Doctor Cringelord
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2013
- Messages
- 20,619
- MBTI Type
- I
- Enneagram
- 9w8
- Instinctual Variant
- sp/sx
that did occur to me, that part of this is just a very clumsy, long process to widespread awareness and/or acceptance. I do notice that every new series or film I see portraying autism (usually) does a slightly better job of portraying it than prior portrayals. I was kind of hard on it, but it did excel in some way that prior shows had not. I do appreciate that fictional representations are beginning to move away from the classic idiot savant rainman archetype. not every autistic is a brilliant genius who just happens to be socially awkward.^ I appreciate your comments about the show, as it helps teach me and learn. Also, if it matters, I am connecting what you're saying with how I felt about trans representation in films and TV in prior years (although it was been improving). So much of the focus was typically on how we put our cisgen families and acquaintances through the ringer by changing our own lives (anything from HBO's "Normal" to "The Danish Girl") -- it has only begun changing in the last few years OR it was totally making the trans character heroic in some way, glorifying them and not letting them simply be human.
I don't know if autism representation will keep developing, but I hope it's more of an unavoidable process as it was with trans narratives -- you kind of have to have society go through these clumsy and society-centric tales to start with, to eventually deepen and get to the more nuanced and helpful stuff because at least it shows people are taking baby steps and trying to understand, even if their understanding is pretty lousy at first. As empathy and knowledge deepen, perhaps the stories will deepen as well. Mainsteam society just can't get from 0 to 60mph very fast, it's a slow crawl much of the time, with a lot of false turns due to its inexperience with the matters in question.
I agree with the medium differences too. I think TV has more opportunity for nuance, film "feels bigger" but actually is a "shorter narrative form" than TV and forces early closure