EvilKimEvil wrote:
I wonder if and how ANTM's portrayal of Heather will influence how NTs view AS.
Well, the only NTs who have ever heard of AS are those with family members or friends who have it. (I'd only heard of it before meeting my husband because a few of my cousins have it.) Most people have no idea what it is, so saying "how NTs view AS" is rather like saying "how Americans view the Tzotzil Indians of Chiapas, Mexico." Those who've ever heard of that group probably have a pretty realistic picture of it, but 99.99% of the population has no view of it at all.
People who watch ANTM will probably come to a better understanding of what AS is (by which I mean, some understanding instead of none) but I doubt that will ever translate to the way they act towards people with AS if they don't *know* the person has AS. I mean, they won't be more understanding of someone's quirks due to having watched the show if that person doesn't tell them they have AS.
I do think that *if* people with AS are willing to say to other people "the reason I sometimes behave in a way you don't understand is because I have AS" *then* the listener might be more familiar with it than they would have been so they might be more understanding, but I don't know if people will be willing to do that.
I was actually wondering the inverse of what you were: as AS becomes more high-profile, will people be more willing to admit to having it? I completely understand why many people don't want to, but I think that's really the only way to change the way other people view people with AS, not just by one person on a reality TV show having it.