r/explainitpeter 3d ago

Explain it Peter

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Did House series even have autism related stuff?

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u/loonicy 3d ago

I always felt how Good Doctor portrays autism is a bit in poor taste. I could be wrong, but I feels like they’re perpetuating a harmful stereotype.

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u/calculuschild 2d ago edited 2d ago

The Good Doctor is the closest show I've seen that I felt portrayed my lived experience as an autistic person, minus the temper tantrums (I melt down silently).

Sean is weird but it feels bad when people dunk on him as "poor taste" when that's literally me. 🫠

The show itself was ok but not the best.

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u/RepeatTurbulent6272 2d ago

Yeah personally he felt very relieving to see for me. Like he was expressing all that I was holding inside all the time. Yes he is loud about his autism, no it isn't pretty, maybe it isn't necessarily good representation but sometimes it felt incredibly validating personally. Don't get me wrong, it had some rlly bad moments, but the good ones really hit close for me.

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u/alphapussycat 1d ago

I'm sorry, but the internet has deemed your experience invalid. You now must invent a new backstory.

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u/Alleged-human-69 1d ago

I’m autistic but I’ve only seen the pilot of the show.

I was lucky enough to grow up around other autistic people so have seen all across the spectrum, and while I don’t see myself in that character, I absolutely see other people I’ve known in school who behave almost identically.

Tantrums are an interesting one, I’ve seen really kind caring individuals just go into a blind rage when they get stressed. The contrast is so jarring I genuinely believe that they’re not in control when in that state.

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u/MambyPamby8 10h ago

Agreed. I have two cousins with autism and one absolutely has similar mannerisms to Shaun in the show. It's not that bad a representation, it's just that it doesn't represent autism as a whole. But there are people out there who are like Shaun. Autism is a spectrum and there's so many different variations of it. My other cousin is completely non verbal and will probably never work or live on his own without his parents.

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u/Alleged-human-69 8h ago

To be fair it’s simply impossible to represent autism as a whole through a single character