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The good and the bad kind of autism

mycatcat

Does anyone else get frustrated at the perception of autism, and how it's only 'acceptable' to the general public if you have low support needs, and/or you have photographic memory, or can solve complex math problems or whatever else. I often apply the public's standards for autism to myself, and internally describe myself as having the 'bad kind' of autism. Being autistic didn't give me a unique and valuable perspective on life, nor did it give me a special talent. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out, like I'm the outlier for having regular degular autism but I know that's not true haheaha. Undeniably though, it still hurts to know that while autism is currently being discussed and showcased in mainstream media, the type of autism that is displayed is often the 'good kind' of autism, where the autistic person does not inconvenience the neurotypicals around them, and provides some service, whether that's their intelligence, or some kind of unique skill. None of the autistic person's struggles are ever shown and they are essentially portrayed as a neurotypical person with a few quirks. Overall, I guess what I'm trying to say is that the media's conditional representation of autism tends to annoy me, and I'd like to see more representation of the average, non-ultra smart, non-ultra skilled autistic person and their experience. If anyone has any recommendations of autism representation they personally like, please let me know.

Parents

  • I find that ASD1 people are often used in a comedic way, with NT's rolling their eyes at the eccentricities of the autistic person. I have no issue with that stuff being laughed at in a gentle, loving way, where positives are also shown (although as you say, those positives are usually some superhuman feat of logical deduction or observation) but if the autistic person just exists for comic purposes it's quite dismissive.

    I have recently been enjoying the TV show Ludwig. We are not told that David Mitchell's character is autistic but he's definitely coded that way (awkward socially, rarely expresses emotions, very logical and pattern oriented) but you get the sense that the parts of his character that might be viewed as negative and cause everyone to roll their eyes, are only tolerated because he is also a brilliant detective. I get that it's an entertainment show and as I said, I enjoy it, and maybe it is true to life in that autistic people maybe are only tolerated if they have skills that are useful to everyone else but it would be nice to see all autistic traits being accepted as just the authentic character of the person in question, and no less valid than NT traits.

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  • I find that ASD1 people are often used in a comedic way, with NT's rolling their eyes at the eccentricities of the autistic person. I have no issue with that stuff being laughed at in a gentle, loving way, where positives are also shown (although as you say, those positives are usually some superhuman feat of logical deduction or observation) but if the autistic person just exists for comic purposes it's quite dismissive.

    I have recently been enjoying the TV show Ludwig. We are not told that David Mitchell's character is autistic but he's definitely coded that way (awkward socially, rarely expresses emotions, very logical and pattern oriented) but you get the sense that the parts of his character that might be viewed as negative and cause everyone to roll their eyes, are only tolerated because he is also a brilliant detective. I get that it's an entertainment show and as I said, I enjoy it, and maybe it is true to life in that autistic people maybe are only tolerated if they have skills that are useful to everyone else but it would be nice to see all autistic traits being accepted as just the authentic character of the person in question, and no less valid than NT traits.

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