By Virgilio C. Ventura
Introduction
Autism is a lifelong developmental affliction that could challenge an individual’s ability to communicate, socialize and adapt to the world around him/her. Each autistic child or adult may exhibit any combination of the behaviors in any degree of severity. It is estimated that one out of 500 Filipinos are autistic or approximately 140,000 Filipinos of the 70 million population. Of those affected, only 10% have been diagnosed.1/
Lack of awareness as compounded by stereotyping and misrepresentations in film and television has only contributed to the confusion, trivializing, and apathy of various audiences on what autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is all about. More importantly, these misrepresentations have dangerously delayed clinical assessment and treatment of unsuspecting families of children afflicted with autism.
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
As a complex neurodevelopmental disorder, ASD is accompanied by differences in brain anatomy, functioning and brain connectivity. Due to its neurodevelopmental character, and the large phenotypic heterogeneity among individuals on the autism spectrum, the neurobiology of autism spectrum disorder is inherently difficult to describe.2/ As Ronald De Guzman (a BS Mathematics student from University of the Philippines Baguio City Campus) explains the spectrum of his autism condition:
It is not like a tint of color wherein it is just about “a little blue” or “a strong blue,” but rather, a rainbow spectrum. In a rainbow spectrum, you can’t claim that yellow is more “blue” or blue is less “red.” Rather, you have to shade each color since each of it corresponds to specific areas of development such as, but not limited to, sensory processing, neuro-motor differences and skills, pragmatic speech, social awareness, and repetitive behaviors. And to have autism, you should be affected in not one or two areas but, rather, most or all the areas.3/
In my Health & Lifestyle article of December 2004, I presented the case of Thristan Ureta Mendoza or fondly known as Tum-Tum Mendoza who was born (in 1989) with Asperger syndrome.
Asperger is a milder type of autism characterized by the underdevelopment of language particularly the absence of eye contact, the absence of emotion in speech, slow reading of people’s reactions and feelings to what they do or say, or an obsession for routine. Despite this limitation in the life of Tum-Tum Mendoza, he has through time conquered his autistic affliction to become the extraordinary talent of playing marimba (a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets) that he is today. Now at 34, Tum-Tum has certainly come a long way since 2004 when I interviewed his mother Belina and his piano teacher Ruby Salvosa. When asked about his rare gift of music, he simply said that he wants to inspire the parents of autistic children and want them to see hope in him for their own child.4/
How is Autism Represented in Film and Television Performances?
Compounding people’s misconceptions of autism are the misrepresentations and myths that abound in symbolisms and media representations. Often, the media romanticize behaviors that are seen as “autistic.” People with autism are often cast in roles that make them look cool or eccentric as exemplified by the Hollywoodish film like the Rain Man (1988) starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Through the award-winning performance of Dustin Hoffman’s autistic savant character Raymond Babbitt, the world took noticed of autism but unwittingly also set the iconic template for the autistic savant character in film and television.
In the 30 years since its release, no film or TV show involving an autistic character has matched the commercial and critical success of Rain Man, and this has allowed it to attain a unique kind of cultural staying power. Media is immensely powerful, and films penetrate our cultural consciousness more potently than any other art form.5/
Subsequently, the US TV series The Good Doctor (2017) starring Freddie Highmore as the brilliant but autistic doctor Shaun Murphy followed the Raymond Babbitt template. Freddie Highmore’s Dr. Shaun Murphy is portrayed as highly skilled in building and maintaining relationships which creates false expectations of people with autism. While it is a good step to see more diversity and inclusion (of autism) in the media, questions have been raised by scholars and disability advocates about the accuracy of these representations.6/
Truth be told that some of these representations are harmful to autistic people themselves, while others may be harmful (e.g., bullying or as target of pranks and jokes) to how society perceives autism and to those who suffers from it. These misconceptions on autism through cinematic misrepresentations ignores the fact that autism presents itself differently in each person.
As Alexandria Prochnow (2014) asserts:
“Media representation practically never accurately portrays social groups as they actually are in reality. These social groups can be specific to certain races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, occupations, or even medical issues. Television and film are limited in what they choose to illustrate and highlight about autism in their programs; it is not their fault that autism has such a wide range of characteristics and types that can be difficult to fully cover, but they still exhibit too few aspects of autism to be considered representative.
“Although the magical/savant, “different”/quirky, and undiagnosed/unlabeled characters are interesting to see, it is time for mainstream media to start showing far more realistic depictions of autism, as well as a much wider range of ASD characteristics.”7/
Locally, though we have such autistic sub-themed films like Ipagpatawad Mo (1991) starring Vilma Santos and Christopher De Leon that deals with the impact of autism on a family and Unforgettable (2019) starring Sarah Geronimo as a special child, it is a rare cinematic treat to watch the well-studied and nuanced virtuoso performance of Arjo Atayde as Elai — the autistic teenager in the action-drama TV series The General’s Daughter (2019). Beyond the focus on Elai’s character, the series score high in its contextualization of Elai’s autism, the authenticity of his movements and behavior, and the quality of his verbal and non-verbal interactions with the other characters in the story like his mother Isabel (Maricel Soriano) and Rhian Bonifacio (Angel Locsin) will haunt the Filipino TV audience for a very long time.
Conclusion
While it is important to recognize and celebrate the diversity within the autism community, it would be foolish to make blanket assumptions or stereotypes about individuals with autism based on the characterization of actors in the movies or TV series. Specifically, Prochnow concluded in her study that positive portrayals of autism in the media won over the negative performances but that “those representations in mainstream media are hyperpositive to the point that they are unrealistic.”8/ Thus, the representation of people with autism in fictional media remains problematic. END
NOTES:
1/ Sen. Estrada, J.E., Explanatory Note, Senate Bill No. 618, First Regular Session, 14th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines. https://legacy.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/48294204!.pdf
2/ Ecker, C. (2017). The neuroanatomy of autism spectrum disorder: An overview of structural neuroimaging findings and their translatability to the clinical setting. Autism, 21(1), 18–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315627136
3/ De Guzman, R. Jr., [Opinion] Actually Autistic, Rappler, July 10, 2022. https://www.rappler.com/voices/ispeak/opinion-actually-autistic/
4/ Ventura, V.C., A Gift of Music, Health & Lifestyle, Friendly Alliances and Media Expressions, Inc. , December 2004.
5/ Knights, Karl, Rain Man made autistic people visible. But it also entrenched a myth, The Guardian, December 17, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/17/rain-man-myth-autistic-people-dustin-hoffman-savant
6/ Kluke, Shauna, An analysis of social competence portrayed by the autistic character in the television series The Good Doctor, Department of Communication, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, December 1, 2020. https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/41741/1/Kluke_Shauna_2020_researchpaper.pdf
7/ Prochnow, A. (2014). An Analysis of Autism Through Media Representation. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 71(2), 133–149. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24761922
8/ Ibid.
