Race, Gender, Class, and Intersectional Representations of Autistic and Disabled Characters on Television

I'm excited to announced that I finally had the opportunity to publish a peer-reviewed article about scripted TV, a real career highlight! A lot of my work over the past decade has looked at disability in news media. Writing about TV like this is the culmination of everything I've ever wanted to do in academic spaces and beyond. The whole special issue, Autism_Media_Social Justice, is amazing and well worth your time. This piece was co-authored with my colleagues Kelly Harding and M. Ariel Cascio. You can read the full open access article here: https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/2702

Abstract: "Media reflect and affect social understandings, beliefs, and values on many topics, including the lives of autistic and disabled people. Media analysis has garnered attention in the field of disability studies, which some scholars and activists consider a promising approach to discussing the experiences of – and for promoting social justice for – autistic people, who remain underrepresented on scripted television. Additionally, existing portrayals often rely on stereotyped representations of disabled individuals as objects of pity, objects of inspiration, or villains. Television may also serve as a primary source of public knowledge about disabled people and the concept of disability. It is therefore essential that such portrayals avoid stigma and stereotyping. We take a disability studies lens to critically analyze and compare representations of diverse people, who may sometimes be conflated in the popular imaginary, across television series about autistic characters (Atypical, The Good Doctor), those with cerebral palsy (Speechless, Special), and a character with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (Shameless). We employ an intersectional analytic framework to problematize representations of autistic and disabled people, using television, feminist, and critical disability studies literatures. We analyze how the formal structure of television storytelling can either enable or disable its characters, as well as how portrayals of disability that display a sensitivity to concerns raised by critical disability discourse do not necessarily display the same sensitivity when they intersect with marginalized experiences of gender, sexuality, race, and class."