week — Julia.
Julia has red hair, green eyes and autism.
Julia is just one among many other characters that Sesame Street is introducing to showcase the diversity of children and their many unique talents. Mamamia wrote all about it here.
But not everyone is happy about Julia’s arrival.
Anti-vaccination networks say that Sesame Street is attempting to wrongfully ‘normalise’ autism, which they claim is directly caused from vaccinations. (Whilst we’re on it, the link between vaccinations and autism has been repeatedly discredited from credible research institutions, and you can read some of the research, here, here, and here.)
The Vaccine Resistance Movement (VRM) were one of the first to take issue with Julia, when this image was posted:
Poster of the image, Will Durden, wrote:
“Yayyyyyy!!!! Autism is normal!!! Let’s celebrate our children’s neurological disorders!!! DON’T ASK WHY!!!”
His post hazarded a number of other comments from “concerned citizens”, including:
“I hear what you’re saying. There are soooo many things in this world that shouldn’t be made to sound or look ‘normal ‘. But at the same time we’re talking about children having some type of comfort even if it’s temporary. An obese child shouldn’t accept that it’s healthy to live like that but adding some type of comfort and self confidence, letting them know they’re not alone is crucial.”
Watch a little bit of Julia in Sesame Street so far. (Post continues after video.)
And:
“Exactly!! This will be public tv’s chance to pretend autism is generic I’m sure!! They will claim she was born that way — raising another generation of kids that will grow up and believe that LIE!!!!”
Some anti-vaccination advocates have even gone as far to conclude that the introduction of Julia is just a smaller pawn in a government-corporation conspiracy to increase the number of vaccinations, hence increase autism and ultimately, earn more money.
“Well, I just finished reading lengthy posts about autism being ‘normal’ until I was dizzy! I could not agree more with your viewpoint on this. You can bet your bottom dollar that big pharma and the gov are behind this new autistic character. They are trying to dupe us once again and I can’t believe how many people are falling for it. Even those on VRM.”
We shall leave that comment without comment.
Scroll through to see the other responses. (Post continues after gallery.)
Julia
What do you have to say to people who suggest the character of Julia is a bad idea?
Top Comments
I have Aspergers and have been bullied because of it by most of my year group at high school. That was a long time ago but I am still affected by it to some extent. The comments from the Anti-Vaxxers imply that it was my fault I was discriminated against and that anyone else on the spectrum deserves to be treated badly. On the other hand, I think introducing a character with autism on sesame street may teach kids about autism and if done tastefully, should lower bullying. Hopefully, efforts such as that done by Sesame Street leads to less children with ASD being bullied.
I hope these anti-vaxxers realise what the are doing by attacking this character and indirectly encouraging discrimination which from my experience, has led to some self-loathing and disgust over other aspects of myself.
P.S: Why is a character with autism more repulsive than one with cancer or diabetes? None of them chose to be that way.
Sesame street is designed to reflect society. It has characters from varied ethnic groups so why not have characters of varied mental ability? (Sorry if not a pc correct post x)