Depictions of autism in media very rarely focus on anything other than what's perceived as the upsides.
Like all other forms of entertainment and marketing, it's not realistic, it's designed to present something appealing to a mass audience.
I'd say Tina Belcher is a fairly good depiction, and people love her character.
Yeah I commented that the best depictions I've seen of all these identities are usually kids cartoons, Bob's Burgers is pretty family friendly and decent for the most part. The Marshmallow character is another. There's an episode that kink shames Pesto for his adult baby diaper fetish though, or rather using the fact that Pesto is ashamed of it himself. Marshmallow has no shame about what they are. Overall it's positive even with the few issues.
I think it’s also in the current day spirit of unquestioning inclusion. Producers can’t make a more nuanced or even unlikeable neurodivergent character because there would definitely be backlash for harping on a marginalized group. Even if the character is written with the best of intentions in mind
Downsides are presented as personality traits which are your own fault. Humans love to think that if something bad happens to you, then you either had it coming or you are going to come out victorious in the end. It makes them comfortable. Them - cowards, that is, and most humans are cowards, it's not something new.
Well in past autism was only shown in extreme forms. Like non talking just have the actor twuxh and occasionally yell. So not showing the up side, but a mix oh the poor parents and inspiring disabilities
Flash news people like fiction not as a representation of reality but as a stylized, idealized versión of it, that's why you see beautiful people, not fat, ugly or old. So it's autistic quirky and not every day autistic.
I'm aware it's an impopular opinion but that doesn't make it less true. And you can gauge it by how popular it is.
Also romanticized.... Mental illnesses...
Also it's funny to hear about unfairness in media or Hollywood. Such as women are expected to be beautiful and not be over 30. There's a lot you can say about it, but something about it makes me feel it's deeply hypocritical.
I don't understand the confusion here. Yes, it's interesting and entertaining to watch people on TV deal with issues that don't affect me and that I don't have to accommodate, and it's not interesting, entertaining, or fun to watch my brother deal with those issues in real life, or that we have to walk on eggshells at family holidays so my brother in law doesn't have a meltdown. Duh. It's also entertainment to watch a show where an important character dies, but extremely difficult and uncomfortable when your actual friend loses a spouse or child.
Society loves things that are difficult on TV, and in real life society prefers things that are easy.
Wednesday from The Adam's Family and Eddie Munster are nuerodivergent?
I never once got that impression. Seems like a stretch to me
Also outside of cosplaying who is "obsessing over" them?
"Why does everyone love that imaginary character so much,when they could have loved me instead? I do deserve it more, after all!"
They're both, at their core, fish out of water stories. Akin to 'someone from the East coast moved to the south and both people do things differently'.
People are projecting, otherwise.
In general, I like all people more as a concept than in person.
Wait you think Wednesday is supposed to be neuro fucking divergent? The Addams family are macabre. They enjoy inflicting pain on themselves and others. They're obviously creepy and quirky. They're bizarre. They're morbid. They're antiheroes, maybe. They could even be argued to be sociopathic, sadistic, cruel, or just mean. But that's their entire shtick, you absolute massive twat. They're an antithesis of a typically-portrayed family, the one with the white picket fence and the golden lab. What they are not, nor has anyone involved with their creation ever claimed they were, is neurodivergent.
But sure, just randomly make something unrelated to you completely about you, cause that screams neurodivergent, not narcissism.
Honestly kinda hate it when the Addams family are portrayed as actual criminals. Kinda makes me root for the stepford wives who keep protesting their existence, which defeats the point.
You've just described a lot of autistic people though. And specifically in this era where characters are given an extra dash of "autistic-coded writing" yeah thats the popular consensus is that Wednesday represents an autistic character.
Ok so I’m not alone. I was also a little confused too when this whole “Wednesday is neurodivergent “ was suddenly posted out of no where. If I’m to understand it; the current annoyance is that there’s a bunch of idiots out there that can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction when it comes to relating to neurodiversity.
Adams family was written in 1930s https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Addams_Family which is a body of artwork on macabre entertainment and wasn’t intended for ‘a psychological take’ (disembodied hand should have been obvious and the earmark for absurdity) it’s as ridiculous as someone swooping in and giving their armchair analysis on Voldemort. Or identifying with the plight of ents in LOR.
Neurodivergent wasn’t coined until the 1990’s https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/23154-neurodivergent
Could a person see something in it? Sure. Does that mean artistic intention? No. That’s 60 yrs to make such a connection. That’s absurd in and of itself.
It does seem it was taken a bit far on both sides though when you see people are actually writing thesis online about Wednesday adams and identifying with a fictional character but then get mad when someone else draws the comparison into a 2 dimensional definition to make the comment. So it’s more than just one side making the mistake here, seems it’s a communal decision without agreeing it was made on both sides.
That's okay. They prefer nondivergent characters more than their real counterparts as well. We really just should all develop catch phrases like Hidily Ho, Neighborino! or Your pitiful rebellion is no match for the power of the dark side.
My favourite character is Abed from Community. Wondering what other autistic people think of him?
I like Abed. In general he’s just a cool guy, but I think the portrayal despite on the surface seeming stereotypical actually has lots of depth. I especially like how he’s seen as “socially inept” but then knows more about the characters than they know about themselves.
Rewatching Community for like the 5th time, and I love Abed- especially how the show makes it clear he's not always the easiest to deal with, and not just some freakishly-smart supergenius who's always two steps ahead of everyone. He seems smart because he can read patterns in peoples' behavior, but he's otherwise just as human and imperfect as any of the others.
He's shown to have a lot of insecurity about the gang sticking around, and expects them to eventually give up and abandon him because everyone gets sick of putting up with his quirks eventually. They never do, of course, but it's something I relate to a lot. It sucks to deal with, but it's nice to have a character to relate that to.
AuDHD here, and I think he's fantastic.
I don't believe any of these characters are meant to be coded autistic. People just like wacky characters who say things without filtering themselves because we aren't actually able to do those things and get away with it in normal society.
I’m not with “coding”. It’s like a backronym, the characters are written, the actor and director interpret them, we see them and apply our own interpretation. Our interpretation tries to reverse engineer all of that and then put the character into a known box. Helluva game of telephone.
A character written to be autistic (or have gay affections, or whatever else) is not “coded”, they’re written to be gay or autistic.
Now, that’s not to say that writers, directors, and actors don’t all have biases and may have chosen certain traits knowingly or unconsciously and applied them to a character. There are definitely characters that do appear to have non-normative traits like BBT’s Sheldon, but the show left his character hanging. I can imagine why. If they said he was ASD the ASD community would vilify the show with “That’s not who we are!!!” and “Don’t mock people with ASD!” Justifiably.
But the wiki on the show says this:
Co-creator Bill Prady has stated that Sheldon's character was neither conceived nor developed with regard to Asperger's, although Parsons has said that in his opinion, Sheldon "couldn't display more traits" of Asperger's syndrome.
The ASD community would be right. There's no bigger insult than being connected with Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory is nerdface.
It can become a caricature of stereotypes rather than a "real" person who is one of these things because the show makes it their primary trait. It's like designing a gay character in the 00s, especially realty shows, it was like "this person is the gay character, they have to look very gay, what do gay people look like? They're silly and talk gay and get overly emotional, there's our gay character." The racialized character can be even more overtly offensive for obvious reasons. When it comes to neurodiverse its the same, it's always a primary trait that is very intentionally crafted to be "quirky" or whatever.
Funny enough I think it's actually kids cartoons that depict these characters in the most realistic way,
People used to tell me that I reminded them of Sheldon from tbbt as though that was a compliment.
I get that often on my tours. I hate it every time and it's increasingly difficult to hide it.
I mean to be fair a lot of characters like that get popular because a lot of autistic people identify with them and there are a lot of autistic people in fandom spaces.
What is often described as autistic in Hollywood is usually an advantage, such as determination or a razor-sharp mind and good memory. However, the truth is different for many of those affected, as they do not have pronounced insular talents and often experience disadvantages with their tics and social problems. It is harder for others to overlook such flaws when there are no obvious advantages.
Taking photos of my autistic hand gestures to show people on the internet.
I'm pretty sure the person in the photo is doing the dance from the Wednesday show.
This is honestly painful to become aware of
To be fair, most things are better as a concepts than practice. Especially so for fictional characters.
pretty soon people on the spectrum are going to realize what the rest of us know: we're all cunts. bastards. shitbags and utter ass pimples of humanity. we're all shite and the ones that get loved are the rare fraction of the 1% of humanity, and they're rarely worth it either.
Personally I'd rather avoid people entirely.
Sorry to break it to you, bud. You're likely on the spectrum. 👊
thanks! I finally feel a feeling of belonging and recognition.
As We See It was good. The autistic characters each had their own issues, strengths, difficulties communicating with neurotypical people and finding their ways to fit in (or not) in the world, and were actually played by people on the spectrum. Everyone I know who's seen it really enjoyed it. It's a shame that they didn't get picked up for a second season, because the writing, story arcs, acting, and character development were all great.
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