No one asked, but here's what everyone in my AU is doing for Valentine's Day.
Ron and Bonnie are having a quiet night in. Ron made food, Bonnie picked up some movies and arranged for someone to watch Rufus and Debutante.
Monique and Tara are going out for dinner.
Wade and Olivia are going to a movie.
Yori explains to Will that, in Japan, Valentine's Day is for girls to confess to their crush, and if the feelings are reciprocated, they get them a gift a month later on White Day. Will says she can take him out then, and he'll take her out a month later.
Felix and Zita are gaming. They both put surprises in the game for the other one to find.
Brick, Josh, and Justine are participating in a trivia night at a local pub.
Gil, Amelia, Larry, Joss, Patti, and Artie are having a "singles party" at Larry and Joss's apartment. Patti's only there because her parents wanted the house to themselves for the night, and Artie's only there because his dad had a date.
Drakken made a nice dinner and dessert for Shego. Her surprise for him is for later in the evening.
The only way Jack was able to take Betty on a date for Valentine's Day was to lead her on a chase that ends in a date.
Yeah, Kim feels unrelatable. Her life is too perfect, she's too naturally talented at everything, her parents are too permissive, etc. Kim's life is not relatable. At all. Sure, she's a great fantasy, but when you're older, you want relatability more than fantastically perfect.
At some point, it just stops being fun to watch someone who's life is unattainably perfect.
I actually left out the pre-school Halloween costume because, due to his age at the time, I wasn't sure if that would count as a disregard for gender norms.
Also, in the episode "Grudge Match" his rules were that Zita was out of his league and he shouldn't even try asking her out because of it. Less to do with gender norms and stereotypes, and more to do with his perception of himself.
(He's also more surprised that Vivian's boyfriend isn't as good looking as her and that he's a robot than he is that she's a scientist.)
Kim did call his rules ridiculous, but the early part of the episode makes it clear that, despite this, Kim actually does believe Ron doesn't stand a chance with Zita.
Ron: What kind of chance do I have a girl like that anyway? Kim: Honest opinion or best-friend fudge? Monique: Fudge it, girl! Kim: It doesn't hurt to ask.
And it's a bit offensive, because they knew nothing about Zita at the time, so the only reason to think Ron doesn't stand a chance is because she just has a low opinion of Ron in general.
(I'm not going to get into it here, I have several other posts about it.)
But thanks for your commentary, because I really do appreciate it.
I believe that Ron Stoppable is neurodivergent. Many of his traits line up with being neurodivergent.
In "Mind Games" Ron mentions liking the skirt on Kim's cheer uniform.
In "Attack of the Killer Bebes" he got a movie makeup kit as a birthday present.
In "Two to Tutor" he is revealed to love baking and is mentioned as being interested in interpretive dance.
He becomes a fan of the Oh Boyz in "Oh Boyz".
He becomes a fan of "Kim Style" in "Kimitation Nation".
He is implied to be interested in Britina dolls in "Queen Bebe".
These are all things typically regarded as feminine interests, but when Ron has his crisis about being a man in "Ron the Man", none of that stuff is what he's concerned about. He's not afraid any of that stuff makes him less of a man, and he feels no shame about them (most of the time).
There are several times where Ron is shown to not care about popularity, though there are also several times where Ron is shown to care a great deal about how others perceive him.
In "October 31st" Ron is shown to still be interested in going trick-or-treating, despite the fact that most people would have outgrown this hobby by this point.
In "Grande Size Me" Ron becomes obsessed with proving Barkin wrong about the food pyramid, and begins behaving in a defensive manner over it.
(Of course, Ron invented the Naco, which was the specific item Barkin was criticizing, so it's a bit understandable.)
In "Dimension Twist" Ron spends three days straight watching cable television.
Ron has a tendency to become obsessed with his interests, and defensive if someone doesn't like them.
In "Monkey Fist Strikes" Ron is revealed to be interested in video games, and this is mentioned again in "Steal Wheels".
In "Larry's Birthday" it's revealed that Ron has regular meetups with Larry and Larry's friends.
In "Queen Bebe" Ron is implied to have an interest in Britina dolls.
Ron is a fan of the Oh Boyz in "Oh Boyz", even when they're so unpopular no one goes to their concerts. In addition to this, he doesn't even realize they're no longer popular.
Ron may not having been looking for a naked mole rat specifically, but he does consider them to be cool pets.
In "Two to Tutor" there is a brief mention of Ron having an interest in interpretive dancing.
He's still interested in trick-or-treating in "October 31st".
Many of Ron's interests are things typically regarded as "uncool" or "childish", things his peers are usually not interested in.
Ron is frequently shown to lack social skills - bad at picking up intonation, doesn't have many friends, has a hard time dating, and is generally believed to be unpopular.
There's also Ron's tendency to panic, and his occasional bouts of paranoia.
(Though his belief that Barkin is targeting him specifically was apparently correct.)
In fact, Ron's anxiety reached a breaking point when, in "Odds Man In", he experienced such bad anxiety, he locked himself in some kind of panic room.
(Also, where was this? When did he have it built?)
Ron is also concerned about being replaced as Kim's best friend or sidekick, as shown in "Pain King vs Cleopatra", or boyfriend, as shown in "Ill-Suited".
So Ron displays many traits associated with neurodivergent teenagers.
And these also happen to be the traits that the show used to write him as a "loser".
And that's one of the reasons I dislike so much of the show's humor being at Ron's expense - because it often relies on poking fun at Ron not behaving in a neurotypical way.
And as someone who is not neurotypical, seeing the character that's the most like me being the "buffoon" character, the "inept sidekick" character, the one who is incompetent and incapable, well...it kind of hurts.
Because it kind of feels like they're saying what I and many other neurodivergent people have heard our whole lives - that you can't do anything, and you look foolish for trying.
Look, I realize this wasn't intentional. But, even unintentionally, Ron is very heavily neurodivergent-coded, and that happens too often in media - humor that relies on someone having neurodivergent traits and making fun of them for it.
And we've all grown past that.