Part 4 of media series: Negative Autism

There are lots of negative portrayals of Autism in the media, whereby the condition is shown as being ‘the end of the world’ and devastating. Whilst Autism can be very difficult, there are always positives which many portrayals do not show. Below I have given some examples of these portrayals.

The first of these is the documentary ‘Sounding the Alarm: Battling the Autism Epidemic’ which can be criticised for the title alone being somewhat offensive [1] setting the tone for a documentary focusing purely on negative aspects of autism. A key theme is the cost of Autism, reinforced by doctors throughout the film. Whilst this seems logical and minor at first glance these thoughts could be considered the stepping stones toward fascist ideology, where the weak are seen as an inconvenience. The film continues this theme showing parents struggling to pay for therapies, however neglects to mention that this can be seen more as a failure of the healthcare system rather than a crisis caused by autism.

In addition, the film portrays autistic children as being unable to communicate. This statement is untrue as it’s more that communication must be conducted by other means such as physically or through cues from behaviors. Among other examples, in one instance a group of adults discuss how a child cannot communicate yet the child is clearly showing he’s upset.

These similar negative themes are portrayed in the documentary ‘Louis Theroux Extreme Love: Autism’, which portrays the condition in a negative manner, showing miserable parents with no optimism for the future, saying comments like they are being punished [2]. 

There are many more examples, but these are a good start and clearly demonstrate a pervasive narrative in the media.

1 https://awnnetwork.org/film-review-of-documentary-sounding-the-alarm-battling-the-autism-epidemic/

2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01gk4xc/louis-theroux-extreme-love-1-autism