Is anyone frustrated by the portrayals of ASD in pop culture

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In my experience, there tends to be two major ways that ASD is portrayed in pop culture.

1.) A tragic portrayal where the ASD character is a problem and a burden to his/her family. They rarely have their own perspective explored. They are an obstacle to overcome, not a character in their own right.

2.) The comedic portrayal. This character may be more of a major character, and their Autism may be seen in a slightly more positive light. Because they're funny! It's fun to laugh at their faux pas and the weird things they do. I'm looking at Atypical and Everything's Gonna Be Okay. (The former more than the latter.) I'm glad that people want more positive representation, but I dislike that experiences that were traumatic and stressful for me are punchlines for the audience in these shows. Stuff that I cried myself to sleep over becomes a one-off gag, and we laugh at it and move on. How is that good representation?

Both of these portrayals tend to be cooked up in the minds of NTs who have rarely met people on the spectrum, do a Google search, throw a few symptoms into a pot and try to make an actual character from it. But they end up with a caricature.

I am as well. Most of the time the autistic character is male (with a few exceptions) and their symptoms are usually stereotypical. I admit I’m, well, atypical even for someone on the autism spectrum in many ways, but one would think that with the growing representation in the media, I should have found at least one character I can really identify with, but I haven’t really.

Yes it can be frustrating. Although there's a dearth of good ASD-centric films out there, there are some good ones.

Rather than the tragic figures, the comedic or the prodigies, I like portrayals that are realistic in the sense that they don't sugar coat the character but portray the character as they are.

Some good films in my opinion:

Keep the Change
Mary and Max
Dina
Dad's in Heaven with Nixon
How to Dance in Ohio
Asperger's Are Us and the sequel: On Tour With Asperger's Are Us

Every one of the above films except for Mary and Max feature actual autistic people.

There is also a good series from the UK called: The a Word. The character, a young boy is portrayed as a tragic figure, however does he think he's tragic? A key theme of the story line is seeing how NTs view him as tragic and how it's undeniably a problem in their perception.

I'm still too new to autism and undiagnosed to feel frustrated, but I sure do have an affinity towards some of the characters on screen. I have always enjoyed tv shows about people on the fringes. And I've always turned off the shows that portrayed undue negativity. The Good Doctor may not be realistic, but it is real enough, and has the high viewer numbers to have a positive impact on NTs and their attitudes.

My favorite Autism portrayal is the character Wendy in the movie "Please Stand By" played by Dakota Fanning. Very non-stereotypical.

Good movie.

It depends. I would say the worst portrayal I have seen was Ben Affleck's character in The Accountant. I wasn't frustrated by it, but I just rolled my eyes cause I thought it was silly and corny, the way it was handled.

However, in Boston Legal, there is the Jerry Espenson character, and he goes over the top with his autism and it's meant for laughs, and it is actually funny for me.

However, the humor is genuine and intentional there, where as The Accountant, it comes off as unintentionally silly.

What about the TV character of Shaun Murphy as a depiction of an autistic doctor/surgeon in "The Good Doctor"

Affleck's character is unnecessarily violent/cruel, cold and lacking empathy which feeds dangerous stereotypes

Oh well he is forced to do things to make himself safer from the people out to get him. I mean if mercenaries are after me, I am going to want to take drastic measures as well. So I don't think I fault him for that.

It's just that they try to make it seem like his autism is related to his military capabilities, where as one thing doesn't seem to have anything to do with the other. And that is what left me scratching my head, is what dose this action hero plot have to do with autism? Autism doesn't make you a better action hero.

Affleck's story is about a man overcoming obstacles to survive despite his autism. I don't think "The Accountant" is not mean't to be a movie about autism. Affleck fans (and there's plenty) aren't going to change their views toward autism after watching this move. Like saying the movie X-men is about wheelchairs because Patrick Stewart's character is in a wheelchair. Of course we know wheelchair depiction doesn't register for X-men fans.

Only two movies about autism I can think of is Kim Peek's character played by Dustin Hoffman in Rainman (Peek wasn't actually autistic though) and Temple Grandin's character played by Claire Danes.

But if you are not going to make it about autism then why even have the autism at all then? It felt like an unnecessary subplot therefore, which makes the autism come off as more puzzling in such a story. It feels like it was written without autism in it but a last minute writer came on board and tried to shoehorn it in, if that makes sense?

Actually there's plenty of movies where the subplot has wheelchairs, Downs syndrome, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, schizophrenia etc etc...it just adds spice to the drama rather than being the purpose of the movie

Acceptance means in part that autism should be looked at as a part of the human experience not the be all and end all of life. That includes autistic characters with a bad side. If Hollywood made every movie with with a black character centered around the black experience they would be rightfully be criticized for racism. That the autistic characters autism was not central to the plot in the Accountant is a sign of progress, not regression.

No autistic character is going to perfectly represent autism. The best one can hope for is more imperfect variety of portrayals that gets less inaccurate over time. In the short run this process is maddeningly frustrating.

Perfectly said!

I thought The Accountant portrayed the main character as believable. His father drilled military training into his head from childhood and he was good with seeing patterns in numbers. I found it interesting when he seemingly regularly desensitized himself with sound and touch to try to overcome those sensitivities. Are all autistic people like that? Of course not. But I didn't find myself thinking that the way the character was portrayed was ridiculous or was a caricature. Also, the way he interacted with others without masking or barely masking. They way he interacted with the female lead. That's the way I'd talk and act with others if I didn't force myself to mask.

I'm not a fan of The Good Doctor. I just can't get behind that character and to me his portrayal does seem like a caricature to me.