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Autistic Characters in Media I Don’t Like Part One: I Hate Benedict Cumberbatch, Basically

Most depictions of the autistic experience in media are stereotypical. Some autistic people in real life fit parts of the stereotype, but the majority of autistics don’t. Perpetuating harmful stereotypes in media causes the neurotypical audience to blindly apply them to all autistics. 

Almost all of the autistic characters in media fit into a stereotype: a big box that says “Autistic”. Some of popular autistic coded characters manage to break out of that box, but unfortunately, the majority of depictions of autistic characters in media usually are inscrutably linked with negative traits. 

One of the pieces of the stereotype that I overlooked before starting this article is that autism is a spectrum. Duh. Well, I mean like, I am cognizant that autism presents differently in everyone. But the diagnostic criteria for autism overlaps with the outdated Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis. And the portrayals of autism in media are always depictions of Asperger’s. I can’t think of any fictional characters in media who are autistic, or autistic coded that wouldn’t fit the criteria for Asperger’s.

Why you should avoid the term Asperger’s

For those unfamiliar with why Asperger’s isn’t the preferred term, here’s a quick rundown. Hans Asperger did research on children who had what he called ‘autistic psychopathy’, and really drank the Kool Aid of his Nazi colleagues. This article in Scientific American says, “The term psychopathy carried criminal connotations in Nazi child psychiatry, and indeed Asperger attributed ‘sadistic’ traits to autistic children”.  

Some British psychiatrist found Asperger’s thesis and wrote about it in the 80’s, completely ignoring the demonization of autistic children by Asperger’s. So some autists tend to steer away from using that guy’s name as part of our identity, preferring just ‘autistic’ instead. Not to say that everyone who uses the term Asperger’s is evil, maybe they just don’t know. But now you do! 

The article in Scientific American talks about how that children diagnosed with Asperger’s have difficulties finding the help that they need that would be easier to receive if they were diagnosed with just autism. This article from Spectrum talks about how the depictions of only Aspergic autistics in media provides a barrier for autistics who face grater challenges. 

The article uses the term ‘severe’ autism. I’m not the biggest fan of the severe-mild terms, and especially dislike the terms ‘high functioning’ and ‘low functioning’ autism. I read a post on Tumblr, and I like their reasoning. Someone with mild autism just means that YOU experience their autism mildly. You don’t know about any struggles they might have because they’ve grown accustomed to hiding them.   

Those with ‘severe’ autism have an apparent need for more support and have larger struggles. And I can appreciate what Alison Singer was trying to say in her article for Spectrum, that media doesn’t portray difficulties of all autistics evenly. You never see any autistic self-injury or other behaviors that are detrimental to one’s well-being.  

Common portrayals of coded characters in media

Ari Ne’eman in an article in Spectrum brings up a good point. Characters who are autistic coded usually get treated better in the writing room. They actually get development and a personality that isn’t trapped inside that Autism box. They use the examples of Abed and Brick from Community and The Middle. Personally, I think I’ve seen about an episode and a half of The Middle, so I can’t share anything groundbreaking.  

But I can talk all day about Abed. The show doesn’t beat around the bush, Abed is weird and has weird tendencies and has trouble navigating social settings. Abed gets moments where his character gets to develop, and we get to see him as a real human person with thoughts and feelings instead of a one-dimensional character.  

That whole article basically gets the point across that the majority of portrayals of autism in media that kick ass are only autistic coded characters, and rarely is there a depiction of an autistic experience where it’s called autism.  

Are showrunners afraid of using the term autism for their clearly autistic characters? It’s not a dirty word. Characters aren’t any less likeable once you apply the term to them. Do creators feel like once they apply the autism sticker that neurotypicals won’t be able to relate to them anymore? I just don’t understand why so many great characters who, to the autistic community, are clearly autistic aren’t called autistic in universe. 

We take the scraps that we can get when writers talk about how they think of the character as autistic, or knowingly give their character traits that are autistic. We hold them up as a great representation of an autistic character, even though, canonically, it’s never explicitly stated. 

This feels to me like it’s just a few degrees shy of when a writer decides that a character is gay after they’ve already written the material.  

I’ve seen multiple posts about how writers who set out to make quirky characters end up making autistic characters. Which, I guess is okay, if the writer realizes that the character that they’ve made resonates with autistic people. But why the avoidance of using the word? 

Example responses to your character being accidentally autistic

Alyssa Hillary wrote in her blog that one of the benefits of calling autism what it is, is that people watching who relate to quirks of the autistic character will learn that there is a word for what they experience. Even if the word isn’t there, autistic people will still recognize the similarities. 

She also brings up a list for what to do if your character is read to be autistic: 

Don't claim you were intending them to be autistic if you weren't, we generally don't like lies. But! You totally can (and should): 

1. Be noticeably not-insulted by the insinuation you could write (or play) an autistic character. Yes, folks have gotten insulted by the idea that a character they wrote or played or were otherwise involved in was getting read as autistic. 
2. Accept the possibility (probability) that the character is, in fact, autistic. We're pretty good at recognizing our own.  
3. Be noticeably not-insulted by the idea that fans noticed something about a character you didn't necessarily intend. It's super easy to accidentally write an autistic character if you don't know that the real people they resemble (who you may have borrowed some autistic traits from) are autistic themselves! 

I don’t like Benedict Cumberbatch

One of the first things I researched for this article is how awful Benedict Cumberbatch is. I don’t like him. There’s a clip I think from Between Two Ferns where Zack asks Ben if he didn’t have a British accent would people realize that he isn’t a very good actor. Just because this mf is British doesn’t make him one of the best actors ever.  

I knew that Ben played Sherlock, who is widely seen to be autistic. The writers (Steven Moffat (who sucks! Opposite of a TERF, Trans-Inclusive Radical Misogynist)) never wants to acknowledge that Sherlock could be autistic. In the show, there is only one line where I think Asperger’s is mentioned, but it’s an off hand remark that gets shot down immediately. 

I found out that Ben played Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, and I was disappointed that a historical figure that I have a soft spot for is played by an asshole. You’ll see why further down in this article. 

I also found out (sadly) that Ben also played Louis Wain. I remember watching a video by Blind Dweller where he goes into detail about Wain’s life and talks about people trying to posthumously diagnose him. Most people go immediately to schizophrenia, which I guess I can understand by looking at some of his art. But most people don’t show his work in a chronological order, they just show the more normal looking cats first and then slowly show more fractal looking cats, trying to push a narrative that his mind was deteriorating or something stupid like that.  

Quick discussion about Louis Wain

In the video, Blind Dweller discusses that Wain could have been autistic, and goes into several reasons why. One of the comments on that video mentioned that drawing the fractal cats could be a form of stimming. Which—genius! I like that narrative far better than trying to paint possibly schizophrenic people as going crazy.  

Last thing I want to say about that video. I was watching Blind Dweller videos in the background as I was doing something else, but I was so enraptured by the story of Louis Wain, so I stopped everything to focus on the video. I must have been in a rough place, but by the time where Dweller shows the painting that Wain made after discovering the popularity of his work after he was placed in a mental institution (“I am happy because everyone loves me”), I started crying. I felt so moved, I didn’t know what to do with myself. It filled me with so many emotions, and it certainly didn’t help that I saw the video some time near January, when I suffer from sort of Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

Benedict’s “Research”

 

I was telling one of my friends about how I don’t much care for Cumberbitch, and he told me that Ben did research for a role he was playing—Frankenstein’s monster—and he went to a school for the disabled. Ben has made his displeasure for having his characters labeled as autistic very clear. 

He said that Sherlock is an immediate comparison to an autistic person because he is “a sociopathic show-off”, but people calling Turing autistic are ‘being lazy’ with that assumption. 

What does ‘being lazy’ mean, Ben? That people who like to see themselves in media slapping the label of Autistic on the characters is lazy? People do that with love, Ben!  

He also mentioned that of the brilliant people in his work that he gets to play, and that when fans label the characters as autistic, it gives actual autistic people false hope that they can be brilliant people too. I’m not kidding. 

In this article for the Irish Times, it’s discussed that Ben won an award for his performance of Frankenstein’s monster in some play, and that he went to study autistic people to get a better grasp at how a fully formed man with no childhood to reference would act.  

This is what this man said: “I went to schools and met people, some of whom are very high functioning on the autistic spectrum. I met a 17-year-old who had the mental age of a one and a half year old. Everything was just about bodily functions. Smell. Sexual arousal. Shitting. Whatever. So when I hear people use diagnostic labels casually — Sherlock is autistic, Turing is autistic — it really upsets me.” 

I really don’t have any words. First, you want to study to get into your role. Sure. Whatever. But studying disabled people for a role to play a monster? Not looking good, equating autistic people with monsters. Also, Ben, maybe it wouldn’t upset you so much when your characters get labeled autistic if you viewed autistic people as people. Human beings. That just happen to be wired differently. Different, not less, as Temple Grandin would say.  

Sidebar: While doing research for this article during my CS lab, I was explaining the CliffsNotes version to the girl I sit next to, and then showed her the quote above. The dude who sits next to me in lab overheard and butted in. He said that people shouldn’t label Ben’s characters autistic if they are not, because that upsets him.  

He also asked how is it any different, Ben researching autistic children for his role of Frankenstein’s monster and other actors studying for serial killer roles. I didn’t have any words. I gave some basic response to him, but that was the wrong move on my part because he said that he’s very close to being on the spectrum, ‘cause he’s got ADHD, and that’s almost the same thing. I stopped talking to him after that. 

Medical model vs social model of disability

I’ve been learning in my Inclusive Design class about the medical model vs social model of disability, and Ben’s got a bad case of being up his own ass about the medical model view on autism. The medical model views disability as a fault of the disabled person, that something is wrong or impairing them. The social model views disability as a failing of how things are organized socially. Meaning that the fault is in society, and not with the disabled person. 

Because it’s disheartening, as a disabled person, to be called broken. Or deficient. Or less.  

Broken has such a negative connotation that the term disabled (to me) just doesn’t have. I don’t mind the word different either, because different doesn’t have a predominantly negative or positive connotation. Again, “different, not less” comes to mind.  

So, Benedict. And your stupid name. When do you research for your next role of a brilliant character that gives autistic people ‘false hope’, maybe do some research into the social model of disability.  

My plans for next week

I realize now that I’ve gotten all of that out of my system, that I set out to write this article about autistic characters in media that I don’t like because they perpetuate harmful stereotypes. I didn’t really get too far into the writing aspect about it, really only just dipped my toes. But I like how the article turned out regardless, so I guess next week I will have to do a part 2 where I actually talk about specific examples of the character portrayals that I don’t like.