Once upon a time, Science Fiction was poo-pooed as “that Buck Rogers stuff”, Star Trek was a silly television show that only housewives watched, comic books were “kids’ stuff”, the Beatles were a stupid boy band for teens, and anything animated was for school children.
Growing up, the only place I saw people of colour was Sesame Street. The only disabled person on television was on Ironsides and I didn’t get to see a movie with an all-black cast until my mid-teens.
People like to go through the things that famous people do as if that’s a guaranteed recipe for anyone else to have the same success. Spoilers: it isn’t.
You almost don’t notice this one, and that’s why it’s so insidious. Once I started taking notice of it, I noticed how prevalent it was.
Someone, somewhere, latched on to the concept that Autistic people are super-good at some things and someone else’s speculation that Autism may be a step up on the so-called evolutionary ladder.
So the white male hero gets to be the asshole that the writers wish they could be, solve all the problems, and save the day. Every week.
More often than not, the Autism label is slapped on as an afterthought.
