Not Every Autistic Person is a ‘Savant.’ But the Stereotype Has Significant Mental Health Costs.
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My experiences made me feel that autistic people are only valued if they are a ‘genius’ or a ‘savant’ — otherwise, society doesn’t accept us… If you are excellent at something, then all is well; without that, it is traumatic,” Rishabh Birla, 25, said.
His experience deeply resonated with me — even though I didn’t know I was autistic until my mid-20s, the sensory, communicative, social, and motor difficulties resulting from my autism had led me to feel excluded and undervalued my whole life. Until I learnt to mask my autism, the only times I felt valued as a person was when I excelled academically. Even now, sometimes when I tell people I am autistic, I can see them burning to ask me whether I have any “special abilities.” The stereotype that autistic individuals have “super” skills to compensate for their neurodivergence continues to thrive.
Tanuka Ray, a psychotherapist from Kolkata, who is neurodivergent herself, recalls meeting a parent who was disappointed his autistic son didn’t have extraordinary mathematical skills or a photographic memory to compensate for his autism. “It added to his ‘frustration’ with his child,” she says. During her work as a behavioral therapist for children several years back, she mentions coming across yet another autistic child whose parents very evidently favored his neurotypical, younger sister over him because he didn’t have a high intelligence quotient to make up for his autism.
“In school, I was not valued or accepted. But in ninth and tenth grade, when I was scoring excellent grades… suddenly, I was respected, accepted, and valued by teachers, as well as other students and their parents,” Rishabh recalls. He added that people became friends with him in junior college, too, while he was performing well academically, but “drifted away” once he began needing academic support. This impacted his confidence and his sense of self.
A neurotypical society thus only values — or, at least, accepts — autistic individuals when they can either “fit into” its neurotypical norms by camouflaging their autism or compensate for it with “special” abilities. As Louise, a self-advocate for autism wrote on social media, “unless autistic existence benefits neurotypicals, autistic people are not seen as ‘worthy’… [it] tends to put pressure on [autistic] people to behave in certain ways to feel valuable to society.”
In a society that is severely lacking in awareness of the autism spectrum — or even the fact that autism is a spectrum — pop culture becomes the source of information. And in the process, disadvantages actually autistic people.
From Shaun Murphy in The Good Doctor, to Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory, to Fiona Helbron in Elementary — there are countless portrayals of autistic (and “suspected” autistic) characters in pop culture that depict neurodivergence as a “disability ‘superpower'”. This perpetuates the myth of the “model neurominority” — derived from the term “model minority” coined by sociologist William Petersen in 1966, which refers to positively stereotyping certains members of marginalized groups — setting impossible benchmarks for other members, and creating “inspiration porn” for the non-marginalized.
One of the most successful portrayals of autism on cinema ever was in 1988’s Rain Man, which entrenched the stereotype — influencing collective consciousness for decades to come. “Rain Man’s influence on how autism is thought of culturally is incalculable… Before Rain Man, there was no popular conception of what autism looked like, among the public or on-screen,” an article on The Guardian reads. “But an influence, however benign or well-intentioned, can become suffocating if allowed to flourish for too long.” And, it has.
In fact, writer, Karl Knights, noted that “the film has become such a shorthand, that I and every autistic person I know immediately has to caveat the statement ‘I’m autistic’ with ‘I’m not Rain Man‘”
The idea that autistic people are “extraordinary” might be “well-meaning” but perpetuates society’s inherent ableism — by further “othering” an already marginalized group. “…suggesting autistic people are superheroes or somehow have special powers… [is] a way for… society to ‘other’ us and distance themselves from autistic people,” Louise notes.
Moreover, it is perhaps owing to society’s general discomfort with disabilities — more ableism — that the “autistic geniuses” stereotype has thrived as much as it has. Media assuages a largely able-bodied audience’s discomfort by putting a positive spin on disability by using terms like “courageous” and “inspirational” — the constant portrayal of autistic people as “geniuses” functions the same way.
This was written about India but it resonates here in America, and probably many other places
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
26 Jul 2021, 11:52 am
