TV show Glee and Asperger's

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That's what upset me so much about the episode.

This is why I tell people I have autism if the topic ever comes up. I never say I have AS. I didn't speak until I was four so I don't think I am truely AS anyway. I grew up believing I was AS becuase at the time AFA and AS were considered the same thing. I was diagnosed with AS at seven so I'm "legit". I hate self diagnosers though. They ruin it for the people who have it for real. I admit I've diagnosed myself with PTSD, bi polar and fetal achohol syndrome, but I don't use those to excuse being a b***h.

I've never watched Glee though. I'm listning to their cover of "Jesse's girl" right now though. I have an idea for a picture based off of it. I wish they would do their own version of "Sargent Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club Band".

I don't think everyone who self-diagnoses AS use it as an excuse to be a b***h either. I don't yet have a diagnosis and whether I bother will depend on how my insurance covers it. I don't tell people I have AS, but just because I'm not diagnosed doesn't mean I don't have it either. Honestly, even diagnosed people could use it as an excuse.

What matters is not whether the person is diagnosed but whether they are using it to just be an arse.

I agree.

I hate Glee.

But I am wondering where on the internet or in real life do people use AS as an excuse to be asshats?

I doubt that's how she was taken. I do not understand why apologists for crap like Glee insist that their pretzel logic interpretations of the intended humor is actually what most people get from it.

Anyway, a lot of people say this is common - that people claim to be Aspies to get away with rude behavior, but I haven't seen it. Ever. Not once. I have been on the internet since before Asperger's Syndrome was in the DSM. Where does this happen? Who does it? Do you have any actual examples?

Well if recent history on this forum is to be believed...

I self-diagnosed myself with AS in December of 2010. I was officially diagnosed with AS in April of 2011. Please let me know how I ruined it for everyone else in December, January, February, and/or March?

People don't self-diagnose because they want to take advantage of a disability. They do it because a) they found something that looks a lot like an answer to why they've had lifelong problems, and b) the people who do it often don't have access to diagnosis at all. And some of those who do risk their insurance by getting diagnosed - their premiums often go up and if they have to get new insurance, they will be labeled as having a pre-existing condition. The cost of being officially diagnosed may be too high.

Edit to add: I have seen someone self-diagnose with ADHD and use that as an excuse to be a complete arse. He actually started accusing people who are professionally diagnosed with it of stretching the truth to get falsely diagnosed. He's a complete twit.

I was so looking forward to the show (it just aired today in Ireland). When I saw that they did, I just switched it off, my blood is almost literally boiling (my temperature goes up when I get emotional angry or sad).

I'm very very angry, I've been cautious about disclosing my diagnosis since I've had so many bad experiences with doing so. The reactions will be worse now, the bad reactions much worse. I'm relatively ok, I've gotten a little stronger since those big hurts (I know people who acted badly perhaps weren't worth it) but what about the peer groups and teenagers. Glee is watched by many teenagers, they are it's target audience.

I'm really angry, not just for myself but for needless pain that Aspie teenagers will face if they naively disclose to 'friends'. Everyone here knows that we can't always tell why gives a hoot about us or not and when telling someone who actively doesn't like them (but pretends to on some level), the results are nasty (well they were for me).

I feel your anger. (Oh no, that must mean I'm not autistic!)

The gawdawfulest aspect is that the general audience believes that it is A-OK to equate AS with asshats and lack of empathy to further stigmatize us. If it were some other minority group that were being insulted, people would be offended, but because it's us, it's perfectly fine with everyone, and if we stand up for ourselves, then that's just us being asshats and lacking empathy again, both of which we are obviously doing by choice, because AS isn't a real condition, like, y'know?

f**k Glee.

It seems some people have thought my joke came out of nowhere. It was a response to this:

I was responding to this.
And no, I wasn't being offensive to aspies. You'd have to be right insane to think that since I am one.
Edit by spongy nobody was offended by your "joke"but the language you used should only be used at adult, thats all.

Last edited by Gedrene on 25 Sep 2011, 4:39 am, edited 2 times in total.

Actually, Glee has had offensive portrayals of disability outside AS, has had problematic portrayals of domestic violence, use of homophobic and transphobic slurs, and tends to tokenize the characters of color rather heavily, and while people have criticized all of these, a lot of the response from fans is the "it's humor and people will interpret in some way that makes absolutely no sense because that makes my favorite TV show not problematic."

In other words, we're in pretty much the same boat as everyone else with regards to Glee.

I actually found out about this particular issue from someone who is disabled, but is not autistic. She was pretty incensed.

I don't get this either. As someone who actually has been diagnosed and I've NEVER gotten a single free pass for having AS in my life. If anything I'm judged much more harshly and given even less freedom than my peers. But believe me I have given far too many free passes to NTs who have crossed the line of being an as*hole (without giving any excuses for it) far too many times than they deserved. I think it's very hypocritical for anyone to single out Asperger's for being jerks when it is a personality trait that can apply to any kind of person with different motivations behind doing so. You don't need a condition in order to be an ass.

As for the joke (I actually downloaded the episode just to see the scene myself): I get that the girl is supposed to be full of B.S. regarding having Asperger's. But such jokes reinforce bad stereotyping, especially if it's something like AS that is still not completely understood by the general public.

In fact, Glee's sense of humor is probably one of the most disturbing, hypocritical, and nonsensical things I have ever seen. It pushes for sympathy towards characters who are supposed to be misfits yet portray them in such unsympathetic ways that would make the stereotypical definition of AS almost saintly in comparison. The show is trying to teach us about tolerance while at the same time makes almost every character on the show completely intolerant of one another. I thought that the idea of the show was to sympathize with such misfit characters who take part in things like glee...not hate them more.

I have never seen it either. But I have seen aspies being jerks but I doubt it's their AS because I have seen nice aspies and they don't act like them. I also doubt they are using it as an excuse to be that way. I just think they are just jerks.

One time someone at Yahoo Answers sent me a message saying something like "So are you preggers? Oh that's right, your kid will just grow up to hate you." I don't remember his exact words but the beginning was exact and the end. I just figured it was some troll because I didn't know who this person was and it was weird he sent me this nasty message and then blocked me. I had never seen him either. I figured maybe it was what I posted on YA and he didn't like my answer so he sent me that message. He probably read through my answers and saw I was pregnant and then lost the baby. I also figured he sent me that message because I had AS so he was picking on me. But I found out later on he was aspie too because I saw one of his questions about AS. But it was very weird. So that's an example there and I am sure someone else would assume he was using his AS as en excuse to say that to someone.



I just think it may be assumptions people make. They assume trolls are using their AS as an excuse to be rude. They assume an aspie is using their AS as an excuse to be a jerk just because they have said they had it. Some aspies are just rude people and jerks just like anyone else. It sure doesn't mean they are using their AS as an excuse to do it.