I am autistic and as such the depiction of neurodiversity in the media is something a bugbear of mine. For those of you who are unfamiliar neurodiversity refers to people who are what you might call neuro divergent. People with autism, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia etc. Now everyone in a while I get a good reminder than the way it’s depicted in fiction is very poor. Autism in particular more often than not falls back onto the old stereotypes. But I don’t think any of them are done well in the long run.
For example there is a writer of some renown who wrote stories for his dyslexic and ADD son by writing a character who was misdiagnosed with both. Now someone explained to me that it was meant to be about overcoming societies’ labels. Trouble with that is that they’re not labels, they’re diagnosis that help people. Not only by helping a person understand themselves better but also allows them to get the help they no doubt need in things like school. The person who first saw I had autism didn’t want to diagnose me cause they didn’t believe in labels so I know what that’s like.
Looping back to representation I feel the whole thing is something of a vicious cycle now with most people basing characters with the things on other characters with these things despite the fact that they were wrong to begin with. The most famous book with an autistic lead is The Curious Incident with the Dog in the Night, written by a neurotypical who was too busy writing a massive stereotype to make a good story. The most famous movie, Rain Man which is also perpetuating the stereotypes. And these are the big ones, the most well known which they harm they do can be widespread. But even the lesser known one have proven to be problematic, video games with autistic scientist, comic books associating it with psychopathy, tv series about people who make their kids diagnosis all about them. It’s terrible to witness. And any story where the autistic character is the main character it’s some boring real world where the story is all about being autistic. The amount of fantasy or sci fi stories where the main character is autistic is virtually zero.
This is one of my main reasons for my desire to be a writer cause I think I can do better representation. For autism at least. But alas we live in a capitalist world where only those with the money can make it as a writer and thus the cycle may never break. There’s not really a point here, I’m just venting. I have made similar rants in the past and will probably do more in the future. Thanks for listening if you did.
For example there is a writer of some renown who wrote stories for his dyslexic and ADD son by writing a character who was misdiagnosed with both. Now someone explained to me that it was meant to be about overcoming societies’ labels. Trouble with that is that they’re not labels, they’re diagnosis that help people. Not only by helping a person understand themselves better but also allows them to get the help they no doubt need in things like school. The person who first saw I had autism didn’t want to diagnose me cause they didn’t believe in labels so I know what that’s like.
Looping back to representation I feel the whole thing is something of a vicious cycle now with most people basing characters with the things on other characters with these things despite the fact that they were wrong to begin with. The most famous book with an autistic lead is The Curious Incident with the Dog in the Night, written by a neurotypical who was too busy writing a massive stereotype to make a good story. The most famous movie, Rain Man which is also perpetuating the stereotypes. And these are the big ones, the most well known which they harm they do can be widespread. But even the lesser known one have proven to be problematic, video games with autistic scientist, comic books associating it with psychopathy, tv series about people who make their kids diagnosis all about them. It’s terrible to witness. And any story where the autistic character is the main character it’s some boring real world where the story is all about being autistic. The amount of fantasy or sci fi stories where the main character is autistic is virtually zero.
This is one of my main reasons for my desire to be a writer cause I think I can do better representation. For autism at least. But alas we live in a capitalist world where only those with the money can make it as a writer and thus the cycle may never break. There’s not really a point here, I’m just venting. I have made similar rants in the past and will probably do more in the future. Thanks for listening if you did.