A Portrait of Ben Affleck as an Autistic Man

I thought that The Accountant was a fairly interesting movie. There were quite a few stupid moments, but you get used to that with Hollywood, right? For the most part it kept my interest, and it didn't drag. And it is always good to see Jon Bernthal. I don't feel that I've wasted my $1.56 Redbox fee on it.

However . . . the portrayal of autism in the movie was pretty fucking ridiculous. Okay, they refer to it as Asperger's Syndrome, but (1) Asperger's Syndrome is autism, and (2) it really tries to have its cake and eat it, too, since the Young Accountant is much more autistic-y than Asperger's-y.

(2) would seem to imply that there is some accuracy to the portrayal of autism, but only in a very limited way . . . like saying that a picture of a close-up of an elephant's side is an accurate portrayal of an elephant. Any autistic kid who was prone to the tantrums displayed by the Young Accountant would not be capable of becoming a black belt (-ish? not clear) martial arts expert. Much less an expert marksman. And the stimming behaviors that Older Accountant displays . . . the little finger movement things . . . that's mild OCD, not autistic stimming. Not to mention OE's flashing lights and loud metal music and rubbing his shin bones with Daredevil's truncheon. Let's just say that if you wanted to design Hell for an autistic person, this would be an excellent choice. 

And it's not just harmless Hollywood bullshit, it's the creation of a public image of autism which is parallel to the Hollywood image of black people as thugs, drug addicts, and pimps. Maybe we need a Hollywood Shuffle for autism. Are you out there, Mr. Townsend?

And then there's the other side of this Accountant fellow. I am so tired of special needs people being portrayed as superheroes by Hollywood. But it rarely fails. It's as if to justify their existence, a special needs person must have some incredible powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

As my autistic daughter is fond of saying, "I'm sick of it and I'm sick of it."

My autistic children are really good and cool and funny and interesting people. But not because they have super powers. They're  just people.