My girlfriend and I love watching Girl Meets World together. It’s a bit of nostalgia for us, since we were both avid fans of Boy Meets World when we were younger. I didn't go into the show expecting any discussion of autism, but in the episode “Girl Meets Farkle,” I was surprised to find the characters dealing with the possibility that Farkle might be autistic.
Soon after the characters embrace Farkle as he is, autism and all, we’re dealt a plot twist: Farkle isn’t actually autistic, but Isadora Smackle, his nemesis-turned-love-interest, is. Immediately, I was both pleased and a little disappointed. The point they were trying to make, I think, was that Farkle would be exactly the same person if he were diagnosed with autism, and so is Isadora. I was also thrilled, because growing up, I never saw any female characters with autism on screen outside of the movie Temple Grandin.
Isadora fits the textbook definition of autism perfectly: she detests physical affection, struggles with empathy and emotion, and centers her life around science. And even though I'm not Girl Meets World's primary audience, I was a little disappointed by the depiction of this autistic character. When I was in middle school, like Isadora is, most people didn't believe me if I talked about being autistic, because I'm so emotional and I'm much more interested in fashion than I am in science.
When most people think about autistic women — or autistic characters in general — they typically envision someone exactly like Isadora Smackle. Which makes sense, as there simply aren’t enough portrayals of autistic women in the mainstream media. As a result, the few characters that are autistic represent all of us.
I’m thrilled that shows have autistic women on screen, but, even so, I’d love to see a little more diversity in how these autistic women are portrayed. Autistic women aren’t always adverse to physical and emotional affection, and many of us focus our autistic special interests (the intense and focused interested in a particular topic, which for most on-screen examples is science or math related) on subjects like literature, fashion, and the arts. I’m an autistic woman, and I’ve never seen an autistic character like me in the media: Someone who spends most of her time engaged with literature and the arts, who loves emotional conversations, and who is as adept with sarcasm as she is with fashion.
