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hoardingpuffin · 2 years

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Autistic Person rates Autistic Characters in Media

In this post, I will be rating some autistic characters in media (specifically TV and movies) based on how well represented I feel by them as an autistic person. Keep in mind that this is thus a subjective list since autism is very individual and no two autistic people will have the same experience or opinions. I would also like to add that I am what would be considered a Low Support Needs autistic person, seen that I can generally live without too much assistance or accommodations, which means that my experience is going to not be relatable to autistic people with higher support needs than mine. On that note, also please keep in mind that “low functioning” and “high functioning” are harmful labels and that they are not the same as “low support needs” and “high support needs”. Also, obviously, since this is subjective, I am not saying that nobody else on the spectrum can’t like or relate to any of these characters; this is my own opinion, not a purely objective rating. Finally, whilst I will be rating these characters on a scale of 1 (worst) to 6 (best), I will not be ranking them in this post.

This list includes characters that are explicitly named to be autistic or that are widely accepted to be autistic, for example because the creators or actors confirmed it in retrospect or because the canon very strongly implies it and the creators have not spoken out in denial of it. Also I can obviously only rate the media I have actually seen so if your favourites aren't on this list, this is why.

CONTENT WARNINGS THAT APPLY: mentions of antisemitism (briefly), mentions of Autism Speaks, mentions of ableism, mentions of an autistic male character acting creepily towards women.

I will be signalling Pros/positive points with a + sign and Cons/negative points with a – sign.

Dr. Isidore Latham (Ato Essandoh) – Chicago Med (2/6)

- “curing autism” theme in the episodes centric on his personal experiences

- usage of the outdated and antisemitic term “Aspergers” over “Autism” (this is especially harmful considering Dr. Latham is Jewish)

+ Black autistic representation (which is rare seen that most autistic characters tend to be White) and Jewish autistic representation

+ whilst Dr. Latham is shown to not be the most social man and to be very direct, he isn’t outright rude or unprofessional

- as far as I could find out online, the actor is allistic (it is always better to cast a disabled actor for a disabled role)

Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) – The Good Doctor (0/6)

- the show collaborates with Autism Speaks, who are known to be a hate group not actually looking to help or listen to autistic people

- allistic actor

- extremely stereotypical in its portrayal (extremely antisocial, no friends, always literal, no social awareness – even though autistic people struggle with allistic tone patterns, usually they would be able to pick up at least somewhat what other people consider rude behaviour and would try to avoid it, something Shaun never seems to do)

- transphobia from the one autistic character, implying directly that autistic people are unable to understand the concept of a transgender identity (when in truth, studies show that many people on the spectrum also often identify as not on the gender binary or as transgender)

- Autistic Savant trope (portraying autistic people as geniuses when in fact, less than 5% of all autistic people are a Savant and even if we are very interested in a topic such as medicine, we still need to learn and study just as allistic people)

Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) – The Community (4/6)

+ writer of the series is on the spectrum

+ PoC autistic representation

+ whilst not clearly being labelled as autistic, the character is recognizable as an autistic person without hitting all the stereotypical tropes such as being antisocial, never joking, always being literal or being a “genius” without ever studying etc. - allistic actor

- whilst generally not labelling a character as autistic is not a bad thing, it makes it harder for autistic people to definitely say “this character is autistic”, meaning that allistics can ignore the coding if they wish to cling to their own, often stereotyped idea of what autism “looks like”

Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor) – Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (3/6)

- allistic actor

- stereotypical, but not as badly as other portrayals

+ avoids the trope of autistic people not having emotions, instead showing Alfred’s struggle expressing and understanding tone and emotions

+ generally good portrayal of a special interest being made part of the life via the job (salmon and fly fishing)

Music Gamble (Maddie Ziegler) – Music (0/6)

- creator Sia has openly shown ableist behaviour, putting down autistic people, not listening to autistic voices and criticism etc.

- allistic actress

- collaboration with Autism Speaks

- extremely stereotypical portrayal and infantalization of autistic nonverbal people

- harmful techniques such as restraining being shown on screen

- graphic meltdown scenes being shown

Sam Gardner (Keir Gilchrist) – Atypical (1/6)

- allistic actor

- in-universe infantilization of autistic people (via Mother Elsa)

- having the autistic character act dangerously, for example locking someone in the closet because they annoy him or borderline predatorily pursuing his therapist, sheds a harmful light on autistic people

- as far as is known, no autistic people were included in the production or writing process

- many instances show autistic-related habits or traits, for example wearing noise cancelling headphones, but frame it in a way that the audience is supposed to find it funny or laugh at the protagonist

- instead of making Sam sympathetic, he is largely just shown to make everyone around him uncomfortable

+ the ongoing portrayal of Sam’s special interest is generally well-done

- an ongoing theme is Sam’s girlfriend Paige restricting his info-dumping and by extension his special interest (something autistic people get active joy from) to three “dumps” a day so he can act “more normal” – this might teach allistic viewers that this is something they can do to their autistic friends

Sara Eriksson (Frida Argento) – Young Royals (5/6)

- usage of “Aspergers” both in the show and by the actress

+ actually autistic actress

+ autistic traits like mirroring, struggling with social context or tone and directness/bluntness as well as a special interest (horses) are shown whilst tropes like Sara being entirely unempathetic, rude and antisocial being avoided

Isadora Smackle (Ceci Balagot) and Farkle Minkus (Corey Fogelmanis) – Girl meets World (2/6)

- usage of “Aspergers”

- the original title of the episode centric on autism was “Girl Meets Normal”, implying autism is something abnormal, which is a potentially very harmful rhetoric

- autism is shown as something bad, with Farkle’s friends actively trying to fight over him being not autistic, insisting he is “normal”, generally treating autism as something they don’t want their friend to be associated with – a very harmful take in a show for kids and young teens

+ Smackle is a major, long-term autistic character rather than a One Episode throwaway character, even though she is generally quite stereotypical (but given that this show generally has every character act over the top and often fitting in specific categories this is not as bad, it just makes her fit in the framework of the show; she is not the only one who is largely stereotypically portrayed)

+ actor Ceci Balagot is themselves autistic (according to their twitter that is)

Renee (Madison Bandy) – Loop (6/6)

+ PoC nonverbal autistic character portrayed by a nonverbal autistic voice actress

+ in production, an active effort was made to make the actress feel comfortable, so that her experience working on the film would be accommodating and positive rather than unnessicarily stressful

+ generally very well-done portrayal of both sensory seeking and sensory overstimulated behaviour and the experience as an autistic person

Matilda (Kayla Cromer), Nicholas (Josh Thomas) and Drea (Lillian Carrier) – Everything is gonna be okay (6/6)

+ autistic actors playing autistic characters and autistic writer

+ very realistic portrayal of autism and how it differs in different people, as well as how it can affect interpersonal relationships (also having the sister mention that she thought she understood autism as a whole but later realized she only understood her sister's autism specifically because it is so individual)

+ realistic portrayal of sensory overload, stimming, communication between different autistic people etc.

+ queer autistic people – gay and asexual autistic main characters

+ autistic people joking, showing emotions, humour without the autistic people being the butt of the joke

+ empathetic portrayal of an adult realizing they might be on the spectrum and the denial and questioning that comes with that

+ portrayals of autistic special interests and autistic joy

Quinni (Chloé Hayden) – Heartbreak High (5.5/6)

+ autistic actress playing an autistic character

+ autistic queer representation

+ themes of ableism are included but dealt with sensitively and without making the ableism seem harmless

+ realistic portrayal of stimming, struggle with abrupt change of plans, overstimulation, meltdowns, autistic joy, info dumping etc.

+ autistic character having genuine friendships and friends who support her and know her sensory needs etc.

- because it is set in high school, this is a very specific group being represented so it is possible that the largest part of the autistic community won’t see themselves completely accurately portrayed, but chances are they can relate to Quinni nonetheless at least in aspects.

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girlmeetsworldismyeverything · 11 months

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what do you think of the whole maya having «turned in to» riley thing?? do u think there is truth in that, or do you think she just changed on her own and people started implying that her growth was just the copycat effect of being around riley so much?? ive never really been sure what i think of that whole thing!?! i feel like it might be a mix of both, but that they were wayyyyy to dramamtic about her not being «herself» anymore, like people change, thats what we do, it doesn’t always mean we have «lost ourselves» like they told maya she had. what do you think? 💖💖💖💖💖

Hello! Thank you for sending this, because there’s a lot to be said, so let’s get into it!

To answer your question, it’s a mixture of yes and no. The reason why I say yes is because, if you can, rewatch girl meets world of terror 2. The scene where riley and maya empty their brains (that whole animation scene), it really tells a lot without explicitly saying it. Maya’s head was full of rileys, “don’t do this” “be like me”, and whatever else she said (it’s been a while since I’ve seen it). But that is why I say yes. This triangle situation was really taking an emotional toll on Maya, and she needed someone to just give her a little nudge back to who she was after girl meets hurricane. She just needs someone to restore the hope in her, and the hope that everything would turn out how it was supposed to. However, the only person who could do that (*cough* Lucas *cough*) was off figuring out his own feelings and he wasn’t able to see Maya’s crisis in time. By the time he realized what was happening, Maya was back in Mayaville and she wouldn’t listen to him, hence why she stepped back from him in girl meets true maya. The only person who was around was Riley and even though it was unintentional on her part, she pushed Maya back into who she’s always seen, which is a Maya who is upset with herself because she thinks she’s the reason why her father left, someone who didn’t have hope, and that’s not who Maya was anymore. Riley couldn’t see that because she wasn’t in a place where she could actually see that she and Lucas weren’t the end all, be all. That there was a chance that Lucas and Maya had something real, and that the feelings she thought she had for Lucas were actually for someone else (can you guess who? Lol).

The reason why I say no is because in girl meets triangle, when maya’s crisis is in full effect, she’s still thinking about the decision that has to be made and that they need to include Lucas because he’s a part of it. However, Riley doesn’t want to hear it because she’s not ready. I fully believe that the triangle dragged as long as it did because Riley wasn’t ready, Maya wanted to make sure Riley was happy, and Lucas didn’t want to hurt either of the girls, plus he was still figuring out his feelings for each of them. Like I said before, Maya was emotionally stuck, because she was worried about Riley, while also trying to deal with her deep feelings for Lucas. I don’t know if she realized how deep her feelings actually were, but we all could see that her feelings were very different from Riley’s. So, she was going through all of that, and trying to hang on to the hope she got since the middle-to end of season 2. That’s a lot to go through emotionally, so she did go a bit into rileytown, her hair and outfits say so. But she wasn’t as far in as Riley thinks she was. She never “became riley”, she was still very herself, just with hope and confidence (plus a new wardrobe, curtesy of Shawn).

Michael Jacobs called season 3 the “season of feelings”. Seasons 1 and 2 were friendship and growth. Riley and Maya’s friendship wouldn’t have survived if Lucas and Maya got together before Riley was ready. Like Cory said, “feelings can tear apart friendship and growth”. At the end of the day, girl meets world was about Riley, Maya, and their friendship. Since Riley wasn’t near the level of growth Maya was at, it was unfortunately Maya’s growth that had to be diminished to save the friendship. But the best part about growth is that it can be restored, which we started to see in girl meets IDo. And who helped lead Maya down that path again? The same person who helped her gain hope, and if we would’ve gotten our season 4, we would’ve continued to see that growth.

Also, if you realized it, Riley did start to grow during the back half of season 3. Because after ski lodge, what happened with Riley and Lucas’ relationship? Barely anything right? That’s because as Michael Jacobs said, in ski lodge part 2, the characters made the “wrong decisions”. That means that by Lucas choosing Riley, he made the wrong decision. Now how would we know how a character makes the right decision, look at girl meets goodbye. When Topanga was trying to figure out what to do about London, Eric told her to find her quiet place, which turned out to be Topanga’s. She sat there and made the right decision, which was to stay. Now, another character also sat in a quiet place to think about a decision. Can you guess who it was?

Lucas!

In girl meets upstate, he went to the bay window to wait for the girls to tell them his decision, and he sat there for quote “5 hours”. Who did he decide on? We never got to find out because maya didn’t give him the chance to, but given the context, the answer was Maya. Topanga was able to say what her decision was, Lucas didn’t, and in turn he wasn’t given the chance to say the right decision (Maya) and therefore made the wrong decision (Riley).

Now getting back to what I had said earlier, in the back half of season 3, Riley and Lucas barely interacted. That was because (and remember, this is just based on my observation), since Lucas and Riley had pushed one another to the level of growth that they could, they couldn’t help each other anymore. They needed other people (Maya and Farkle respectively), to push them further. Riley didn’t realize it yet, but she was starting to outgrow Lucas and if we got our fourth season, we would’ve seen Riley realize that Lucas wasn’t who she made him to be, and she then would’ve looked back at everything and seen that while her intentions were good, she was wrong about a lot, and from there, would’ve been on her own journey of growth.

I know this post got out of hand, but there is a lot of complexity to these characters. But I hope this helped answer your question, and please feel free to ask me again, if you need clarification on anything I’ve said!

#gmw #lucaya #lucas x maya #rilaya #farkle minkus #girl meets world #maya hart #lucas friar #riley x maya #riley matthews

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