Autism in popular culture

I personally love the show Parenthood and felt that the portrayal of Max was very true to my experiences with loved ones who are on the spectrum. Having read some interviews with the actor, he also put a lot of time into research to understand his character and even told the writers/directors when a scene they had written didn't fit to make sure that he was as real as possible.

On the flipside, I really didn't like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. I felt that it portrayed an over-simplified, gimicky main character and apparently the author has even admitted that he knows very little about Aspergers. I found it particularly concerning because it is one of the more popular accounts (I know my mother's book club read it and now all think that they're experts on the matter), and I fear the image it is giving to so many people. Anyone else read it?

Sesame Street as created a new muppet with autism to help teach kids about autism and to celebrate each other's differences. Check it out here

I don't like phatic expressions (by example asking all the time "how are you?" without expecting a real answer) and because i don't stick to this "values" of my culture, i am considered as autistic.

But in other cultures, if you ask it multiple times by day, it's really bad perceived by society, and then my behavior would be normal there and not considered as a disorder.

The same with look people in the eyes. in some cultures, it's considered like a provocation and very appropriate; but here they force you to do it.

I wonder if I would be seen as neurotypical in other cultures than my own?

Rain Man always makes my heart swell. Any thoughts and opinions on this depiction?

I watched a movie with a character who is possibly on the spectrum. The movie's called Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I had much to relate to and it gave me the feeling that I belong in that movie(I don't know how to explain it well). At times it made me pull my earphones out because some parts triggered me to much.

I finally got around to watching "Snow Cake" (2006) with Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman. Truly an amazing portrayal of HFA on Weaver's part, and of someone seeking to understand her character/ ASD on Rickman's character's part. The movie portrays a whole host of multi-dimensional and complex characters. I laughed. I cried-- I so highly recommend this film.

I know this is silly, but I love Sheldon so much in Big Bang Theory, even though he's a bag of cliches. I relate to him and if I knew him in real life, we'd get along well and I'd understand him better than his TV friends do.

The only character I've heard of being theorized to have something in the Autism spectrum is Edward Scissorhands, ( who wouldn't act that way after living in an attic tough ) , tough haven't really heard anything if it was actually planned he would have any type of autism, but let's say he have it for now, I think he is a pretty good example ( aside from his scissorhands ofc ), he get's in quiet the trouble and all he wanted was to be nice, people are weirded out by him even tough he is the sweetest character, he is very creative and helpful, he doesn't say anything he finds "uneccesary" which makes him come off as awkward and distant, but he probably simply doesn't see a reason to "decorate" his sentences with more then what is neccesary to say. He is seen as "exotic" in different ways ( one woman even tries to get it on with him ahem ). Aside from his personality, the whole movie might symbolize the world of one with autism.

The whole neighborhood is all perfect with pastel colored little houses and the happy neurotypical neighbors who all goes to work at the same time which might reflect the image and prefered type of people society wants, Edwards hands is his "autism" in the way that everything becomes hard, he is stiff and awkward, always being to careful but still mess up things accidentally with them, always an anxious mess to hurt someone and do wrong but at the same time it is with his hands he creates his ice sculptures.

Gosh I gotta go watch that movie now!

So here's my attempt at convinging myself my latest TV addiction is a productive use of my time. Seriously, I've never found a show focused on a misunderstood minority perspective that's this additing or vice versa. As it's name suggests, the show is definitely "Atypical." The show is about an autistic high schooler getting into the dating world. They dramatize at every opportunity, resulting in a series of comedically disastrous situations that had me laughing hysterically and dying to know what happens next. Now worries, they do it in a way that makes you feel for the kid, not mock him (imo.) So far, all the main characters are portrayed as sympathetic and have diverse perspectives that sometimes help Sam and sometimes hurt him, and they have plenty of their own problems. There's the steriotypical small town dad who's more concerned with bonding with his son and boosting his confidence with women than paying attention to how he goes after them, the pickup artist friend you can't totally hate because unlike most pickup artists, he breaks the "geeks can't be bad boys" steriotype and has the guts to treat someone who's different like an equal, and the sweetheart millenial therapist who seems more familiar with Huffington Post stats than high school. I absolutely love the sassy jock sister who's always got her brother's back but doensn't let that stop her from a little healthy sibling rivalry. The mom's a little over-the-top imo but she does portray a valid reaction to the stress and suppression of years of putting someone else first.

Sam is an interesting character because he's very much trapped in the uncanny valley between LFA and pleasantly quirky. I'm not saying his quirks aren't pleasant. I think they could be if he got past the scarriness. Yes, I realize I am an autistic calling another autistic scary. I think it's unfair but warranted. Hopefully you hate me enough to keep reading while I explain. When I meet someone like Sam, I feel very bad for them but I'm afraid to let someone like that into my life because my life is fragile enough as a young woman trying to make it on her own for the 1st time, and as a physically and emotionally vulnerable human being in general. Sam is a very sweet kid. He acts on that sweetness by using offensive pickup lines and breaking into his therapist's house to give her chocolate covered strawberries and woo her. Many of the sweetest people I've met are autistic and while some are good of mine friends today, I have met a couple whose lack of understanding of boundaries made me feel unsafe. This reminds me of a comment a friend made in high school when another friend invited a kid sitting alone to our table and he started harrassing her. She said "why would you ask him to sit with us? Can't you tell he's like autistic?" That comment scared me out of disclosing for years. I thought she was using the word, autistic, as an insult and while she probably was, that kinda talk comes from somewhere. Yes, I still think it's on the general public to become more accepting of people like Sam who are genuinely trying their best. I just think we also need to be more aware of the nuance on the spectrum and how there's no blanket response to help individual people. People will make mistakes that leave people wondering how they don't know better when they're doing so well overall. I'm talking about autistics and allistics alike. We live in an imperfect world where there's too much to process to resolve it all, like when Sam's therapist sees his pickup notes, says she'll come back to that after addressing the creepy smile he's more concerned with, but gets caught up in his next questions. We all have unresolved issues and issues we think we resolved but we actually made worse. Autistics think differently and are predisposed to make different mistakes than most people but we are not any more broken or any less capable than anyone else. We just experience and learn from the same broken world differently. I feel like I can relate to Sam even though he's much more low functioning than me. I can relate to coming off quirky or odd and being accepted that way but then scaring people off in an instant and being left genuinely clueless why. This used to happen much more a couple years ago. Now I'm mostly paralyzed with anxiety about something like that happening again even though nothing has recently. I actually typed and deleted 4-5 different endings to that sentance because I literally couldn't make up my mind about what I'd consider the last unexpected scary social situation I ended up in that caused vs. what's just an unfortunate situation I happened to be in, also what's a problem situation vs. just an awkward situation. I sometimes share my fear of coming off creepy with friends and they laugh and tell me people can see right through the combat boots and baseball hats. I know they can. I also know that's about all they can see through since my friends aren't aware of what I'm talking about at all. Watching this show makes me feel a little less guilty for the mistakes that often fall into that gray area between intentional and unintentional. I'm an adult capable of doing anything I set my mind to. I'm also capable of setting my mind to the wrong things. I'm also capable of falling through the cracks no matter how many supportive people I'm surrounded by, because they just don't see the cracks there. They don't think about the cracks their feet are equipped to not fall through. I even feel misunderstood by autistic friends because no one sees all the cracks in other people's vicinity. They do see how many times you fall. I want to trust that they'll still be there when I pick myself back up again but I understand they're human too and would prefer not to stand in falling range of the Leaning Tower of Pizza I feel like sometimes.

I also like how far they get with the story before he gets an actual girlfriend. Again, I've only watched 2 episodes but still. I think they struck a good balance between new internet age issues like the expansive pickup library available and timeless ones like navigating high school hallways. The pace of story is a bit chaotic and might seem over the top but trust me, if you have the right mentality, at the wrong time you can end up in a place so unsteady you live your life in overdrive, deserately searching for level ground, even at a time when you could really, really use a little room to breathe but some of us just don't have the opportunity. I almost said luxury but I don't want to spread the misconception that room to breathe should be a luxury. That lie's already spread like wildfire and burned down the whole forest. Haha I feel like I'm talking like Sam now. Anyway, it makes me feel a little less alone in my chaotic, overwhelmed state of mind and life. I'm the only person in all my friend groups who's gotten into so muc "relationship trouble" without ever going on an actual date. For me the issue isn't getting a date but keeping stalkers at bay. Weird and empathetic attracts a lot of tortured souls, many well-meaning, some not so well-meaning, and some unintentionally dangerous Sam types walking a fine rope and pulling me down with them. Most weren't autistic but there are many paths to the same pit that lies under the cracks-misunderstood, lonely, forgotten. It's hard to watch and even harder to walk away, but sometimes even harder to stay. Then there are the situations where I don't feel physically threatened but just unsure of who my friends are. A lot of friends, male and female, have taken my quirky behavior as flirting and had all kinds reactions from lashing out when I wouldn't admit to the fealings they claimed to know I had to ghosting me out of nowhere when they didn't feel that way about me and low key I didn't feel that way about them either. I'm also into entrepreneurship and as someone who's faced harrassment and prefers emphasizing hard skills rather than soft skills, I'm ashamed to admit I've become the exact kind of woman I go around empowering other woman not to be. I'm attracted to intelligence and depth, professionally and personally. I'm not even looking for relationships. I'm looking for friends and professional contacts and I do have a hard time deciding where to place people sometimes. Yet, with my track record of of awkward interactions with professional partners, past, current, and potential, you'd think I wanted something very different. I have serious anxiety about any kind of networking. I feel like I'm walking around with targets painted all over my body and mind. Meanwhile, I have an autistic friend who turned into a cassanova it-man overnight. All he needed was a conducive environment. I've grown a lot more too in my 1 year after graduating college than during college now that I have a stable job to learn from rather than an anything goes playground for so-called adults. I think people like Sam have a ton of potential and they just need people to be perceptive and create environments that are conducive to growth rather than confusion. Hopefully, the show will also show some less dystopian situations through Sam or other autistic characters. Meanwhile, a good, hard, nuanced look at the problem is always way better than a haphazard blanket solution.

In the recent Power Rangers film (2017), the blue ranger, Billy Cranston, has autism (unlike the original tv version). This was the first time autism was presented in a superhero film which is so inspirational. Through the years, there have been so many misrepresentations and misconceptions of autism in the world of superheroes/ comic books. I feel like this one though is a home run in terms on representation. :)