Did you notice that Aspies are protrayed in the media?

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I was just about to mention him.

I don't think I've ever seen a more perfectly aspie character on TV than Dr. Brennan, let alone an aspie female. She is full of awesome.

However, aspie and nerd are not the same thing, although there does seem to be a high occurrence of nerddom among aspies.

I rather like Jerry as a character. He is portrayed sympathetically. Sometimes I find him to be embarrassing, but then that entire show is rather cartoonish.

I always thought some of the ditzy 'dumb blonde' characters out there could be seen as misunderstood Aspie archetypes.
Like Melody in Josie in the Pussycats. She's a great drummer! She sees the world in her own way too.

When your spacy about some things, or walk into the street or lose your directions because your absorbed in thinking about something else to the detriment of other focuses, people who don't see where your real talents or interests are, which often cannot be articulated or communicated to them, assume you are just out of it, silly or focused on other things. Also this archetype often points out the obvious, misinterprets things, takes things literally - provides a lot of social amusement for others due to her being out of it. 'Smart' girls in media feel entitled to alienate and belittle them openly for being clueless as well, which they couldn't do if it was anyone else, which always annoys me.

Wouldn't the musically inclined Aspies be a bit smarter, and tend to work on more versatile instruments? YEAH, I KNOW! You can have different STRICT percussion instruments, and do a lot, but STILL... Pianos, strict strings, wind, are still better.

But I HAVE noticed that a large subset of genius, programmer, aspie, and autie stereotypes are the same.(Limited USE(not necessarily ability) of "self help skills", lack of interest in fashion or current conventions, loners, VERY specialized interests, etc...) HECK, anyone watch "the librarian" today? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412915/

Flynn seemed very aspie! One might call him a genius, and I guess you COULD, but he DID show a BIG lack of common sense, etc.... He had little regard for himself, lived with his mother, etc.... He possibly NEVER had a girl friend. They sent a woman to guard him, and she didn't even want him to TALK to her! She said "You are SO far out of my league that, if your whole league blew up, it would take me three days to hear the explosion"!

In the end, as he is telling his mother to stop trying to set him up(She explained to several women that he was only a librarian but could do so much more), and she speaks of how she knows nicole doesn't exist because she is NEVER available, she drives up in a motorcycle, kisses him, and drives off with him on her motorcycle.

If only I was so lucky.

You make good points.

This has nothing to do with Aspergers, I don't think, but I really remember a scene in the movie "In Her shoes" with Cameron Diaz, she plays this kind of clueless ditzy (but in a more destructive way, not like Melody) character who is seemingly very superficial to her family. She can't keep a job or relationship long etc... She went to audition for an MTV role and they loved her until they found out she couldn't read the teleprompter, she must have had an undiagnosed learning disability of some kind. Even though she was from a smart family, it had just gone un-noticed her whole life, probably because people can over-simply girls and women so much sometimes, by just dismissing them or any social or educational problems/differences as ditziness.

Quest for Spear - I really liked it and actually identified with it being a university program junkie myself, library studies as one of them to boot. But I hated that Nicole Noone punched the Asian girl and told her to 'stay away from our geeks,' or something like that, I thought that was a kind of mean social comment they slipped in that implied something about Asian girls. Asian cultures are actually more introverted and studious or math oriented by nature but she made seem like they are purposefully targeting American geeks or something. I'm someone who overanalyzes film, clearly.

It still was a great movie!

One of us MISHEARD! In fact, I think it MUST have been you, because what I heard explains flynns reaction! So what did I hear???????

"GET YOUR OWN GEEK!"!

That was almost her way of telling flynn that she loved him! As I recall, at that point, flynn heard, smiled, and went in to stop the guy. The asian woman you spoke of thought the things he did were cool, liked him, and let him know. She was trying to get him to switch sides when Nicole said that.

I saw that on DVD a while back and I heard "get your own geek" too.

I found the movie really insulting, though, because of how it stereotyped exceptionally gifted people (he's not autistic, he's just your typical exceptionally gifted person, distorted for laughs). There are a lot of exceptionally gifted people who have problems coping, and stereotypes like that aren't going to help anyone.

Good concept, though.

I saw that movie like six months ago, and I remember being offended by that part, but I guess I did interpret it incorrectly. I admit I wasn’t happy with that character’s characterization and lines from the start, however, I thought the film was making some kind of racial statement.

People are always annoyed at me for over-analyzing everything in that happens in movies for subtext, I’ll admit.

I really liked the movie for many reasons, being a book lover one of them.

I agree with what Anemone said, to an extent. It did strike me as an aspergers parable though, I remember even talking about it at the time. But any movie characterization is going to be superficial or over idealized, in that they take the public’s superficial perception of a character type and make it into a caricature. And it is an action film so I understand if the character is not more realistic or nuanced. In a way he was like a superhero of an aspie, like his handy (again its been a long time, I hope this I remember this correctly) knowledge of bird languages?

It was "the language of the birds". He had to figure it out from a book and some notes he was given by his boss. Supposedly it's parts had been incorporated into various languages in a relatively recognizable form, and he knew enough about the languages to piece everything together, and did it in like 7 hours. I guess it helped ALSO that he had a book, knew the subject, and knew what the first part said to some degree. In a sense, he DID have a rossetta stone of sorts. Such a thing is unlikely, but not impossible for a linguist.

As for it being racist, are you asian or another "racial minority"? Frankly, I saw NOTHING racial about it. I don't think I saw any blacks(I wasn't looking), but there were PLENTY of asians and, outside of the ones in the gang, they were there for the SETTING, just like the spanish guys were. Whites would have simply been out of place. Take that comment as racist if you want, but it is TRUE. And I am sorry all the originaly main characters were white, but I doubt that was anything someone just PLANNED to do.

Besides, it shouldn't make any difference. There ARE shows that are nearly all asian, nearly all black, nearly all hispanic, etc.... Some people LOOK for racism, and are just overly sensitive so they see it where it doesn't exist. BTW the amazonian tribe spoke portugese, and the asian monks spoke english. Sorry. I think that was for comic effect(and in place), and to help us understand the plot better. At least they didn't have heavy asian accents!

The only one I don't like is Jerry Espinson on Boston Legal - he is way over the top and they've written his character to have a sort of theatrical case of AS. I'm not suggesting that people don't have this debilitating of AS, but it's not the norm.

I love all the other characters I've grown to suspect: Monk, Peter MacNichol's "Ally McBeal" character (John), perhaps the geek lab boy from Bones, Bones herself, maybe even House.

Don’t be silly. It has nothing to do with how many people of what race are in a movie, that is irrelevant. My very favorite movies have actually no minorities in them, now that I think about it.

I saw this particular one a long time ago, but I remember being bothered by the one characterization, partly because it plays into a lot of older stereotypes. It’s not a big deal. I still really like the movie. I like Faulty Towers, it was all I watched as a child, even though, as an adult, I’m now more bothered by the characterization of Manwell, for instance. And I mention this whenever I talk about it, I think it’s important not to ignore it.

I’m half Japanese and that is one reason I feel equipped to comment on the stereotyping there in the first place. But It’s not just Asian stereotypes that bother me. I was really upset last week watching American Idol, during their fundraiser where they are giving to help American and African poverty, the entertainment for this is Robin William’s disgusting Russian stereotype, the purpose being their making fun of Russian poverty with lines like, “In Russia we have many shows like “meal or no meal”… I found that very offensive and inappropriate given the focus of the night.

I also know Italians who are very upset with the Soprano’s and each time they see an Italian mob stereotype in movies that I otherwise found great and no problem with. But after they pointed it out I’m aware of it and see it now. And the German side of my family is fanatically upset with the portrayal of Germans in film which most people don’t see but its there.

I don’t think having awareness of stereotyping is conspiratorial, I think we should be conscious viewers aware that at times characterizations (of any kind) are designed to make a statement of superiority or make a social statement of some kind (like beauty and the geek, which is funny but perpetrates stereotypes). Or it can just be uncreative, in that it keeps relying on old stereotypes, like all the bad guys with European accents in the Die Hard movies.

All this is unnecessary, because as I said before, that was my one little personal complaint with a movie I otherwise thought was Splendid. Nuff said.

Now this is one I don't get. House is TYPICAL AS!

"Your reading too far into basic tv plots. Get over yourself."

great comment.

True- the plot itself would be lost to the aspie. What would be the point of labeling the "nerds" as autistic or asperger people? It would be generalizing way too much! Many people are opposed to labeling symptoms or personality traits. I would say most are opposed. It would be on level with the dumb blonde stigma that exists. It would, somehow, depreciate the value of an aspie. Too much generalizing.

Girl aspie--anyone watch Juno? Has she been mentioned already? Don't recall artist's name. Father of child is definitely bland seeming and most likely aspie.

Also, Nancy Drew (great movie!) Julia Robert's niece...she seems to be portrayed with those aspie qualities--fixated on solving mysteries, socially inept etc.

Let's not forget one defining feature of hfa/as is fixating on unusual things/interests. A nerd is not always an aspie.

There are many computer geeks who happen to work well behind computers that are NOT autistic. There are many geniuses who are NOT autistic. Therefore, a smart computer kid who walks and talks funny and keeps a pocket filled with pens and is uncoordinated is not always autistic!

I would have never thought of these types of people as autistic. They are too connected to the world and have a group of friends just like them! They fit neatly into a category. An aspie has autistic traits (self) and has difficulty making and keeping friends and is not usually in a clique. They are socially inept BUT don't seem to care too much becaue they are in their own world. They lack the desire to connnect emotionally to a person. They are more connected to their interests/things.

Also an aspie is witty, identifies patterns easily and exposes hyprocrisy without batting an eye. The one aspie I've met (in hs) was hilariously blunt. He drove home his points when they had a visitor in the classroom and it was, I felt, brilliant. The visitor was speaking script-like fashion, taking dull questions--blah blah blah. The aspie's questions were very interesting. The teacher was mortified. The last words, just before the bell, did not come from visitor but instead from the aspie. LOL. He was so way beyond the rest of the students. A geek or nerd would not get it like an aspie.

The comments above ".....get over yousrelf" are pure aspie--blunt and to the point, cutting at the meat of the content with a sharpness unique to aspies. It's like hitting a rut in the road--you're driving along smoothly and then bam you know when you hit it. This is atypical--this, I feel, is the qualifying difference between NT and HFA/Aspergers. It has little to do with toe-walking and the stereotypical "nerd" portrayed on tv. This is merely a shallow understanding of aspergers and the reason why it is either missed or overdiagnosed (imo).

okay--my take,

equinn

I think I've seen it mentioned elsewhere, but the first time I saw the character "Chloe" on the show "24", I was struck by her AS tendencies. She seems to constantly be unable to read the mood of the office, and make social blunders as a consequence. Anyway, just my $.02.