The Rising TV Popularity Of Autism And Asperger’s Characters
Written by Staff on July 14th, 2009 in Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, Pop Culture.
macleans.ca
Macleans in Canada has written an article on the seemingly rising popularity of displaying autism and Asperger’s characters on screen.
From Dr. Gregory House diagnosing a medical disease in a boy with autism and unable to communicate, to Dr. Temperance Brennan on Bones, the autism spectrum is flooding primetime television.
What exactly is the appeal of these characters that draws writers to them?
From Macleans:
“Within the limited formats of episodic TV and genre fiction there’s a limit to the physically challenged’s bag of dramatic tricks—the blind hero who’s more at home than the villains in a darkened room, for instance, has been a pulp fiction staple for decades. Neurological quirks, however, have endless possibilities for writers.”
“Wonder workers are always welcome in popular media, but superhero skills are not the entire source of the autistic characters’ appeal. We also love them for their lack of social skills. We, at least those of us without autistic relatives, can laugh when Christopher Boone, in the midst of a harrowing journey alone to his mother’s house, barks like a dog at fellow passengers who come too close to him, or when House is unspeakably rude to some pompous hospital administrator.”
Regardless of why we and television producers can’t get enough of these “quirky” characters, the biggest question is: What effect will bringing autism to the forefront of primetime do for those on the spectrum?
Will employers soon learn to recognize these individuals immediately and learn to accept their differences versus viewing them as problem employees? Will co-workers brush the once seemingly rude and frightening office guy as “just like that weirdo on television,” coming to an understanding of his behavior?
Possibly Related Posts:
- Breast Still Best, Even With Autism Risk? Doc Weighs In.
- Enhansa: An Effective Autism Supplement?
- Loopey The Pig + City Ordinance = Autistic Boy’s Heartbreak
- Autism Rate Now One Percent Of All Children?
- The Sexy Stereotype Of Autism In Hollywood
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
[...] as we were talking about autism’s growing popularity on television, yet another primetime television series will feature the spectrum on its [...]
August 12th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
[...] We’ve mentioned how television is picking up on the trend to display autistic characters on primetime. [...]