Autism in the Media

Savant or Social Reject

The efects of misrepresentation of Autism Spectrum Disorder in TV and flm

Have you ever thought to yourself “but they don’t look autistic”? Some have done this consciously, some not, but you may be surprised how many have. I have heard this countless times myself, phrased diferently from time to time but all a variation of the sentiment “You do not ft my idea of an autistic person.”, as if autism is one size fts all. After years of hearing this I have developed a theory that the reason this widespread idea that autism looks a certain way exists is television. We’re all familiar with characters like Sheldon Cooper, Rainman and Sam Gardener, these are some of the most well known autistic characters today and they are clones of each other. All of these characters, as well as most other autistic characters, can be described as a white male savant. The autism spectrum is described as such because there are many varying factors which contribute to the experiences of individuals with autism, each of them fnding their place on a spectrum so while this is representative of some on the autism spectrum, it is only a small fraction. The lack of accurate representation in TV causes audiences to believe autistic people are all the same, refecting negatively on autistic people who do not ft this idea of autism.

The narrow representations of autism are often overtaken by a couple traits and otherwise fall short considering character and story development. These traits include: A cold demeanor, narcissism, innocence, and high intelligence. The representation of autistic characters often ft into one of two extremes: the Adult Baby or the Idiot Savant. The frst is simple, the autistic character is unable to do anything themselves, work a job, study, or communicate clearly, they rely on everyone around them to do seemingly simple things. The second is similar and is the most common in media today, the Idiot Savant describes a character who is unable to function in most, if not all, areas of life other than the one where they exceed expectations. In this area they are more successful than their peers and are often only seen for their ability, an example of this is the TV drama the Good Doctor. Sean Murphy the protagonist - who is autistic - is only known for his amazing abilities to remember every word from a medical journal making him an excellent surgeon. This makes for an extremely one dimensional character whose only characteristics are awkwardness and extreme skill, in Sean Murphy’s case surgical skills. The overarching issue seen across flm and TV with autistic characters is that autism is seen as a plot device more than an opportunity to shine light on a community that often has no platform. This was made evident earlier this year when the musician Sia released a flm entitled Music following the lives of a young autistic girl, Music, and her two unexpected caregivers. Music includes harmful treatment of Music, acting which mimics stereotypical and inaccurate behaviours of autistic people, and an overall overstimulating flm flled with overwhelming colours, noises and other stimuli which makes it unwatchable for many autistic people. Sia describes her flm as “a love letter to caregivers and to the autism community,” this ties into a common theme in television about autism, focussing on the impact of autism on the caregivers and peers. This is 61

a harmful theme as it communicates to the audience that autistic people are burdens to the people around them. After receiving backlash from autistic audiences Sia was defensive and refused to listen: her flm caters solely to allistic people. While this is unacceptable, it is not uncommon. Autistic characters are rarely played by autistic actors and only a few autistic people are ever included in curating the autistic characters because they are regarded as difcult and incapable if they need any accommodations on set.

This pattern was broken by the family show Everything’s Gonna Be Okay created by Josh Thomas, an autistic comedian and actor. This show not only features autistic women but also starrs many autistic creators and covers topics including sex, dating, family relationships, grief, and ableist views that often go unmentioned. This authentic presentation of autism shows the many ways autism presents itself in diferent people. Kayla Cromer, the actress who plays the protagonist is autistic herself and is able to voice any unease with the script if she feels it to be inaccurate or ofensive. If the show included the voices of autistic people of color it would encapsulate the ideal portrayal of autism.

Television and flm cannot be expected to cover every single way autism presents itself; however, the media should be expected to produce the most accurate representation possible. To do this it is necessary to listen to the voices of autistic people. The overwhelming consensus within the community is that autistic characters need to be created and produced by autistic people in order to be accurate. Along with this the characters need to showcase a wider range of traits and presentations showing the diversity of the autism spectrum. These changes are necessary because of the inaccuracy of the current portrayal of autism. Many autistic people and their peers are unable to recognise themselves as autistic due to the stereotypes and stigma perpetuated in the characters. As well as the efect on the autistic audience, these representations lead allistic audiences to categorise autism as they see it; white, cisgender, man. Because of this categorisation, females and people of colour are written of. We have to learn to advocate for ourselves when our peers and even psychiatrists dismiss us. While this is deeply rooted in misogyny and racism and we have a long way to go, good representation helps. Q. Have you ever felt fully represented by the autistic characters you see on TV? A. There is a very limited circle of autistic characters in the media in general. I did begin to watch the Good Doctor and I was like “so much of that stuf makes sense”. I had already done research but so much of the stuf I saw even in the frst episode made so much more sense to me, I felt quite represented then but in everything else I’ve watched, I’ve never really seen many autistic characters. Q. What do you feel should be done to improve Autistic representation on TV? A. Probably breaking the stereotype of characters with autism being geniuses because that’s not true, and knowing it’s not just about social cues I want it to be more to the sensory side other than as comedic relief, for example I can’t eat fruit, I can’t touch velvet, I’d like to see those kind of things being considered so kids like me and their parents can recognise those kinds of things. Recognising that the character has autism but not making it their whole identity while still being educational and seeing issues from the perspective of the autistic person rather than the neurotypical person. Q. Has the representation of autism ever impacted your life negatively? A. I think it’s mostly to do with people coming up to me and being like “you don’t look autistic” I’d like to say I have a decent fashion sense that suits me as an individual and from characters who have autism they have like quite a diferent taste in fashion from me, I like to put myself well together and sometimes I think autistic characters can come across like they don’t care about how they look and that is frustrating to me because I like to take care of myself and people say “you don’t look autistic” or that kind of thing, that makes me feel quite whack sometimes. Q. What would you say a good representation of ASD is? A. Autistic characters being treated fairly like everyone else but also Show the disruption that neurotypical people have caused autistic people because I’ve had plenty of people bullying me. It’s something that we need to recognise, how people are being treated unfairly to move past that. Something I really don’t like that neurotypical people do to autistic people is to undermine them, like being nice to them but not considering their point of views or them really, as a person, just thinking that they owe them because they’re autistic. I don’t like that, we should all be treated as equals but we should also respect each other’s boundaries. Q. What you think is important to talk about when discussing representation of ASD in the media? A. I think we shouldn’t worry about social cues too much but how we can respect autistic people and how we can supply their need to be in a comfortable environment, like lighting and sound those kinds of sensory things are really important I often try to tell people I can’t have people eating food around me or like avoid loud sounds because I deserve that respect and that’s something that should be shown in media.