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Abstract: There is an increasing recognition of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) across the media landscape, particularly on television. The bulk of American primetime TV is made up of character-driven dramas, and these dramas have begun to more frequently include depictions of characters with ASDs. The present study examines some depictions of well-known characters exhibiting ASD characteristics in popular TV dramas. Results from this sample, which include characters from Alphas, Fringe, and Grey's Anatomy, indicate that ASD-identified characters continue to be stereotyped and marginalized, with special emphasis placed on their "savant-like" skills, social dysfunction, and inability to function without caregivers.
Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD): primetime television; social dysfunction; savants; caregivers; stereotyping
Introduction
The term disability refers to a physical or mental condition that "substantially limits one or more of life's daily activities" (Garland Thompson, 1997, p. 6). Rosemarie Garland Thompson, in her foundational work, Extraordinary Bodies, argues that disabled figures are social constructions which change over time and vary from one culture to another, and that encoding certain bodies as "deviant or defective" allows a culture to assert its own superiority (1997, p. 5). Snyder and Mitchell, in their Cultural Locations of Disability, argue that notions of disabilities as "human insuffiency" in the dominant culture leave disabled bodies segregated, stereotyped, and excluded (2006, p. 17). Television shows, then, as components of popular culture, reflect and reinforce societal norms by providing representations of salient issues (Holton, 2013; Richardson, 2010). Although television continues to define the dominant culture as a primary source of information about health and disease for most Americans, entertainment television, such has primetime TV dramas, has received relatively little research focus (Murphy et al., 2008; The Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005). Thus, more research is needed to systematically examine health information on entertainment television, particularly about diagnoses with increased attention, such as ASDs.
TV content producers have increasingly incorporated disability representation into their narratives. For instance, actors such as Peter Dinklage {Game of Thrones) and Lauren Potter {Glee) show that there is room on TV for (some) disabled bodies. The nature of TV content, however, means that such depictions are often limited (or limiting), if not outright stereotypical (Moody, 2011). Popular discourses surrounding autism most frequently frame the disorder as a definable, internal trait...