TV/Movie Portrayals of Autism/Asperger's

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I recently saw a portrayal of Asperger's that I thought was horrible. It was Dr. Virginia Dixon on Grey's Anatomy.

Have you seen this portrayal of Autism/Asperger's? Can you name any others that you thought were either good or bad?

I wrote about it in more detail here.

https://dwarren57.wordpress.com/2015/06 ... disorders/

I have never seen that show. I think they all just do it for entertainment than for education.

Also I think having archives in your blog would help so it would be easier to view all your blog posts by clicking on the month and year.

Yes, it is for entertainment purposes. To be fair, I actually do like Grey's Anatomy. I just think their portrayal of Dr. Dixon put way too much emphasis on stereotypes. Thank you for suggesting that I put a calendar archive on my blog. I changed the theme.

There was this action series called "Alphas", which was about people with superpowers, sort of like X-Men.
One of the protagonists there is called Gary, and while he is said to have autism, he's portrayed pretty realistically.

I have never heard of that show. I will look into it when I get the chance to do so!

It's on Netflix, and unfortunately it only got 2 seasons because Syfy screwed it over. Gary is a great example of a high-functioning autistic in media. Makes it easy to forget the actor who played him is neurotypical, but he did his research.

One of my favorite movies is Mary and Max, with the latter character having Asperger's. It's a fairly good example of such as well. It's worth watching even if stop-motion films aren't your thing.

Great movie. A bit depressing, but still.

I just saw a movie on Hulu called "The Odd Way Home", which is about a drug-addicted woman (played by Rumer Willis, the daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore) who runs away from her ex-boyfriend in L.A. to drive to New Mexico where her car breaks down, and she meets an autistic man (who's kind of like Dustin Hoffman's character in "Rain Man") after she steals a delivery truck that he lives in as a bedroom, and they both go on a road trip to find his father after his grandma died. It's a very touching movie with beautiful scenery of New Mexico. You can watch this movie for free on Hulu if any of you live in the U.S.

Here's the link to the movie on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/watch/781806

Thanks, will check it out when I get the chance!

I saw that episode of Grey's Anatomy. I had been watching all of it on Netflix and they stopped at season 10. I'm still waiting for the new seasons, I haven't checked back in a while since I've been watching Amazon, so I probably should check soon. Anyway, I HATED the way they portrayed her. That was terrible. If that woman was that bad off I seriously doubt she could have gotten through medical school. I totally understand that it's for entertainment and isn't very real very often, so I'm ok with it for entertainment purposes, but I had a hard time getting into that episode enough to enjoy it.

Most people who are shown as autistic on screen are usually there for stereotypes. It's either a dramatic or a comedic device. I don't have a problem with them being used that way at times but I'd like to see it portrayed in a realistic way more often. I think Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds seems like he has AS and would like to see him diagnosed as such on the show because he's a regular person and not a walking stereotype.

I like Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds too! Matthew Grey Gubler was perfect for that role, and he is cute too! I also think that having him be officially diagnosed in the show would be great.

Have you ever seen the pics of him modeling? He doesn't have the same look at all. He's cute as Reid but modeling, he's HANDSOME and SEXY!

Yes, I have seen his modeling pictures. He is quite the looker!

I just read your blog. The media is always putting out stereotypes about Autistics and people with some sort of Asperger's Syndrome. But, the only way to know what it's like to have a disability is to be born with it. Now that I'm older, I don't expect NT's to understand everything, but to at least see where we're coming from (e.g. knowing our strengths and weaknesses, sensitivities and what not to say). Grey's Anatomy was never my favorite show, but I'm not surprised they misrepresented someone with Asperger's. You see this ignorance with a lot of movies about Autistics. There was one movie OnDemand where a man with Autism got out of his "sheltered" life to go find a job and from the previews his family members kept giving him a hard time. I forgot the name of the movie, but after I saw the trailer, I was pretty upset.

Sheldon from the big bang theory is a good example of a person with Asperger's

Was it The Story of Luke? That was a pretty good movie about a guy with AS. It actually had two guys with AS in it.

The thing about the media is that of course they are going to overdo anything in a show or movie. Unless it's just something that isn't a focal point about a character, they are going to overplay it to make the character and show interesting. If movies and tv and the characters were actually like real life and real people then they wouldn't be interesting at all. Movies are made to entertain, not to educate. Documentaries are made to educate although sometimes they are just made to push a particular point of view, but overall they would be more realistic than tv and movies.

Of course many documentaries are going to use more extreme examples rather than middle of the road stuff. Autistics are a good example of that. They really aren't going to make a documentary about somebody with AS whose life isn't greatly effected (affected? I can never tell which to use and I'm too lazy to look it up) by it. They are going to show nonverbal kids or poop smearing kids or kids who meltdown a lot. They are going to show adults who either need constant care or group homes. They aren't going to show people who you wouldn't really know have anything. They aren't going to show people who have mild symptoms or who used to have severe social difficulties and who struggled to learn and do differently and now you couldn't tell anything is wrong with them. They aren't going to show people who have succeeded and who fit in. It's not interesting. They do the same with mental health documentaries. They show people who won't take their meds or who have such severe problems that the meds don't do much to help. They show people who hear voices and talk back to the voices or who can't function at all, etc. Things like that are interesting to most people because it's not something they encounter, the same as autistic kids who don't talk or who melt down all the time or autistic adults who are violent or who can't take care of themselves. While it's not the the way autism is for the majority of autistics, it's still the one that will get viewers.

Dixon on Grey's Anatomy would have never been able to finish medical school because of the pressure and would never be able to work in that life or death environment with a lot of the s**t she would have had to take and the stuff she would have had to do that would have been so very uncomfortable to her to the point that it would have been something she literally could not stand or do. It's not possible that somebody who was that bad off from their autism would have been able to do that. Sure, lots could who weren't that bad off from it, but the way she was shown, she couldn't have. It was just an interesting plot device and not meant to show anyone anything or to offend somebody, which I'm sure it did.