Glamour Article about "Bones" by Autistic woman

Post Reply New Topic

However, there’s one big difference between us: Bones is never diagnosed on the show, even though she has significant problems with social interactions and displays repetitive or obsessive behaviors—the main characteristics of ASD. In an interview, Hart Hansen, the creator of the show, admitted that he based Bones on a friend with Asperger’s syndrome (which is now diagnosed as ASD). But, according to him, Fox never came out and said this because the broadcast network was hoping the show would appeal to a larger audience. Deschanel has also said that her “character almost has Asperger’s syndrome.”

A few years after Bones became an established show, Hansen said he considered a storyline in which Bones explores the possibility of having Asperger’s syndrome, but this never came to be. It's disappointing. If popular TV shows that portray highly likable characters with autistic traits (like Bones or Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory) were also willing to diagnose them, they could help destigmatize autism by acknowledging that these characters are on the spectrum.

But even without a diagnosis, Bones is an important role model for women on the spectrum because a lot of people assume that autism, especially on the high end of the spectrum, is a male disorder. The gender ratio is believed to be as high as 10 males for every one female. Because autism is often expressed differently in women than in men, a lot of women go undiagnosed, or, even worse, they are misdiagnosed. According to one study, women are better at masking their autistic traits, especially their difficulty with social communication, compared with men on the spectrum. I unknowingly hid my autism until I got my own ASD diagnosis in my late thirties.

Bones is also an important role model because she's not a one-note character.

Eh, it's a double-edged blade. Because characters like Bones only display the cute, quirky, acceptable, mild symptoms of what it is to be autistic. People start to think autism is just some personality trait that makes you a bit eccentric, or a stand-in joke like Sheldon of Big Bang Theory. These characters never show the messy side of autism. They don't show how badly this can affect people's lives, or put them in danger.
In some ways I think it's best these characters aren't absolutely identified with autism, because it may "normalize" that myth - that autism is just a cute, quirky personality trait and nothing else, and like characters like Bones, autism really causes real autistics no significant disadvantage or discomfort.

There are good reasons I usually have no business whatsoever watching TV but I did watch the Bones finale with a friend. Hadn't seen the show before but did know it existed. And, yes, that she might be autistic immediately struck me.
Paula and I talked about that during ad breaks, she though it is possible Bones early life could lead to similar behaviors.
And with Paula being a retired special ed teacher she's definitely not among the uninformed.