Blog #154: Why Daphne Blake from “Scooby Doo” Might Be Neurodiverse? (Part 1)

We all have our favorite cartoon characters growing up, whether it can be from Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny to Donald Duck or Daffy Duck. But there is one character in particular that I have kept my eye on for part of my life, not because she’s one of my waifu’s, but because she has displays of autism/neurodiversity in her.

I am of course, talking about Daphne Blake from Scooby Doo. There are plenty of reasons why Daphne is more of an icon than say Fred, Velma, Shaggy or even Scooby Doo himself. But I often view Daphne as neurodiverse for a variety of reasons and in this 2-part blog, I will go over what makes her qualified as neurodiverse:

1. Attention to Detail

The first trait that Daphne displays that strikes her as neurodiverse is that she has a strong attention to detail. She likes things to be done in a certain way and unfortunately, a lot of times it ends up going the opposite for her giving the fact that she always being involved in a mystery.

This is also the case in how she presents herself in public. Normally, Daphne wears a purple dress, a green scarf, pink pantyhose and lavender heels although she can also wear other outfits as well. Neurodiverse individuals will often associate themselves with a particular color as part of their identity and Daphne identifies herself with the colors purple, green and pink.

She can also have a strong dislike for her clothes getting damaged or messy. Perhaps one of the most evident is in “Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase” where she has to surrender her suit jacket to Fred so he can use it to fight a lion like a bullfighter:

Daphne surrenders her suit jacket to Fred “Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase”

…

2. Wandering into Trouble

One of the most obvious traits of Daphne is her knack for getting into danger. Daphne’s main nickname is “Danger Prone” Daphne for her knack of getting herself into situations where she ends up being captured or kidnapped.

A lot of neurodiverse individuals often do end up as “Danger Prone” and while Daphne is a cartoon character and can survive an ordeal, some individuals cannot survive a danger prone ordeal in real life. Although Daphne later outgrows this trait later on, it’s still something worth noting as some individuals never outgrow wandering.

…

3. Empathy

Daphne comforting Scooby Doo in “Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase”

Despite her neurodiversity traits, Daphne does display a sense of empathy for others around her. We neurodiverse individuals are often criticized for not showing empathy for others around us, but the fact of the matter is that we do show empathy. We just have difficulty in expressing it sometimes. One thing that Daphne cares about aside from her looks and love of fashion is her Mystery Inc teammates, especially Fred and Scooby Doo.

…

4. Routine

If there is one trait that Daphne clearly displays that qualifies her as neurodiverse is that she likes to have a routine of sorts as expressed through her wardrobe. In addition to wearing the same colors, Daphne also almost wears the same style of clothing every day. To her, this is an example of having a routine and she doesn’t like it if that routine is disrupted.

An example of this would be in “Chill Out, Scooby Doo!” (2007) where Daphne is looking forward to a vacation in Paris only to end up having her routine disrupted when Scooby and Shaggy end up in the Himalayas. Her routine would end up being disrupted again at the end of the film.

….

Of course, there is more to Daphne being neurodiverse than meets the eye and I will cover more about that in Part 2 of this blog!! So stick around because you might learn something about Daphne that you may not know growing up when you watched “Scooby Doo” as a kid.

…

Catch you all later!!

#Diversity #Neurodiversity #Equality #Autism #Inclusion