In TV, "normal" autistic people must have sex

[TheMaria]

I'm not autistic, but as an asexual, it kinda bothers me that it seems every media portrayal of autistic people (which are often problematic in other ways that the autistic community points out) is so preoccupied with dispelling the myth that autistic people can't have a sex/romantic life that they never address the fact that some people, autistic or not, don't want a sex/romantic life. The trainwreck "Atypical" does this to the max, but even the scene in "The Good Doctor" where Lea tells a drunk Shaun that he has to kiss her made me quite uncomfortable (of course he likes the kiss, because it's TV and nothing is predatory if it happens between the two good guy MCs, but still).

I don't know, maybe I'm being selfish and insensitive to allosexual autistic people who struggle with the prejudice against them, but I'm not gonna deny that I really don't like the apparent subtext of "see, they're normal, they have sex/romance! They might be autistic, but at least they're not some aro/ace freak!".

[Laplace]

I just hate how it’s sometimes presented as this panacea to all these serious disorders. Like, no, sex does not instantly “cure” (ugh) autism, social anxiety/phobia, PTSD, mental trauma, the effects of physical abuse, etc. And, yeah it also bothers me when it’s shown as being okay to essentially coerce someone who is somewhat vulnerable into having sex/being intimate under the pretense of it being for “their own good.”

 

Not to say that it can’t be healthy for some people, but it’s not a miracle drug and it shouldn’t be seen as a requirement for someone. 

[TheAP]

Part of the problem might be that most series with autism as a theme probably have only one major autistic character, so they can't portray the full diversity of autistic people. And with the relative lack of both autistic and LGBT+ characters in fiction as a whole, those identities tend not to intersect, so most autistic characters aren't explicitly made asexual, for example. There is a problem with desexualization of autistic and other disabled people, so in a way it's good to show that autistic people can have sexual and romantic interests. But yeah, it'd be cool if there was an autistic character who was also asexual. It would also help combat desexualization, because making the character asexual would show that they have no interest in sex because they're asexual, not just because they're autistic, and would give them sexual agency.

[Celyn: The Lutening]

1 hour ago, TheAP said:

making the character asexual would show that they have no interest in sex because they're asexual, not just because they're autistic, and would give them sexual agency

Yesss. Also, we need more ace rep regardless of autism etc. etc. And diversity of ace characters.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

I don't get this, how people with autism have to be portrayed as anything but themselves as individuals. I see a Venn diagram, where there's an overlap between aceness and autism, just as there will be with any other group and autism, so it would be great just to see autistic characters. There's a fantastic TV show called 'the autistic gardener'. He and his team, all autistic people, create beautiful and unusually artistic gardens because, as he puts it 'we see the world from a different angle'. Good for him!

[Luftschlosseule]

"Normal" autistic people also have to be very good at math, or they're not autistic.

... I wouldn't say this is an ace problem, it's more ableism and lack of knowledge.