Leave any recommendations of autistic rep in the comments! Download Love & Pies here -> pixly.go2cloud.org/SH4D5

I think sometimes people accidentally write reasonably accurate representations of autism is because they do know autistic people but don't know they're autistic. So they might base a character on a person or type of person they know and accurately represent them, and then thta person or people just happen to be autistic

The fact that autistic people are not allowed to be shipped with other characters is THE most ableist thing i heard in a while

I'm Autistic and had to call an emergency service number for severe dental pain. The lady on the phone asked me to rate my pain from 1 to 10. In my desire to be accurate, I was struggling. When I told her that I'm struggling with that because I'm Autistic, she said, "Well, stop being Autistic for a moment to answer my question." So I told her it was 8, and thanked her for curing Autism in 30 seconds. Her Nobel Prize is in the mail. It was an insensitive thing to say on her part.

Another important reason why Sia's movie caused outrage is because there is a scene where her therapist uses a restraining hold that could block her airways. A parent of an autistic child wrote an open letter to Sia to ask if she could remove the scene (it sounds like Sia did not). When autistics and parents of autistics agree on something, you know it's messed up

In hollywood, ASD = Insufferable genius and ADHD = Manic Pixie Dream Girl

I love that the writers and cast openly acknowledge that Abed is Autistic, rather than making it vague, like Sheldon's portrayal. Abed is a fully rounded, realised character as a result, and Dan Harmon even found out that he himself was Autistic when researching Abed.

Top 3 comments I get when I come out as Autustic 1. "wow I would've never guessed you're so smart/highfunctioning/normal" 2. suddenly treats me like an idiot/child despite having already interacted with me normally the whole time without issues 3. "no you're not" 🙄🤦🏽

As an autistic person. I've noticed that the most accurate representations of autistic characters tend to be characters that are not introduced as autistic, but rather weird and quirky. Hollywood seems to think that autism is a specific and special brand of weird with a check list of symptoms. And forget that, most quirky and weird people they know of, probably where autistic.

"You can hold eye contact, you are not autistic." The no 1 criteria for not being checked out for autism in Denmark.

Rudolf is a great unintentional autism metaphor. You are excluded and hated for being different, until what makes you different is of use to us NOW you can join in.

Love that people are saying that having a romance subplot with an autistic character isn’t ok because they’re “childlike”, but the born-sexy-yesterday trope is fine as long as the character is allistic. And by “love it” I mean “pass the brain bleach, please”

22:03 that's actually not true. Grunya Sukhareva, a Jewish Soviet child psychiatrist was the first person to identify ASD in children, and she did that nearly 20 years before both Kanner & Asperger. there's even evidence Asperger plagiarized her work (and the fact he did that to justify the deaths of nearly 800 autistic children makes it especially disgusting)

What frustrates me the most about Sia's choice to cast Maddy in Music because "it would be cruel" to cast someone actually at the character's needs level is that the film is full of scenes meant to be in Music's head that are so incredibly unfriendly to the autistic experience and make absolutely no sense for the character. Like Maysoon Zayid said in her TED Talk when talking about how she didn't get the roll of a cerebral palsy character in the high school play because the drama teacher didn't think she'd be physically able to perform the role said: If I can't do it, neither can the character.

Hot take, there are no neuro-typical characters in Bob's Burgers. Not a single one

My 10 year old cousin who is into k pop and watched the Attorney Woo series recently said out of the blue during family dinner "Damn how I wish I had autistic intelligence"... Everyone at the table looked at her extremely confused and even more so when she then proceeded to turn to me and ask me to explain to them what she was talking about since I'm apparently the "know it all" of the family... only to keep correcting me and making it sound like autism was actually a superpower of some kind!... Now, she doesn't know that I am actually autistic myself, but her parents and most other adults there did and they were mortified and super lost by the whole ordeal. For sure one of the weirdest things that has happened to me in relation to autistic representation in the media and its impact.

Years ago, I tried to write an autistic character and couldn't figure out how to stop making her seem so cartoonish. Later figured out it was because I am autistic, had accidentally been making every single one of my characters also autistic, and had just imposed extra "quirks" onto her to try and accommodate. Point being, just because you're autistic doesn't mean you know what you're doing lol

The popular portrayal of neurodivergent people is also extremely white, which leaves the rest of us really isolated.

It's a shame that I can't bring myself to watch Love on the Spectrum. I have nothing against the show itself (since I haven't seen it), but every time I've seen clips the comments from clearly neurotypical people gushing over the "simplicity" of autistic love and saying shit like "autistic people must experience the world in such a pure, wholesome way compared to everyone else" made me deeply uncomfortable and annoyed.

I like that Attorney Woo Young had an episode where they have another character whose autism displays differently than hers. She had to confront that difference and how, though she does struggle, she still has some privileges and social support because of how hers is displayed.

I'm autistic and South Korean, and I personally adore "Extraordinary Attorney Woo". I related a lot to Woo Young Woo, and the show has many well represented symptoms of autism such as her struggle with facial expressions, her stimming and how whales are her special interest. While there are a few aspects of the show I do think could come off as turning her autism into a superpower, I never felt that way about it; Young-Woo doesn't just magically calculate her cases, it's her different way of thinking that lets her see other sides of a situation, which aids her. But her seeing different perspectives isn't some magical genius attribute. As for her photographic memory, I believe you are referring to her memorization of South Korean Law. This, I also don't find to be a special genius moment. Woo Young Woo seems to also value law itself as something of a special interest, and that's why she memorized a whole law book. Delving so deeply into something you appreciate is something I, and many other autistics, can really relate to. Young-Woo's autism may seem stereotypical to many, but I related to most of her behavior. I think it's very good representation. Her autism isn't considered a good or bad thing, and it interferes with her social life and how people perceive her. She overcomes lots of prejudice, but is also disheartened by it a lot. The show does a good job, to me, of tackling lots of issues that occur with an autistic main character. It explicitly points out that autism is a spectrum, and with an autistic client on a very different part of the spectrum, Young-Woo has to explain to others that her autism is not a universal experience. Young-Woo has to deal with being infantilized by others, and while in some cases she changes the persons mind, in others they simply continue to see her as lesser, and this discourages her. Her autism isn't treated like a joke, it's just a part of who she is, and while some characters in the show may mock her and look down on it, they're always treated like they're in the wrong. She's autistic, and she's just as capable as them, even if she has certain struggles that they don't. Also, it's nice that she falls in love with an allistic man, and they have a loving relationship. He's way too perfect and boring I think, but that's how lots of South Korean Drama men are, so it's okay. People seem to think autism makes you not able to fall in love, but they do, and it goes well despite certain obstacles. I think that's very good. The only real criticism I've seen of it so far, that I've thought is a decent point, is that the lead actress is not autistic. I totally see why this could be seen as bad. But the main actress initially turned down the role, not wanting to misrepresent anything or harm anybody, but the studio then delayed the show until she gave in. That's a very big deal, since the K-Drama industry is so fast paced and volatile. That was a very risky move, but the creators really felt that she would be able to do a good job, and I think she did do a good job. The lead actress has said that she never copied autistic people when acting, she just acted the way she felt was the more true to Young-Woo's character, so I don't think it's a problem. Young-Woo was not being mocked or stereotyped, and care was put in to make sure she wasn't. And, I think this might sound odd to American audiences, but finding an autistic actress to act in the show would have been very difficult, and I think that if a popular actress wasn't chosen, people would be really making a lot more of a mockery of the show. Korean reception is still somewhat unkind towards the show, because of how discriminatory Korea often is towards small groups of people. If they had managed to find an openly autistic actress, she might not be a good actor, or people would insult her heavily, or maybe she would be on such a different part of the spectrum, it wouldn't really be that different than if an allistic actress had been hired. But other than that, I think lots of criticism towards the show is unfair and not actually very considerate of autistic people's feelings. I really like the show, it's my favorite drama. I can't find any major flaws with the representation, even when I try. There's lots and lots of good traits in it, instead. I would really recommend it, so I just hope people don't see the portion of the video devoted to "Extraordinary Attorney Woo" and instantly imagine it to be bad or misrepresenting. I hope this doesn't sound like a sponsorship, I just wanted people to know that most autistic viewers of the show do consider it good representation. So if you were ever considering watching it, I think it's a good idea. That's all.

"don't claim to be autistic, autistic people can't travel by themselves" is so baffling it's incredible. It shows not only a narrow understanding of what autism is, but a complete lack of wanting to learn more about it.

Way early on, in reference to the Good Doctor and the misgendering: my dad is neurodivergent, and he is also hyper HYPER logical. When I came out to him as nonbinary and then trans, he was confused, but then considered it for only a brief period before becoming outwardly supportive. In my eyes, his logic has always played a large part in guiding him toward the support of minorities and underrepresented folks.

fun story, when i was in 5th grade i really struggled to see the whiteboard, i said nothing because i assumed that’s just how everyone else sees, was absolutely mind blown when i finally got glasses and realized oh, this is how it’s supposed to be. cut to present day, im 22, was recently diagnosed with autism same concept am consistently blown away daily about how many masks i wear, because i simply believed that’s how everyone else was

After I got my ASD-1 diagnosis, I told my best friend about it. He said, "You can't be Autistic because every Autistic person has a 'little genius'. What is YOUR little genius?" I don't know what this meant, and I can only guess that the expectation is that be Rain Man at something.

The big bang isb't a show about nerds, it's a show making fun of nerds, and tbh I hate it.

"It's possible to find two autistic people with diametrically opposed needs..." YES! I feel like not enough people acknowledge that.

As for the "Is Sheldon Autistic" discussion, I (Person with Aspergers) used to have "sheldon" used at me as an insult, very much so in the tone of a slur. I dont care what the writers say, sheldon was written in a way that acts as an example for people to make fun of autism, simple as.

Another really good example of a popular autistic headcanon is Mob/Shigeo Kageyama from Mob Psycho 100! The entire show itself can be read as an analogy for how masking and repressing yourself leads to meltdowns and includes a lot of themes that are very relateable to autistic people (especially autistic ppl with social anxiety!!). There's a lot in there about how a support system is vitally important for you to grow as a person, and how it's always more important to be authentic to yourself than to cater for and mask around other people. I love it so much, and pretty much every single character in the main cast can be read as autistic in one way or another.

Part of the reason a lot of autistic people identify as genderqueer is because of how socially constructed gender is. We tend to struggle with understanding and applying social norms, and this often applies to our gender as well. Many of us have a rich and nuanced understanding of our identity, including our gender identity, which we might not feel is adequately represented by the labels of cisgender boy or girl. Many autistic people identify as queer or transgender, but more specifically, many autistic people identify as not a part of the gender binary.

I think the narrowness in which we understand autism (white, middle-class, boys) even leaves out some white middle-class boys. What if that boy's autism shows itself in ways that you might expect from a girl? Does the doctor just miss that he has autism? I state this to point out how I think the previous conceptions of what autism looks like are even narrower than people think. I also think we need a drastically different approach to how we view disability and ability. If someone has a certain noise sensitivity (for example), they shouldn't need to explain why they have that sensitivity, they should be able to do what they need to deal with it.

As an autistic person or Aspergers (it was the term I was diagnosed with), I related more with Disney Renaissance princesses. Ariel treats her special interests like a roller-coaster doing a loopty loop, Belle is so engrossed into the same book that the rest of the world seems to melt away, and Mulan has to rely on outside sources in a professional environment because she can't read social cues that well. They might not have meltdowns, but they're characterized as both child like and mature. Though, if you want a show about the autistic perspective, I recommend "A Kind of Spark."

Noticing no one has said him(at least from what I've read), I have to say my favorite 'autistic' character is in fact, Spencer Reid(from Criminal Minds). While his autism is never really announced in the show, he shows very clear signs and he's never infantilized. He's a VERY good agent and doctor and his autism is one of the things that makes him so good and oh my god. He was the first ever character in media where I was like 'Hey! I do that!' Especially with his fixations on certain dark subjects. I have hyperfixations on so many dark things and I've always been called a freak or told I'd end up being a murderer in the future. Reid showed me I wasn't alone in my 'creepy' fixations and they could possibly help me in certain works!

I'm so annoyed with the misconceptions we face. "Not able to travel alone"... buddy, I'm studying abroad in a foreign country, have spent a week in a 1person tent speaking a second language and volunteering and another week backpacking along the Irish coast. Did I face difficulties because of my autism? Sure, lots. Did this make the journeys impossible? No. *whirrs angrily*

I really appreciate the inclusion of Julia, an Autistic muppet on "Sesame Street", as it normalises the condition for a younger audience. Julia's puppeteer has a son who's on the spectrum, which helps with her portrayal of the character.

it's interesting how varied the experiences of autistic people are, and how something deemed "bad representation" by most of the community can still make specific members of it feel seen. I'm autistic and have never seen The Good Doctor, but as soon as you played the clip of the character's meltdown, I immediately identified with it. When I was younger, that was what a lot of my meltdowns looked like - I would feel frustrated and misunderstood, and get very caught up on the source of my frustration. I couldn't mask until I got older, and would scream over and over until I felt like someone (usually an adult with power over me) actually understood what I was trying to say. My skin would feel like it was on fire, I wouldn't be able to stop crying, and my emotions felt so big that I had to scream until it hurt to get them out. If I hadn't learned to cope so well, I could easily imagine myself in his position, fixated on the unfairness of having my capabilities doubted and unable to handle feeling like I needed to prove myself. Having my autonomy denied, or being assumed to be incompetent, not being able to advocate for myself, etc. were frequent things that would set off my autistic rage.

Lily Simpson actually did a really good analysis on the trans misgendering episode of the Good Doctor and it actually wasn't as bad as "his autism makes him unable to grasp the concept of transgenderism." It showed more that he learned all of his medical knowledge through extensive study in medical school and our medicals schools are severely lacking on information regarding transgenderism. He didn't know what was going on because his education had failed him.

I love how you mentioned us with ADHD listening while doing other tasks. That is basically the only way I "watch" KZfaq. I'll listen while caring for baby, doing chores, playing a video game. I intentionally watch folks who's content doesn't rely too heavily on visuals, if the content creator is neurodivergent and/or queer that is a huge plus. Your channel kinda checks all my boxes. Thank you for doing what you do.

What's actually so frustrating about Benedict Cumberbatch's whole thing about playing Frankenstein's monster as autistic is that a portrayal like that COULD be good if it weren't so essentialist and ableist because a lot of autistic people DO experience being othered and their autism treated as this horrible obstacle (which of course Cumberbatch's quote betrays). And what's funny is that Shelley's book (and the 1930s movie) does present the idea that the Monster is only monstrous because he is perceived that way similar to how many of the difficulties of being autistic are there because society makes it that way. All of this said with the caveat that it would be best if an autistic actor took that approach rather than a non autistic actor playing autistic.

Wow, I'm not used to wandering outside of specifically autistic spaces and finding such sane, scholarly, humanistic understanding of autism. You had me scratching my head wondering if you are also autistic, because your understanding is so good. And what a brilliant breakdown of the problematics of advocacy and accommodation. The sad truth is, a lot of non-autistic people really can't "hear" autistic people. We need more non-autistic people to get to this level of understanding and speak out. I'm bookmarking this for sharing. Thank you for turning your mind to this topic.

I never even considered Elle Woods. I need to rewatch Legally Blonde from that lens now

I appreciate you bringing up Entrapta. The audiance infantalisation of her was so frustrating, when the show runners wrote her so well. There is clearly romance between her and Hordak, and shebis a grown woman that is both extremely well versed in her special interest, technology, and also needing her tiny cute foods as all she will eat. Her robots help her with her needs so she can thrive and be her best. The show doesn't infantalize her and it really also puts into perspective how powerful an audience and their biases can color a character.

Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger didn't just happen to discover the same condition independently at the same time. Both of their work was based on the work of Georg Frankl and Anni Weiss. They worked at the Viennese autism clinic Asperger worked at, far before he did. Asperger was a newbie. Anni and Georg then fled to the US, because they were Jewish. Leo Kanner was actually the guy who helped them flee Austria. I guess he thought it'd be a fair deal to then take the credit for all of their knowledge on autism. Source: Edith Sheffer's book 'Aspergers' Children', would recommend, but wow it is not for the feint of heart because that Asperger guy is an absolute villain.

IMHO as an autistic individual, Sheldon is kind of a mixed bag to me. He is a much more complicated and nuanced depiction of autism then people give him credit for, and i think that nuance is actually what ended up being the biggest problem because the writers of the show were unable to handle the nuances of the character they created and it got a bit messy. I think he is actually a pretty accurate portrayal of what happens when autism becomes intertwined with slight narcissism (which does happen). I think the biggest issue with his portrayal is less that the depiction is "inaccurate" and more that it doesn't do a very good job of seperating Sheldons narcissism from his autism and instead of making it clear that they are two seperate aspects of his personality that feed into each other, its almost implied that autism causes people to become narcissistic or vice versa. Honestly I think the writers didn't set out to make an autistic character originally, i think they were trying to create a goofy Socially awkward scientist who was too self absorbed and oblivious to realize he was socially awkward, and that type of character is just naturally going to become at least somewhat autistic, and then when people started pointing out the similarities bewteen sheldon and autism the creators kinda just ran with it without fully understanding what they were doing, and that is how we ended up with an 'autistic' character that is some how simultaneously nuanced, stereotypical, and problematic. But I think the unintentional nuance is what draws so many allistic people to the character, because it was a much more nuanced depiction of autism than you typically see and i think it did actually help some allistic individuals understand autism a bit more because it did prompt people who found the character interesting to look into autism in a way they probably wouldn't have otherwise, through video essays and such. Also sheldon is given alot of agency, growth, and social acceptance, which is pretty rare for autistic characters. Often autistic characters are treated as a stagnant character that people put up with out of pity and kindness, but with sheldon you can tell that even though they are often exasperated by his behaviors his friends really do love and respect him, and that's ind of refreshing to see. I might eventually do a long form essay on sheldon becuase i find his depiction such a fascinating mixture of good and bad.

As someone with ASD, I immediately understood what was going on in the "I am a surgeon" scene and could relate 100%. He's already in a stressful environment, and now his boss is blaming him for something out of his control and actively PUNISHING him for something out of his control. All of this would lead to a break in his mental dam and his emotions would come flooding out. He's trained his life for this, he's passed the tests, he's done the work. He is a Surgeon. The reason he seems to chant "I am a Surgeon" is because this is the root of his emotional break down. He's done the work, he's got the title, he IS a surgeon. When I was in similar situations, I'd often repeat the last real coherent thought on repeat. Totally believable. So imagine my surprise when Neurotypicals and those with "Self Diagnosed Autism" were clowning on what I considered to be a realistic depiction of an Autistic Meltdown. The fact that it became a meme legitimately set us back a decade in general understanding in regards to Autism, and it actually impacted my ability to work as my colleagues shared the meme around. I had had a few meltdowns at work by this point, so now suddenly eyes were on me as they began to whisper whether or not I was faking my meltdowns. I did try reaching out to popular content creators to try and at least get some bigger voices out there to spread the word, but none of them noticed me. A few even went on to clown on it as well.

My friend once called Sherlock’s mind palace ‘floating png autism powers’ and I just think that is so true because every time I think about things pngs start flying around my head (joke)

I'm interested to see where TV depictions of robot/alien characters might intersect into this discussion. All of my favorite characters were robots growing up. I was always "the weird robot girl". Then, as an adult, I was diagnosed.

I felt seen when you said: "Shout out to my fellow adhders, you have this playing in the background, you're listening to it while doing the task". I cleaned my appartment and done the dishes while listening.

When i (an autistic person) said that i saw autistic traits in Sherlock Holmes, another person in my class imediately called me neurotypical for thinking that... Apparently it was wrong of me to see some of my own traits in a fictional character.

There's now a podcast version of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Sherlock & Co, in which Sherlock is canonically confirmed to be autistic. The representation is (to me) very kind and realistic. Sherlock has sensory difficulties, he struggles with social situations, he talks about how exhausting masking is. John is accommodating and accepting of Sherlock's struggles and needs, and corrects him if he's causing upset or offence to someone. It's just so lovely to see (hear) and so important to me.

I really resonated with the "I am a surgeon" scene. Silly as it may be, it reminded me of the grip acceptance has on you when you've constantly been turned away as an autistic person, so I don't think the reaction is unrealistic or bad. It made me cry honestly with how much I resonated with the feelings and circumstances that brought the meltdown on.

I was very lucky to find a therapist who specializes in autism in AFAB people. I wasn't diagnosed until I met her when I was 24

LILO! YAAAAAAAYYYY!!! God she is so relatable. The first time I watched that movie I felt some warm fuzziness about seeing a character who accurately represented me as a child, and at the same time felt an incredible sadness for a character who accurately represented me as a child. Lilo is quite possibly a perfect character. Love her.

The way that Mayam said that they ‘didn’t try to change their characters’ as if they didn’t spend the whole show trying to change BOTH Sheldon and Amy

Does anyone else find that relatives, coworkers & friends start condescending and talking down to you once they find out you have ASD? (or even suspect you do?) Or even that you just have a comorbid condition such as severe depression or agoraphobia? It's happening to me, and it's so frustrating. As a grown woman, I don't want people baby-talking to me, censoring themselves around me or 'yes, dear'-ing me. I can and want to participate in adult life, discussions, activities. It's just that sometimes my mind & body won't get with that programme.

I'm a mental healthcare professional (aka I work in mental healthcare) and I both have autism and specialise in it. I have studied it and exclusively work with people who have autism (ASD). And I just wanna say, your explanation/ defining of autism (ASD) was very spot on. Good job!

I'm nonbinary afab, 21, and pretty sure I'm neurodivergent of some kind. I went to get a diagnosis, the doctor said I'm too smart and that was pretty much all I got. When I first met with him he said if someone comes in saying they are autistic they most likely aren't and that rubbed me the wrong way. I've decided I don't need a diagnosis but I have an anxiety diagnosis that is able to get me the accommodations I need. But if I didn't have that I would need a diagnosis

I'm autistic, my partner has ADHD, we have an incredible (bio) daughter and we... do not tell people anything we don't *absolutely* have to. I can count on one hand the number of people in our lives who know both of those things and we keep it that way, both to protect our daughter from general judgement and (frighteningly to consider) to protect our ability to keep custody of her. Media representation starts as this very interesting, kind of low-stakes feeling thing, but I can guarantee you that the stakes are high and dangerously close to getting higher. Thank you for doing the work to shed actual light on these things in such a fascinating way!

The misgendering is the strangest part. Those on the spectrum are very willing to hear one's own experience and stick to it. It's one of the many things i love about my husband's autism

I've come to the conclusion that I don't want representation. I never asked, and I really hate it.

Me, an ADHD, who had this video on while working. "fellow adhders who probably have this on in the background" *Surprised Pikachu*

Even before diagnosis, myself and many of my autistic friends were treated like a spectacle by our allistic peers at school and by other children who picked us out in public. The fact that allistic people see no issue with milking autistic people as their personal lolcows is one of the many reasons I have no respect for people who don't see the problem with making fun of autists / bullying behaviour and abuse perpetrated by children. They are culpable and their age shouldn't distract from the fact that they should be held to account and taught better.

I really hate the belief that the Big Bang creators have that "being medicated" is a bad thing. And medical autism diagnosis is awful, particularly during the 90s, so Sheldon could have absolutely be autistic.

I'm on the Spectrum, and meltdowns (sometimes public) have been a recurring theme in my life. As a child, they brought me immense feelings of shame, and as a 33-year-old today- although their frequency is much, much lower than they were in my childhood- they make me question my capacity to be a full-fledged adult. At times, they even make me sympathize with the Karens in those viral videos, because I recognize how easily I also could have a bad day and be caught saying or doing extreme things as a reaction to extreme, internal emotions. All this to say that the online reaction to the "I am a surgeon", which I personally find extremely relatable, is very upsetting to me. We know how ridiculous we look. We know it makes us look unprofessional. We know most people are better at hiding intense emotions, and we are deeply, deeply ashamed about it. It is not something we can control. We've tried. (PS, the Good Doctor actor's portrayal was FINE. This it often what it looks like when I'm pushed to my breaking point, too. Leave the man alone.)

"shout out to the adhd-ers who are probably playing this in the background while doing something else" not me playing sonic adventure 2 while watching this and feeling called out LMAO (im audhd!)

Every Star Trek has had at least one autistic-coded character. The most relatable for me personally was Reginald Barclay. There are people who somehow insist he's allistic despite him having shutdowns, having meltdowns, having no difficulty whatsoever socializing with simulations, and spending nearly every moment onscreen visually stimming. _We know our own when we see them!_

I do like the couple in Australia that laughed at the interviewers when they asked about sex. “Duh, that’s the easy part!” I agree. As an autistic adult, sex is not an issue. For me, it’s neurotypicals not understanding me. I also was called for the show but refused to date the one guy from MA . So they rejected me. I think it was also that I am over 35. I noticed they don’t have autistic women over 30 on the show. I find that odd.

Brick on The Middle is one of my fave autistic characters and there are a few episodes with his friends from “social skills class” that are all delightful (idk if they say he is autistic but it’s beyond coding it is too accurate 😅)

Growing up in the dark about my autism/ADHD and having no obvious representation in media here’s a few tv show characters I was drawn to before even knowing what autism was: - Both Data and Spock from Star Trek (data for wanting to be more human and trying to understand them, Spock for his masking of his emotions) - The literary version of Sherlock Holmes (how his habits and mannerism were described and the way he thinks is very similar to my own) - Daria (loving books, being brutally honest, feeling like an outsider and being the “brain”. Only later did I realize it’s my special interests happened to make me look gifted in areas when in reality I had dyscalculia and other issues like ADHD) - Ferb from Phineas and Ferb (because he talked about as much as I do around people) - Abed from Community (doing research on Abed was how I discovered autism was even a thing!) - BMO from Adventure Time (it’s been so long since I’ve watched the show I don’t remember why) There are more but that’s all I can recall off the top of my head. I think it’s important to remember that there are autistic stereo typed traits but they still are real traits autistic people have. It’s what’s done with that representation that’s important. Some are very childlike, are often under the asexual umbrella and can be very, very skilled or knowledgeable in a subject or skill to the point you might as well give them a phd! I myself feel like I’m stuck for ever as my twelve year old self, I’m asexual/aromantic, and I have encyclopedic knowledge of many of my numerous special interests! However I struggle and strive to have independence as an adult; I am not naive about sex (in fact it’s very interesting and I probably know more information about every possibly type and sexuality than most people out there); I may be able to give university level lectures about my special interests but if you make me do math or put me in class and have me interact with others I’d fail 100% of any of that!

29:50 bro I was around when netfilx she-ra was at it's peak and bruh the way ppl treated entrapta as if this woman wasn't 30 was wild

I also find the Wednesday headcanon to be problematic and out here in the same category as Sheldon. It’s a glorification of the tropes instead of using them as the butt of a joke but it’s still tropey. Wednesday’s autistic traits are linked to her violence, her disdain for people and her superiority complex. They are also very much played as her choosing these traits and that she can stop anytime. The autistic traits are set dressing to make her look cool.

the underrepresentation of autsim in media is such an issue and thank you for talking about it, I was diagnosed at 18/ 19 and the thing that pushed me to look into autism was a video made by illymation where they talk about their personal expereince, and how they always felt that something was fundimentaly different about them and how they interacted with the world. It was the first time i heard anyone else actually talk about that feeling and was a key turning point in my journey.

That “spectacle” thing you got at hits home. I’d been told by my therapist that I’m not autistic because I can talk about things outside of the context of a special interest. However, a lot of it stays in my head. I’ll contextualize things I do/happen in regards to my special interests

I've been diagnosed at 26 (and I have OCD along with autism). I identify very little with those characters. I'm no genius. I like making new friends, although it's hard to. There's a long way to go till they represent us well, the spectrum is a multiverse.

Sia's response that she made Music with "special abilities" sounds more like she's putting Autistic people on some kind of high horse, or making them out to be Super human rather than human.

This is why i like Laios from Dungeon Meshi. Despite him being a kind man, a lot of his actions are unusual to those not on his plane of thinking (aka, everyone else save for his sister) and they often dont understand why Laios is who he is. Despite this, hes neither demonized nor praised by the show, understanding that his life is much more complicated than it looks.

This was SO well researched and presented I'm actually in awe!!! Only just found you and your videos through suggested stuff while on my own post-2021 self discovery journey where I've picked up bits here and there, but the way this neatly knits everything together and pretty much covers everything is amazing. Going to send to people, thank you!

Some of my favorite autistic and ADHD rep AND popular headcanons come from The Owl House. Luz and Eda both canonically deal with ADHD (as well as Eda’s curse being a clear metaphor for chronic illness) and many characters surrounding them have varying levels of neurodivergence (namely Amity and Hunter being the most popularly headcanoned autistic characters, but Willow and Gus both display traits as well). With the show’s entire narrative being Eda’s famous “us weirdos have to stick together” byline and how colonialism and its power structures seek to actively disenfranchise and destroy those “weirdos,” the characters difference and neurocomplexities are at the forefront of the conversation about the show. Highly recommend!!

shoutout to Ayda Augefort from Dimension 20's Fantasy High! Canon autistic after Brennan, the dungoen master of the campaign, realized that he modeled that NPC after his autistic friends specifically, she's only one of many geniuses amongst of extraordinary characters overall, and the best character to ever exist honestly, best girl forever

sorry but I'm autistic and **I AM A SURGEON!** had me cackling like a witch the delivery/acting is so bad it's hilarious

Though it was most likely unintentional, one bit of representation that stuck with me as an autistic was 2019's Osomatsu-San the movie. Basically, we get a look into each characters' past, and Ichimatsu was shown to be masking his personality for the approval of his peers. The saddest part about this however is that it shows that even while masking to be included, he's still an outsider in this friend group. So not only did the masking not even work for him as intended, but it contextualizes why he's so perpetually burnt out and downright afraid of seeking out relationships as an adult. While no character from this series has been stated to be autistic, it was interesting to me how well this plotline represented masking (as well as the negative effects it causes) and thus I feel there's a case for it being autism coding. Fantastic video, I've subscribed.

I love the head canon that Kageyama Tobio is autistic especially because his “special skill” is not just a “natural special power” but something he has worked on for years and his pattern recognition helps with it

21:53 A woman called Grunya Sukhareva characterized autism nearly two decades before Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger but it appears that her research wasn’t translated from Russian etc. etc. plus her being a woman most likely led to her not being credited historically 😕 Although it seems that the men who ”discovered” autism did know about her so..

the main (almost only lol) video on my channel is a 15 second clip from sherlock of john saying sherlock has "aspergers" in the BBC show i hate that they couldn't just say autism, but it's wild they even said anything at all actually in the show

I kind of want to, like, unclaim Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock Holmes. Like, every incarnation of Sherlock Holmes is autistic *except* for him.

Entrapta actively makes flirty comments in the show. Granted, they are directed at robots and not overtly sexual, but it is a kids show so this is the most we can expect, anyways. She isn't childlike and it's fine to ship her.

Mayim Bialik has also pushed starseed and indigo children talking points, which in my opinion disqualifies her for ever defending poor autistic representation/stereotypes. If you're not familiar with those, they were hippie/New Age ways of saying "My child is 'special,' but not autistic"

my fav representation of autism in tv is dirk from dirk gentlys holistic detective agency. its never confirmed, but his behaviours and traits directly line with how my autism is for me. i think it's a wonderful show and dirks character is so comforting to me, because of how accurate it is and the depth that his character has. he's such a well rounded and explored character, and his autistic behaviour is rather subtle (unless your me and its very obvious). i think it was definitely accidental, but the fact that he's so clearly neurodivegent is good enough for me!!

Something that bothers me and makes no damn sense is that there are absolutely zero, ZERO autistic characters out there who communicate primarily with an aac device. That's like if every single gay character in the world had a great relationship with both their parents, it would be fucking weird. I'm really excited about the story I'm making cause one of the leads in non-speaking! The plot isn't about that either, it's a horror romance between him and this divorced father he gets trapped in a nightmare dimension with edit: apologies, my mistake, I seem to have forgotten that our lord and savior Sia took care of it /s

I always wonder why, when discussing complex and rich representations of autism in media, we often forget to mention Will Graham, from the series Hannibal. The showrunner has recently denied Will is autistic (maybe as a nervous effort to distance the show from any polemic) yet the first line uttered by the character in the entire series is that he most probably is and the character is written and coded as that. Graham is a very interesting character: nuanced, humane, layered. He’s not a savant but a very highly intelligent hyperempath who constantly suffers from this ability, and ability that’s being instrumentalized and weaponized by the people around him. But he constantly fights back against these pressures but also against his own impulses. And despite on how the show and the character ended (or maybe because the very way the character ended) to me he’s a very respectful, intelligent and elegant representation of an autistic coded character. Addendum: it’s also so refreshing to see a good autistic representation outside a cartoon.

Another example I can think of is potentially Temperance Brennan from Bones lol which is ironically a show that has some of the most respectful trans representation you can find despite being a crime show immediately after 9/11 lmao and I'm trans. I can judge that haha Thank you for the video!

Despite some of the shortcomings, I really loved the drama Extraordinary Woo Young Woo. And while I do not have a savant skill, she is my brand of autism in so many other aspects. I'm 37, and it is the first time I've ever related to a main character so much. In so many different scenes I found myself saying, "OMG, me too!" And I think what it really highlights for me is the need to have diversity amongst autistic characters. Not everyone will relate to Young Woo's dislike of rotating doors, but I did, and I felt so validated. And I hope in the future more autistic individuals can see characters they can relate to on screen. Because, at least for me, when I saw Young Woo being authentically herself, and she was courageous and cool, it gave me courage to want to do the same.

You are so right about neurodivergent people who might have gotten by a good half century ago without accommodations having trouble today. My dad has ADHD, but grew up in a paper and pens time where he didn’t have to keep track of things he couldn’t hold in his hands. Every assignment was on a piece of paper, so he just coasted through school without any accommodations. He definitely missed a bunch of homework, but it wasn’t as bad, and he aced every test. He might be slightly farther ahead right now if he was medicated in college, but he certainly isn’t doing bad. I just don’t see him finding the same success today without at least a 504.

I ADORE Quinni and Abed, they are both very comforting portrayals for me as an AuDHD haver with similar special interests to them. Thank you for this insightful video, as autistic representation is SO hit or miss [usually miss] so its great to note whenever someone does it right.

stopppp i made it all the way to the end and i was in fact listening to this in the background while tidying up my room 😭😭 thank you for such a great and informative video, and for one that was so conducive to my focus

I think for a full discussion of Woo-young-woo, we'd have to discuss the episode that includes a higher support needs autistic character too. That said, although there are issues with the writing, as an autistic person, I personally really adored Woo. I don't think that counteracts any criticisms, just that there is good to be found too.

@36:05 - This was literally me. One of the commonly repeated "when Kittysunlover was a kid" stories my parents would tell is how they were told by various professionals (teachers, caregivers, etc.) that I was potentially autistic and they should have me tested, and their response was just "well she's nothing like Rain Man." So.... they never took me to be tested or seek out any of the possible supports that might have been available for me growing up.

Love the video! Josh Thomas and I have a similar experience. During the production of Dead End, I also got my autism diagnosis thanks to writing the characters and talking with our consultants. And then we had other autistic writers, story boarders and animators throughout the production. Sometimes it was scary, as early on, we were told by one consultant NOT to hire autistic people because they'd struggle... that's when I decided to finally get my diagnosis, so that I could be a better advocate and have people trust I knew what I was talking about.

Thanks for mentioning Autism Speaks. I cannot properly express the feelings of horror and disgust I feel when someone says they want to "cure" people like me...

I have autism, I was diagnosed in middle school but I've known pretty much all my life as I'm pretty 'stereotypically' autistic. My 'lack of respect' is stuff like refusing to take off my headphones inside because i dont understand why its rude when its helping me concentrate. Not misgendering people or being otherwise racist/sexist/xenophobic. and thats the thing - people see my 'disrespect' for stupid, irrelevant social rules like 'no hoods inside' or 'no looking away when someones speaking' and assume that its impossible for me to follow any rule, or be nice to anyone. Its really hurtful, and seeing it represented over and over again in media thats praised for its autism representation is just horrible for me.