To be honest, I don't often read or watch any content merely on the basis that any of the characters are autistic. I tend to keep away from any discourse about autistic or autistic-coded characters. I hesitate to judge the representation of autism in the media because that would be akin to... well for example, as if a female allistic person critiqued any female character for being different from her. Yes, some traits are the hallmarks of autism, but each neurodivergent person is deeply individual. My daughter's therapist from years ago put it best:
"Sabrina, once you meet an autistic person, do you know what that means? It means you met one autistic person."
I don't know why I felt compelled to watch some Attorney Woo clips on YouTube today. My daughter was having a hard day and crying and I couldn't get through to her and it made me think of the scenes in the drama with the dad. They were in the same orbit, while at the same time living parallel. I will not sugarcoat this... because I promised myself here to be honest. Life is very lonely in my home at times. We are all neurodivergent. My husband and daughter have an interest-based nervous system, so unless I can sell the idea of anything, even a connection, it will not happen. Usually, I wait until they are interested in me and just enjoy the time I can. I am no better in all honesty and as the years passed my exhaustion in waiting for them to be interested in me frayed something in my soul. Anyway, I know firsthand that even within one household, the individual ways that we show our neurodivergence are clear.
So when I see characters like Attorney Woo, Christopher John (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Futaba (Persona 5), Keiko (Convenience Store Woman), Eleanor (Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine), all the protagonists in Helen Hoang's books, etc I feel a kinship in some regards, but I understand that the way my traits manifest might be more severe, or less. I might have some attributes that they don't and vice versa. I remember watching The Extraordinary Attorney Woo the year before last and feeling so seen and so understood. Not because she and I present ourselves the same. But more because she's the closest in the way her heart works to the way mine works. I don't want to discuss the plot of anything because spoilers (avoid the clip below too if you don't want spoilers), but some of the decisions she made that were pivotal and might make most scratch their heads made me cry, because I know I would do the same things and for the same reasons. I also read some of the books with autistic characters before it dawned on me that I was autistic. I should reread them to see if I can glean anything now that I know. I can certainly identify with what I remember though. Like Keiko, I worked in retail for years after college because it felt safer for me to work in the store than to search for an office job (design). I was 5 years behind my peers and the start of my career is a manifestation of that delay. I finally forced myself the discomfort of the transition because I was broke. I had my retail job and freelanced in design and being an... ahem... webmaster (I know, throwback) but the cost of living in my area was expensive and I knew it was time. I am also prone to shutting myself in like Futaba did. I don't blame her for making the request she did to the phantom thieves!
It's nice to have representation though, and in this day and age I feel like these things, while still being a ways to go in terms of sensitive handling, are certainly better than when I was growing up.
Diversity doesn’t look like anyone. It looks like everyone.
– Karen Draper