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Description
One stereotype I never understood was the stereotype that all autistic people are obsessed with trains. This stereotype doesn't annoy me as much as some other autistic stereotypes, but it's still problematic because it's a sweeping generalization. Out of all the autistic people I've met IRL, I've only met one who was fixated on trains. I've been fixated on a lot of things, but I haven't shown a disproportionate interest in trains. I did play with toy trains as a kid, but so did a lot of young boys (and some girls too), autistic or not. This stereotype kinda weirds me out since it seems like the go-to fixation for autistic characters in fiction, which gets boring after a while since it's such a common trope. Also, it's never shown as a productive interest - you never see an autistic character wanting to design trains on a living or even work on a train, be it as a conductor or something else (which can unintentionally reinforce the stereotype that autistic people can't hold jobs). It would be refreshing to see something different.

Description
One stereotype I never understood was the stereotype that all autistic people are obsessed with trains. This stereotype doesn't annoy me as much as some other autistic stereotypes, but it's still problematic because it's a sweeping generalization. Out of all the autistic people I've met IRL, I've only met one who was fixated on trains. I've been fixated on a lot of things, but I haven't shown a disproportionate interest in trains. I did play with toy trains as a kid, but so did a lot of young boys (and some girls too), autistic or not. This stereotype kinda weirds me out since it seems like the go-to fixation for autistic characters in fiction, which gets boring after a while since it's such a common trope. Also, it's never shown as a productive interest - you never see an autistic character wanting to design trains on a living or even work on a train, be it as a conductor or something else (which can unintentionally reinforce the stereotype that autistic people can't hold jobs). It would be refreshing to see something different.