my current job
I've heard similar things about Alan Turing, Andy Warhol, Stanley Kubrick, and Abraham Lincoln.
The possum is a potential perpetrator; he did place possum poo in the plum pot.
Andy Warhol once made a movie called Empire, about the Empire State Building.
That is, the movie was just 8 hours of pointing a camera at the Empire State Building. And nothing else. I believe it's available on You Tube if you want to see the majesty of Warhol's Empire for yourself.
Grr... <3
From what I know, I'd guess that Einstein was autistic, but Newton was not. Eccentricity does not mean autism necessarily.
edited 22nd Sep '16 5:26:10 PM by war877
Studious Girl
Different psychologists have assessed Newton to have just about every mental disorder/illness in the book. He was quite the unusual dude. But we'll never know what exactly was for certain
Women with autism hide complex struggles behind masks.
An article on Spectrum News about how faking normalcy as best as possible leaves its toll on women in particular.
Many participants felt that clinicians brushed off or ignored their concerns. Many professionals held unhelpful — and sometimes unrealistic — assumptions about autism. For example, some reportedly believed that autism hardly ever affects women.
One participant’s special education teacher told her she was “too poor at math” to have autism. Other women believed they were misunderstood because teachers and clinicians didn’t know anything about female-typical features of autism. Most said their lives would have been easier if their autism had been noticed earlier.
The reasons for the abuse varied, but they all appeared to relate to the social difficulties of autism in the context of being female.
For instance, one woman linked an experience of sexual abuse to “not reading people to be able to tell if they’re being creepy.” Another said that her uncertainty about social rules meant that she was not sure whether she could say “no” to an abusive partner’s demands. Others felt that teenage social isolation meant they lacked opportunities to develop their ideas about staying safe through discussions with female friends.
We need to develop a way to measure camouflaging so we can determine whether it is more common in women with autism than in men with the condition — as we suspect it is — and whether it has negative consequences, such as an increased risk of missed diagnosis.
(...)
Our findings raise wider moral questions. Until recently, many gay people felt forced to camouflage their sexuality. Thankfully, although homophobia is still rife, it is much less so than it used to be. We suggest a parallel with the obligation that many women with autism feel to pass as neurotypical.
And not just women, but men, too, even if it's less common.
There are links within the article, too, to other articles.
edited 23rd Sep '16 1:30:20 PM by BonsaiForest
Critical review of a stage play involving autism. It got 2 stars out of 5.
Sarah is a young woman with Asperger’s who arrives in London from the US. She is visiting her sister, Kate, who has recently married an Englishman, Dan, whom she met at work. With Dan recently promoted above Kate, there are already simmering tensions in this marriage; the arrival of Sarah – and her determination to stay – soon adds to the pressures and highlights new areas of conflict, particularly around children, and whose career comes first. But these concerns pale into insignificance when Sarah makes an accusation that Kate believes, on the grounds that her autistic sister “cannot lie”.
This (sometimes disputed) characteristic of autism is used merely as a plot device, rather than being part of a deeper exploration of the condition and attitudes towards it.
It involves autism, but isn't really about it, is what I'm getting from the review. It's also criticized for having pacing problems and not telling its story well.
From the comments:
Even from the synopsis given in the article, Burning Bridges sounds dire. What really infuriates me about 'pity me I have an autistic sibling' stories is that protagonist is almost always a neurotypical, and as such is virtually guaranteed meaningful relationships and jobs. Compared to the lifetime of bullying, alienation and general stress that is the lot of autistic people, complaining about a slightly inconvenient relative comes across as self-indulgent whinging.
edited 26th Sep '16 12:39:11 PM by BonsaiForest
Studious Girl
I am really sick of every story featuring an autistic person centering around Collateral Angst of our poor martyr families
Grr... <3
Anyone else get the sense that people these days think autism means real world vulcans? (Note: vulcans can also lie. But they cultivate the reputation that they can't)
Studious Girl
I think a big problem with autism portrayal in the media nowadays is that it's now a "trendy" thing to do. And because of this, people will claim a character is autistic even when they're not meant to be. If an author writes a character with an Ambiguous Disorder or who's somewhat odd, in the movie adaptation of the book, or something, someone will decide to, without changing the character at all, have it mentioned that they're autistic. And of course the portrayal is inaccurate because the character wasn't meant to be autistic in the first place. Autism is shoehorned in as an afterthought after the character is already made
edited 27th Sep '16 4:01:00 AM by Cailleach
Studious Girl
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Yeah
I'm nervous this morning. I'm turning in my first assignment for a class where the professor knows I'm autistic. This assignment will be used to prove or disprove my competence, just like it always is. I'll be able to tell if it went badly if I start getting singled out and addressed in the Special Voice and asked if I need help every five seconds
edited 27th Sep '16 9:49:10 AM by Cailleach
Grr... <3
Some people need a bit of work to cut through their assumptions. If anyone does that to you, feel free to kindly tell them they are making assumptions. A look of disapproval or an eyebrow raise would help.
Oh yeah, the trend is to reference autism, not to actually show it the way it really is. It pissed me off when Watch from Spooksville said on the Christmas episode that "Everyone always just sees a kid on the autistic spectrum" (in reference to himself), when he fucking shows no autistic traits other than being a Hollywood Nerd.
These Hollywood scum need to be called out on their bullshit. At least we have the internet, where people blast opinions loudly. When a TV show mocked gluten intolerance/celiac disease by having kids throw wheat foods at a kid who claimed to be "gluten free" while shouting "gluten!", angry people with celiac disease wrote in, and Disney pulled the episode.
Writers need to do their research, and be called out when they don't.
edited 27th Sep '16 6:52:02 AM by BonsaiForest
Yeah; I see a ton more non-diagnosed characters in fiction that could be considered autistic or at least have asbergers than those who do actually have a diagnosis. And it's a shame, because most people who don't actually have autism or even asbergers won't be able to make that same connection unless the characters say to their faces, 'I HAVE AUTISM LOOK AT ME I'VE GOT AUTISM I'M SO AUTISM AUTISM AUTISM!" until they're blue in the mouth. What we need is a character that not only acts like an actual autistic, but actually has a diagnosis to boot, and not just one of the two.
hello...!!
sorry if i'm interrupting anyone! i'm professionally diagnosed with asperger's, adhd, anxiety, depression, and ptsd, but i usually just talk about the asperger's and adhd since those are the most, uh, visible i guess.
again, sorry if i'm being annoying or interrupting anyone!
Studious Girl
Hello!
I'm similar to you in that I also have a long list of diagnoses: autism, ADHD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and OCD. But autism is the one I discuss most because it feels the most imminent, while the other ones are sort of buried far enough underneath that I don't think about them often. I actually met someone not too long ago with OCD as their primary diagnosis, and I never even remember to mention that I have OCD too. It's just another part of the screwed up baseline I consider normal enough to not even think about it
edited 27th Sep '16 9:47:17 AM by Cailleach
I'm glad I don't watch a lot of TV.
Studious Girl
Honestly, nothing turns me off a show/book/movie/whatever than hearing that it's about an autistic character. The inaccuracies become painful after a while, so I want nothing to do with any of it. It's the same thing with "autism awareness." I just live my own life dealing with my own personal issues as they come and steer clear of the media chaos. It's easier.
What if they start doing a better job, though? Alex Plank, founder of wrongplanet.net, and an autistic himself, was the acting coach for the female protag on The Bridge (US) (which I reviewed btw). He was there to make sure she got it right. Max on Parenthood was also praised for his accuracy.
Grr... <3
Hello! I'm surprised PTSD is not the one with the most obvious presentation.
Studious Girl
Then you just get "You're not exactly like this character, so you must not be autistic!" and people assuming you have the exact same personality as this character before they even meet you. I understand how accurate portrayals of autism can help raise (the good kind of) awareness, I just don't like it, personally. If I can choose to avoid seeing something that contributes to my anxiety, then I will. I don't need any more stress.
The way I see it, a good variety of shows that accurately portrayal different forms of autism will increase understanding. The problem is if people see only one character and assume all autism equals that one character. But if they see multiple characters that are different, it helps.
Studious Girl
But then people will look at the influx of autistic characters and think it's just a "trendy" people are doing to be cool, like gluten intolerance.
Maybe I'm being too cynical. It could be a good thing too
And again, there are actually many shows that have characters that could pass for one spot or another on the Spectrum. What we need to do now is give these characters some sort of diagnosis, because most people can't tell the difference on their own.
edited 27th Sep '16 1:41:59 PM by kkhohoho
Wasn't Einstein nonverbal until the age of 7?