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ASPartOfMe
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14 Sep 2017, 12:57 am

TV has come a long way in depicting characters with autism, but not far enough It's time to forget Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning role in Rain Man and embrace the more nuanced depictions of autism in recent TV shows.

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For too long, Dustin Hoffman's Oscar-winning portrayal of Raymond Babbitt in Rain Man was the only touchstone many of us had for autism.

While Hoffman's performance was met with resounding applause, a consequence of the movie's success was that it created an autism trope that the movie and TV industries were loath to shake.

So many films – The Accountant, Mercury Rising, Mozart the Whale, Little Man Tate, Silent Fall among them – have served up characters who were withdrawn, but had savant-like powers.

Like Rain Man, they perpetuated common stereotypes: autistic people struggle with eye contact and communication, lack empathy and can't read social cues.

The TV business has been attempting to buck the trend and capture autism's depth and diversity, probably because TV, more than film, has become the place where audiences expect to see intricately drawn characters.

Such was the case with Parenthood and The A Word, the former giving us one of the most impressively written autistic characters – a smart and at times inscrutable boy played by Max Burkholder.

Atypical, which explores the world of an autistic teen, was Netflix's most-googled title in the week following its launch, an indicator of curiosity about the subject and its portrayal on TV.

It's accepted that a scripted series is rarely going to reflect precise, lived experience, but TV's big challenge is in addressing public interest in autism without pandering to stereotypes and negative rhetoric.

Not only are writers being myopic when deferring to stereotypes, they are limiting public understanding of autism, which in turn impacts on the autism community's sense of acceptance and inclusion.

If you really want to get the autism community fired up, broach the subject of shows implying rather than explicitly stating a character is autistic.

The Big Bang Theory is one that's worn flak for not giving lead character Sheldon (Jim Parsons) a diagnosis.

Susie Rodarme, author of 7 Things to Know Before Writing That Autistic Character asserts that shows that are haphazard in their treatment of autism "scrape raw the core of who we are". "Not calling a character autistic," she says, "isn't a way of getting out of responsibly portraying autistic characters".

Writer Sarah Kurchak adds that people who are directly involved in creating a narrative and bringing it to screen are almost always only guessing about an autistic character's internal life.

It's logical you would employ autistic people in key creative roles if you were serious about bringing authenticity to your show.

The autistic community's motto is "nothing about us, without us", and producers and writers would do well to remember that before they jot the outline of their next autistic character.

The authors are employed by Amaze, the peak body for autistic people and their supporters in Victoria.


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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


B19
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14 Sep 2017, 1:59 am

The media representation on TV news here is of a young male child exhibiting completely out of control meltdown behaviour. And of course people don't know nor realise that this is not a true representation. Starting this year, I write to the news editor of our major tv channels every time this happens. It's the drip drip drip technique of water on rocks. Eventually it will make an impression I hope, though if not, I will change tactics and lodge formal complaints with our Broadcasting Standards Authority on the grounds of misleading and harmful stereotyping of a minority group. If upheld, the channels can be forced to apologise on air, cease the behaviour, and other penalties can be imposed on them too. I have nothing to lose, and they do, so I will keep on chipping away, even if I am a voice in the wilderness.



cyberdad
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14 Sep 2017, 8:19 am

B19 wrote:
The media representation on TV news here is of a young male child exhibiting completely out of control meltdown behaviour. And of course people don't know nor realise that this is not a true representation. Starting this year, I write to the news editor of our major tv channels every time this happens. It's the drip drip drip technique of water on rocks. Eventually it will make an impression I hope, though if not, I will change tactics and lodge formal complaints with our Broadcasting Standards Authority on the grounds of misleading and harmful stereotyping of a minority group. If upheld, the channels can be forced to apologise on air, cease the behaviour, and other penalties can be imposed on them too. I have nothing to lose, and they do, so I will keep on chipping away, even if I am a voice in the wilderness.


Do you know if they even open your letters?



B19
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14 Sep 2017, 3:05 pm

They send acknowledgements back "Thank you for writing to us" without addressing the issue. However I keep count of how often they have done that - will be useful to cite in the future.



cyberdad
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15 Sep 2017, 2:22 am

B19 wrote:
They send acknowledgements back "Thank you for writing to us" without addressing the issue. However I keep count of how often they have done that - will be useful to cite in the future.

Could some clerk be paid to open letters and post standard replies?



B19
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15 Sep 2017, 2:38 am

This may be what happens at the informal complaint level! However they can't use this as an excuse for inaction to the Broadcasting Standards Authority if we ultimately end up there (which I think we will).

If I upgrade my complaints to a formal complaint, there is a legal process the broadcaster has to follow, set down in the Broadcasting Act, and the bigwigs at the station (tv or radio) always handle it themselves at that level, trying to fob off the formal complaint (the complainant can stop at that point if satisfied by their answer) or continue on so that the channel has to answer to a much more robust legal appointee at the BCA. Obviously they try to appease/fob off the complainant at that point. But!

I have been through that process once before, and the BSA ruled in my favour after the process had been very drawn out by Television New Zealand for ages (no doubt in the hope that I would give up and go away). The BCA also upheld the grounds for my complaint, which forced the channel to make changes (that wasn't about ASD). So I am a somewhat "seasoned lobbyist"!



cyberdad
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15 Sep 2017, 6:00 am

When you refer to the Hollywood propensity to portray autistic "types" as savants or "Sheldon" type geniuses then yes, this is not representative and the media should stop perpetuating these stereotypes.

However on this point-
**Like Rain Man, they perpetuated common stereotypes: autistic people struggle with eye contact and communication, lack empathy and can't read social cues.**
Aren't most (if not all) people diagnosed with ASD have at least one of these behavioral symptoms? then they are representative