In today’s world of pop culture, people are constantly attempting to expand the horizons of media, often going into sensitive topics, or ones that haven’t been spoken about. Although this can be good in reference to some topics, the media ends up spreading more misinformation than awareness, in an attempt to make it more ‘likable’ to the general public. Some of the most overlooked cases of misinformation in the media are seen with the depiction of disabilities and mental illnesses due to the lack of education about such topics: specifically autism. Autism is defined as a broad spectrum of conditions that are characterized by social challenges, repetitive actions, and struggles with speech. As a spectrum disorder, autism cannot be classified by one set of strengths, weaknesses, or characteristics: what one person with autism might struggle with, another might excel in. Just by this definition of autism, it’s clear that there is so much room for error, especially since the media is known to emphasize and play upon stereotypes. There have been several strides in the inclusivity of autistic characters and actors. However, there are still many discrepancies. The media often takes on one specific portrayal of autism, and fails to represent other areas of the spectrum, usually being on either extreme of the spectrum. This is especially seen with the trope
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of the ‘autistic savant,’ or a person with autism with great skill in one specific field, as seen in “The Good Doctor” or “The Big Bang Theory”. Even though this trope isn’t necessarily inaccurate, only about 10% of people on the autism spectrum have already been represented by this trope, so overly displaying this one portrayal is damaging to the other members of the spectrum. Today, one of the most damaging representations of autism is in Sia’s new film, “Music.” First off, people were angry about the fact that Maddie Ziegler, a neurotypical dancer who is known to work with Sia, was chosen to play an autistic character, when an actual member with autism could have been cast. This is problematic, because the whole point of such films is to raise awareness and promote inclusivity for people with autism. And the best way to do that, is to have an actual member of the spectrum contributing. In addition to it, the way Ziegler is acting “like an autistic person” very much follows the stereotypical mimicking of people with autism the same way they have been bullied and mocked their whole lives. Such actions can be considered
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