'Girl Meets World' Is Facing Backlash on Twitter for How the Show Handled Farkle's Autism Scene
The former Disney Channel series Girl Meets World is facing backlash on Twitter right now, over four years after it went off the air.
The show was a sequel series to the beloved sitcom Boy Meets World and featured original stars Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel reprising their roles as Cory and Topanga, now the parents of a teenage daughter named Riley (Rowan Blanchard).
The series followed Riley and her best friend Maya Hart (Sabrina Carpenter) as they navigated life and school along with their classmates Farkle Minkus (Corey Fogelmanis) and Lucas Friar (Peyton Meyer).
People on Twitter are pointing out how several scenes involving Farkle can be viewed as problematic.
Click inside to find out what they are saying…
One of the scenes involved Farkle getting evaluated for Asperger’s syndrome, which is a condition on the autism spectrum. When Farkle told his friends that he might have ASD, they kept shutting him down and told him he couldn’t possibly have it. Many people think this was the show’s way of saying that autism is a bad thing. At the end of the episode, we found out that Farkle didn’t have Asperger’s, but another classmate did.
Girl Meets World haunts me why would you make a whole episode saying that Farkle MIGHT be autistic, portray it like a horrible thing meaning certain death, then say he’s not even autistic at all. What were you trying to prove with that episode?
— Aali😼 Nami simp hours (@akanesbae2) April 24, 2021
// ableism , gmw
remember in girl meets world they found out farkle may have autism and everyone demonized him for it? yeah wtf was that
— ًgrey / cleo (@SKYL4RSTORM) April 24, 2021
I liked Girl Meets World at the time but looking back it was really preachy and ‘woke’ but still managed to fuck it up? Like literally everything about Farkle having austism was done wrong and then the episode about heritage where Riley was sad her background wasn’t interesting..
— BigMac22 (@Mac22Big) April 24, 2021
There’s another scene in which Farkle questioned whether God exists or not, seemingly suggesting that he might be agnostic. Instead of supporting his views, Farkle was told by other characters that just because he can’t see God, doesn’t mean that he doesn’t exist. Fans on social media have criticized the show for basically pushing someone else’s religious beliefs on other people.
Another episode that is getting backlash is the one that brought up communism.
I just saw 30 different Girl Meets World clips and each is worse than the next 😭😭😭
— 🌺Yousef🌺 (@yalozai011) April 24, 2021
farkle… you got vaccinated? …i really don't know what this means for our friendship.
— eliana🌺 (@POMCORE) April 24, 2021
any time Girl Meets World clips show up on my timeline its equally as shocking every time like i never expect what it's gonna be
— 21 and not in paris (@knowleskravitz) April 24, 2021
I guess we can all agree Girl meets world is the worst disney sitcom
— Koko (@8wariorlittle) April 24, 2021