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| Picture source: gigidovale.com |
Everyone knows a person who has autism, and if you think you don't, you do. When you think about autism, you will probably imagine an awkward white boy who acts like a child even though they are twenty, who has some weird quirks and gets mad easily. Now, I have not watched the show Atypical so correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that Sam Gardner, the main character, is a living representation of that stereotype. From what I've read, heard, and have seen, he is the typical autistic white boy who blurts out inappropriate things at inappropriate moments, dresses awkwardly, and does not understand other people's emotions.
All of these things are common when you are autistic, but the narrative of an awkward, autistic white boy is overused. Autism happens to people of every gender, ethnicity or age, yet in the media, it seems like only teenage white boys can get it, and this is problematic.
I think representation is extremely important, and like PJ wrote last week in 'The Overwhelming Difference Between Representation and Queerbaiting', the accuracy of that representation is also extremely important. Now, the representation in Atypical is not necessarily incorrect - there are definitely white, autistic boys like Sam in this world, however the narrative of yet another white, autistic boy is harmful for autistic people like me.
The world knows that boys like that exist, and the extremely stereotypical representation is not helping them nor other autistic people. It creates the idea that there is only a certain type of autistic person when other people on the autism spectrum are likely the most diverse group of people you will ever see. A higher-functioning autistic boy might feel ridiculed by this stereotypical representation, and people around boys like him will have incorrect assumptions just because they have seen yet another too-stereotypical representation. However, it is especially the autistic people who aren't white boys who feel alienated and misunderstood because of autism representations like Sam in the media.
We all know that having trouble with communicating emotions is common under people with autism and that they often have obsessions they are passionate about. However, there are so many more quirks that you never see in the media.
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| Picture source: backstage.com |
Did you know that bisexuality and genderfluidity are super common for people with autism? Multiple pieces of research show that people with autism (especially womxn) experience bisexuality way more often than people who aren't autistic. Scientists aren't sure why this occurs, but my theory, as an autistic womxn, is that concepts like sexuality and gender have so many unwritten rules created by society that are not immediately clear to autistic people and most certainly do not make sense. Every time my parents would tell me that I "dressed like a boy" I would get so confused - what the fuck does that even mean? I think we fight these weird rules by not following them, but I am no scientist.
Another thing about autism that the media never seems to acknowledge is the myth around women not being able to have autism. This myth used to be seen as a fact until quite recently. There are different theories for why this was thought, but the most important cause was that girls are simply held to different standards whilst growing up to boys, and just do not get the same amount of space as a child to develop. They are forced to mature earlier. A result of this is that girls with autism fall into depression in their teens and struggle a lot in their adult lives. Some of them never get the diagnosis, and if they get one, it is nearly always a late diagnosis.
It is said that womxn experience autism differently than men, however, I'm convinced that this is just a result of the different standards girls are expected to meet growing up. Most autistic girls are high-functioning, as they simply did not get the space to be vulnerable and 'different'. Now, I'm not someone who watches many shows or movies, so it is not that weird that I can't name any objects that feature a womxn with autism in the media, but I'm pretty sure that they will not resemble me. The lack of womxn with autism in the media helps in holding the myth that womxn don't get autism, and this makes me mad. Boys like Sam from Atypical just aren't like me at all. I feel like I barely have anything in common with him and that feels alienating.
There is one thing that Atypical depicts that I think is important to show in media representations of autism. Apparently, Sam wears his headphones a lot and in inappropriate situations too. Autistic people have sensitive senses that register every single sense as an important signal, whereas non-neurodiverse people have a filter in their brain that decides whether a certain sound, scent or light is important enough to signal or not. This makes us vulnerable in crowded spaces, where there are many scents, sounds, and you often get touched by people. By wearing headphones we can block out one of the many signals we have to process. Alternatives to wearing headphones are sunglasses to minimalise the light we have to process, and sometimes we tend to cover our ears when spaces get too loud. From what I've read, Atypical shows this side of autism in their episodes but does not explain it and makes it a punchline rather than something that seriously helps us.
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| Picture source: minhaserie.com |
Another commonly known fact about autistic people is that we have trouble with change in our daily lives. This can mean multiple things: we wear the same clothes very often, we have a very strict daily routine that we need to stick to, or we, for example, only eat certain types of food. What's important to know about all of these things I've mentioned is that not every autistic person experiences them to the same degree. Some people don't experience certain feelings at all, or barely experience them, whilst some experience them very extremely. For me, this means that I do not necessarily have a strict schedule every day, but I could never change my plans unexpectedly - that would completely throw me off.
Now, I don't know how all of this is depicted in Atypical specifically, but autistic people are often bullied for wearing the same clothes a lot and this is something I wish the media would discuss more. Wearing a different pair of underwear could simply make one of us so uncomfortable that we get sensory overload; a t-shirt of a different fabric could literally make us nauseous, but all people seem to have to say about it is "Damn, do you ever even wash your clothes?"
There are so many things I could mention, but I will save that for another time. I just had to comment on the hype around Atypical now that there is a realistic female same-sex couple on the show. Just because there is one good form of representation on the show does not make the show good on all aspects.
If you want to read about the opinions of a white, autistic man on Atypical, I recommend this article. Every autistic person is different, and all of our opinions and experiences are so different. There is not one perfect character that could represent us all, but there are narratives that are overdone and slightly harmful.
Article by: Cyan
