“magical autist” (as an action protagonist)? is that a term anyone else has heard?
- The Accountant (getting a sequel soon): Autistic super-assassin.
- The Predator (the fourth in the series, not Predator, the first) Autistic child is able to understand the Predators’ language.
- Mercury Rising: An autistic child can solve cyphers that the NSA can’t.
- The Boy Who Could Fly: Go on, guess.
- Malcolm: Made before autism was a Thing, but Malcolm is autistically coded AF, and has the ability to build devices of almost magical cleverness. (Also features the Penguin Cafe Orchestra heavily in its soundtrack, just go find it somewhere and watch it, it’s awesome.)
- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Lisbeth Salander
Yeah, it’s a thing.
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See also: coded AF.
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I have a pet media discourse theory that “the buddy formula” in film and TV is frequently (mostly?) one autistic-coded person and one ADHD-coded person. This is of course especially true in comedy, but not exclusively. See:
- Abbott and Costello
- Oscar and Felix
- Bert and Ernie
- Kermit and Fozzie
- R2D2 and C3PO
- Jake and Elwood Blues
- Balki and Larry (from Perfect Strangers)
- Geordi and Data
- Mulder and Scully
- Sykes and George (from Alien Nation)
- Walt and Jesse (from Breaking Bad)
And so forth. Hell, I think even Rain Man counts.
(Yes, a lot of this is an extension of odd-couple/funny-man-straight-man pairings, but let’s inquire why that’s a setup in the first place?)
There’s definitely plenty that don’t line up, but it’s awfully prevalent! And then there are some oddballs that riff on the formula:
- Mork and Mindy, Mork got both diagnoses and Mindy is all foil
- Lilo and Stitch, both of those kids are AuDHD – except Lilo is inattentive-type and Stitch is hyperactive-type.
(This is an extension of another media discourse theory that Spouse developed that – basically – almost all sitcom characters, especially in ensemble casts, are coded autistic. Consider just about any damn character from Seinfeld, the Office, Parks and Rec, Abbott Elementary…)
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Open Access article: A qualitative interview study on quality of life and ageing experiences of autistic adults.
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While short, the statement notably only speaks to people who “[aid] Americans with ASD” and focuses only on children. It completely fails to even acknowledge the existence of autistic adults.
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Well, but yeah, people should have grown OUT of being on the spectrum, and be “real” adults!!! /s
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The principal at my son’s school felt the same way about kids, if they’d been to OT. Otherwise, why did they bother?
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It’s honestly super-weird how some people are so hostile towards neurodivergence. It’s kind of driven the whole anti-vax thing… But some people just can’t handle anything being “different” and any difference needs to be beaten into place, violently if necessary.
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I have been noticing this, an increasing number of autistic kids who are coming out as LGBTQ+ in some way. I have a theory, at least. That is that one of the characteristics of spectrum-y kids is not worrying so much about being different from others. So they are more comfortable just being who they are. I suspect the missing part previously was that the fact that there was such a thing as LGBTQ+ was hidden from them. It’s a theory, anyway.
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There’s also the fact that if your brain isn’t pre-programmed to desire fitting into societal norms, you’re more likely to figure out who YOU are and go with that whenever possible, and only fit in if your circumstances make it necessary.
I liken it to being left-handed: if you’re right-handed, you don’t have to think about it unless you break your arm or something. If you’re left-handed living in a right-handed world, you pay attention to what really is best for you. For example, when computers first started coming into offices, it was often one station where everyone took a turn, and the mouse was wired in with the button(s) programmed to operate for a right-handed user. To have to switch the hardware and software around every time wasn’t worth the effort, so a lot of left-handed people learned to use their right hand for mouse work. This is the modern equivalent of lefties having to hook their left hand to write because the handwriting had to be slanted the same way as for righties.
If you fit the norm, you don’t think about it. If you don’t fit the norm, and you’re constantly having to figure out how to ‘people’, part of that is figuring out what is personally necessary and what can be modified to make life easier.
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