ELVIS PRESLEY. (1) The Ed Sullivan Show, 3rd Appearance (January 6, 1957); (2) '68 Comeback Special (aired

𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕖𝕕 𝕌𝕡

tags: 𝚍𝚘𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚋𝚋𝚕𝚎, 𝟷𝟿𝟽𝟶!𝙴𝚕𝚟𝚒𝚜, 𝚏𝚕𝚞𝚏𝚏, 𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚜, 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚒𝚜

Elvis turned toward the mirror, and smoothed the front of his white jumpsuit with practiced ease—until his blue scarf slipped forward and a flash of red caught his eye.

He stilled.

A soft chuckle rumbled low in his chest as he lifted the scarf, eyes narrowing at the lipstick print smeared right in the center. Another kiss mark peeked up near the collar of his suit.

“Well, look a' that,” he drawled, grin evident in his voice. “Sugar, y'went and branded me like I’m yours.”

He craned his head slightly, admiring the faint imprint near his collarbone that was placed on the collar of his jumpsuit , hidden just enough to be their secret.

“Guess I can’t shake you off even if I wanted to.” he chuckled to himself.

You weren’t even at the hotel tonight—back at your own place across the city—but you'dmade your presence known just fine.

Elvis adjusted the scarf deliberately, keeping the mark where it showed just a little.

He winked at himself in the mirror. “Awh... Let ‘em see it. Let the whole damn room know I belong to somebody.”

Then he turned, swagger smooth, and headed to the stage. He was marked—and grinning like a man in love.

whatever mama if you support generative ai you can fuck right off huh-huh

👀 I can see something

Elvis, who holds his hand on your jaw to keep you steady and from shying away from him when he's kissing you. Elvis, who when you're stressed, tucks you under his chin and hides you away from the world, whispering into your hair, "let daddy take care of it." Elvis, who braids and plays with your hair while you're in the bath, your back pressed to his chest. Elvis, who presses quick and soft kisses to your head and temple as he passes you wherever you might be. Elvis who just adores you because you're his baby

The man of my dreams and his perfect tan.

I love dad elvis, I wish there's more photos of him being on dad mode

Him being all attentive with children is my weakness.

let's. let's woah with mama. i'll see myself out

Im actually autistic and thought he was autistic bc of that list 😅

Why I think Elvis may have been autistic

First of all, the reason why I am making this post is because @iloveelvis2 has asked for more insight into why I believe Elvis may have been autistic.

Disclaimer: I just want to start out by saying that I am not a doctor or a psychiatrist or any kind of professional. Nor am I definitively saying that Elvis was autistic. We cannot diagnose someone who is not here and who cannot speak for themselves. This post is purely based off of my own personal opinions, lived experiences, and things that I have read about Elvis' life and personality. I am autistic and I also grew up with an autistic sister and father, thus I am using my own lived experiences as a reference point. Remember that autism is a wide-ranging spectrum and can present itself differently in different people, with different symptoms. There is no one lived experience of autism.

This might be a complete mess, but now I am going to list some of the traits that Elvis displayed that leads me to believe he possibly could have been autistic. So here we go.

Stuttering: It is very common for autistic people to have some sort of speech impediment or stutter. We do know that Elvis suffered from having a stutter, especially when he was younger, but it was something he carried with him throughout his life. Elvis himself said in an interview in 1956 that he stuttered when he got excited and had a hard time saying words that started with the letters "w" and "i."

Maintaining a sense of safety, familiarity, and security: Autistic people usually don't like change. We tend to like familiarity and have repetitive behaviors. We don't like outside forces disrupting or coming into our little bubbles. Elvis was the same way. It is well known that Elvis was extremely shy growing up and had trouble making friends. When he got older and as he became famous, he made sure to surround himself with his own group of loyal friends, and quite literally created his own little world and bubble with the famous "Memphis Mafia." These guys gave Elvis a sense of security, safety, and familiarity amid the chaos of his fame. While they were very much needed to help Elvis and provide him with protection for obvious reasons, they also became his entire world. So much so that I have heard countless actors and actresses who worked on Elvis' movies say that it was hard to get to Elvis because his guys were always around him. It was clearly very hard for E to let new people into his life at times, just as it was hard for him to let go of some of the people in his circle who were using him. Autistic people tend to be manipulated easily and taken advantage of by others who see them as an easy target and in spite of it we still keep these people around because we don't like confrontation and don't want to mess with the bubbles we have created. And I think that is exactly what Elvis did in some ways with the Memphis Mafia and the Colonel. Even if he was being taken advantage of, he not only wanted to remain loyal to them, but I think he felt he also would have been lost without them and the transition would have been highly difficult for him.

Repetitive behaviors: This sort of falls hand in hand with number 2. Autistic people usually do not like change and will often develop repetitive behaviors as a way of comforting themselves. One way I can see Elvis having repetitive behaviors is in his eating habits. I have heard countless friends of Elvis talk about how he was not adventurous with his taste (which is common in a lot of autistic people) and that he mainly stuck to the same southern foods he always ate. Yes, this is in part because of how he was raised but he also appeared to have eating cycles. I believe it was Sonny West who talked about a certain food combination Elvis ate repeatedly while he was touring in 1956, and during the last couple years of his life, he claimed that Elvis started "eating like 56' again." Showing that Elvis clearly went through repetitive food cycles. Not only to mention those peanut butter and banana sandwiches he loved to eat that seemed to provide him with so much comfort. Elvis was also known to rewatch movies over and over again. So much so that he would memorize the script and could repeat the dialogue over. It was claimed that he watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail around 35 times and knew every line! He also repeatedly listened to the speeches of MLK Jr. and could recite them back.

Regulating emotions: Most autistic people have problems regulating their emotions and Elvis was clearly the same way. He was highly impulsive and all over the place. His friends and family have talked about how his emotions would swing up and down and if he was upset or mad, they would make sure to stay away from him. Elvis was also known to get upset and fire people, only to rehire them after he cooled back down again.

Sensory issues: A lot of autistic people have sensory issues (including myself, it is an absolute hell). Elvis clearly showed signs of having sensory issues. For example, we know that he hated the smell of fish so bad that he banned fish from Graceland. He also had to have his room and hotel rooms at a certain temperature, usually very cold. There are several instances of him leaving and changing hotels because his room was not as cold as he wanted it to be. He also had a sensitivity to light. But that one is probably due more to his glaucoma in his eyes. But he also had problems with certain textures in food and had to have his meals prepared a specific way in order for him to eat it. For example, he only wanted to eat bacon and eggs if they were practically burned to a crisp. He also ate other specific combinations of food that many people would normally find repulsive.

Sleeping: Like many autistic people, throughout his life, Elvis had problems sleeping. He used to take sleeping pills in order to sleep, and his sleep patterns were not normal, as he was very nocturnal. now this in part was due to his lifestyle, but a lot of autistic people are naturally very nocturnal.

Stimming: Autistic people usually need to stim or fidget to help calm their nerves. Elvis was the same way. He was always moving and fidgeting, and he even said that he took up smoking because it was something he could do with his hands because he couldn't keep still.

Anxiety and digestion: A lot of autistic people have really bad anxiety and thus many autistic people suffer with massive digestion issues. While there are a lot of various medical reasons that could be at play, it is well known that Elvis had problems with his digestion throughout his entire life.

Special interests: Autistic people are well known for having special interests. Things we are interested in that we tend to become obsessive over. We love to immerse ourselves in these special interests and Elvis was no different. Elvis had many different special interests. He loved reading, religion/the Bible, spirituality, karate, football, Captain Marvel Jr., and he even immersed himself in those worlds. He incorporated his love of karate into his performances, had some of his jumpsuits designed after his favorite comic superhero, Captain Marvel Jr., even used Captain Marvel Jr.'s lightning symbol as the symbol for his TCB logo. His friends also said that he always watched football on TV wearing a football helmet because he wanted an immersive experience.

Attention to detail and hyper focus: A lot of autistic people are known for their attention to detail and hyperfocus. Their ability to tune into something, especially if it's something they love. I think we can apply this to Elvis and his music. Yes, Elvis was passionate about music, but he also had an uncanny ability to be able to listen to music and know precisely just how to arrange it. I have heard several members of his friends and band mates talk about how, despite the fact that Elvis never learned how to read music, he had an ear for arranging the music and was so hyper focused that he could come up with amazing music arrangements on the spot. He was also known for learning entire songs after hearing them only once.

Final thoughts:

Wow that was way longer than I intended it to be! I hope it's not too much of a rambling mess. Anyway, those are just some of the reasons why I believe Elvis could have been autistic. There are more reasons I could list but this post would turn into a book, and I would need to do more research for that. I just want to close by restating that all of this is just my own personal opinion and that we cannot and should not diagnose people we don't personally know, especially famous people who are no longer alive. Whether or not Elvis was on the spectrum, we will never know for sure. But I hope this post gets you thinking about the ways we view autism in our society today and how our expectations of what autism looks and acts like has changed as time has gone on. The possibility of Elvis Presley, the "king of rock n roll" being autistic does a wonderful job of challenging societies definition of what it means to be autistic. There has been such a stigma around autism, but the thought that Elvis himself could have possibly been a member of our community brings me a sense of comfort.