as small as a world and as large as alone

1:21am July 15, 2014

alliecat-person:

1lg-prvbs3-5-6 replied to your post:I’m a little confused about why so many people on…

Any character who’s an intellectual/socially awkward/eccentric/quiet (like BBC’s Sherlock) is branded as ‘autistic’. While completely ignoring the diversity of aspergers/autistic individuals.

Ugh, yes. Actually, it goes even further than that. Usually these characters have to be perceived as cold and uncaring, and have an occupation that fits with the “Stereotypical Genius Autistic” stereotype. Personally, Leslie Knope from Parks & Rec reads as BAPy at least to me, but you never see her suggested as autistic. (I tried a Google search once and got nothing). Because I guess an over-enthusiastic, caring but sometimes controlling, idealistic public service worker just doesn’t fit the mold.

There’s a character in a British TV show on Netflix (I forget what it’s called, it’s about a bunch of people who work in a nursing home) who doesn’t fit the mold but they actually mention possibly getting him tested for autism on the show.  (It’s in a context where someone says it to him to be cruel, and he asks if he’d still be the same person if he tested as autistic, and his boss says yes, so he doesn’t get tested.)  He’s kind of sweet and naive and loves everyone, so in that context he doesn’t fit the usual mold at all.

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