Can the 2020ā²s be the decade where we stop making people sympathize for the āneurotypicalā side in narratives about autism?
Rain Man: Charlie is the āsympatheticā POV, Raymond has almost zero agency, even though the conflict of the movie is all about him.
Curious Incident: Even though Christopher is the protagonist, we clearly arenāt meant to sympathize with him more than his āpoorā parents who claim that their autistic son ādestroyed their marriageā.
Atypical: While arguably better about this than other shows, Atypical still gives Doug and Elsa far more sympathy than they actually deserve. And the show still tends to slip up and focus around Sam making the life of his family āharderā simply for existing.
Finding S.A.M.: The book was thankfully pulled, but the point still stands. Braden is a complete blank slate, his bratty younger brother Zach is the viewpoint character and he makes it no secret that he either: A. despises Braden, or B. wishes that he was ānormalā.
Music: Are we seriously supposed to like Zu? If Music had any braincell in her fake-autistic head, she would probably beg to be taken away from her and Ebo.
And no, I donāt want autistic Mary Sues either. I want an autistic character that I can actually root for.















