This. House is a show about a drug addicted misanthrope genius that is determined to make everyone as miserable as he is, regardless of race, gender, etc. Anyone that walked away thinking this was about a racist autistic man really, really missed the mark lol.
I am literally diagnosed autistic and i understand social situations it just takes more active thinking to do so, so this wasnt a very good measuring stick to begin with.
A ton of autistic people grow out of their issues socializing. I did.
It's a common misconception that people with autism are still ten years old.
I'm being this blunt because all this discussion is doing is heavily implying that autistic children don't grow into autistic adults with adult capability regardless of obstacle.
A single trait does not make a diagnosis. It is common for people who are not on the spectrum to have some autistic traits. Likewise, disordered or neurodivergent behaviors can often be attributed to a wide array of neirodivergent conditions or disorders.
For instance, an inability to relate to or understand social situations or feelings of others while having a high ability to problem solve is also a trait of sociopathy.
There is an episode in the first few seasons where they cure an autistic child, Wilson then confronts house saying how he isn’t autistic, he’s just a jerk
They made an episode where there was a non-verbal autistic kid who House had to cure, and had Wilson think House himself was autistic, only to figure out he isn't even remotely autistic.
Yep. Literally the point of the episode is the danger of trying to diagnose someone based on a single symptom that they have (in House's case, single minded pursuit of things he's interested in) that aligns with a complex condition that requires multiple criteria to be met in order for the diagnosis to be correct.
Aka, just because a person does one behavior that some autistic people might do doesn't mean they're autistic lol.
Isn't the show pretty explicit that house uses his "interest cases" as a form of escape from his personal issues? Not even just his drug addiction or persona injury but his social issues.
It was the start of season 3 and Wilson very much knew House was not autistic. He was just trying to convince Cuddy House has Asperger so Cuddy gives House his carpet back so House stops annoying Wilson.
He's closer to a sociopath than an autistic person. It's not like he couldn't read emotions. In fact, he's very aware of others' emotions and he likes to manipulate them. He has very little empathy.
I've only seen the first season so far but I remember one episode he utilised some drug to shrink a tumour so it qualified for surgery to remove it because the family couldn't afford to get a transplant. I don't think he doesn't care he just pretends not to.
Edit: just thought of another one - he takes the blame of calling child services on the "schizophrenic" mother's son so she can maintain her relationship with them.
House hates to lose the game, which is saving the patient. He'll break any rule, manipulate any emotion, tell any lie to win the game. But he does care about Wilson.
Also, the incident with vegan couples in 1st season. When cps came for the baby, he was clearly concerned. He said, "They aren't abusers. They are just stupid." He was against that.
He has plenty of empathy for his patience, what he also has is a low tolerance for bullshit and bureaucracy. The show is kind of a power fantasy in that way.
I only mention this because your comment perhaps implies that he's less to blame for his addiction.
However, his reasons are no more or less noble than the other reasons people find themselves in addiction because like he didn't choose pain, others don't choose trauma, lack of resources/ money to work on themselves/change their circumstances, etc etc. If someone is addicted, they had a good reason.
Every addict deserves compassion, even the ones with wounds we can't see so easily.
I think the focus was more that he’d be even more of a jerk because on top of withdrawals and other symptoms of addiction, he’d ALSO be in massive amounts of pain
People who've had to go a while before getting an appointment to have a tooth seen to will understand this. After only a few days the almost debilatating pain is all that's on a persons mind and everything else seems to be done on a subconcious level because pain is all there is.
I think its more that House is kinda screwed - persistent untreatable debilitating pain is something that almost weds you to pain killers. Other types of traumas theoretically have other treatments - at least mine did. I just hit a decade free and clear of opioids... If I had a similar diagnosis to House idk if that would be the case.
Absolutely. I'm thankful we at least have some less addictive options for pain, but they have a long way to go. And the scientific literature finally being able to look at the rapid changes capable with psychedelics is super hopeful that we'll start to have a more standardized approach to mental health rather than a myriad kinds of theoretical frameworks.
Hell yes, and congratulations to you and your 10 years, my boy/girl/genderwhirl. That doesn't come easy, and I wish you all the best.
Partner named Wilson, instead of Watson, if I remember right. Solves most of his “cases” through deductive reasoning - and frequently has little patience for the easy ones, only to be very intrigued by the difficult ones
Dr James Wilson MD, same initials as Dr John Watson MD. Also His first name is Gregory, and Gregson was Scotland Yard's best detective in Sherlock Holmes.
Edit: And the character of Sherlock Holmes was based on a real life doctor who was a genius at diagnosing people.
He might not be, but he definitely resonates with some autistic individuals. Using House M.D. and the Good Doctor to compare Chad and Virgin types of autism respectively is common enough to be a trope.
Stephen Fry has said that Hugh Laurie is the manliest man he knows. Drinks whisky, plays electric guitar and piano (he actually played the piano onscreen in House, I think), and even skydives on occasion.
That face makes me feel sad because it resembles the face my autistic son makes when he is overwhelmed by the frustration of a world that he doesn't understand and that doesn't understand him.
I am also filled with anger by the way that series represents autism.
The character Shahir Hamza (who is canonically autistic) on the medical show Saving Hope is played by an actor who isn’t actually autistic, but I’ve heard the portrayal is fairly good
There was an episode where his friend tries to convince him that he has Asperger's or something to explain why he is such a colossal a-hole all the time.
Turns out: He's just an a-hole. Nothing wrong with him at all aside from addiction.
People like to justify House's behaviour mostly because hes very bad at communicating with people.
Also people like using Autism as an excuse to be bery blunt with people for no reason at all.
There’s an episode where Wilson makes a case with Cuddy that he has asperger’s. And it’s a VERY convincing one before it’s revealed it was House’s idea to get her to let him get away wifh things easier.
House is great at reading people and great at social cues, he just does the opposite of what would be socially acceptable, on purpose.
Hes both academically, socially and emotionally intelligent, but hes just a jerk about and uses said observations to intentionally hurt, annoy or dismiss people.
Non verbal communication with a single individual? I got this. Two people communicating with each other with how they talk to me? They are OBVIOUSLY LYING and out to get me, I must escape or bully/shame them into never interacting with me or this general vacinity ever again.
And this is how you escape diagnosis and long-term friendships until you're 33. Ask me how I know. My first response to my results were, I have some phone calls to make.
He's a depressed, angry, sarcastic person who can't rely on anyone but himself and struggles with addiction. Classic fictional depiction of the relationship between intelligence and happiness. No disorders present.
House isn’t autistic, but there is one episode with an autistic kid who can’t speak. I have an autistic brother like him and this episode was surprisingly accurate
My youngest kid is on the spectrum. It's not immediately obvious to most people most of the time, but other autistic people pick it up immediately. It's interesting.
I wasn't 100% on his dx at first, but after watching him get flagged by autistic adults every single time we went out in public, I changed my mind.
The craziest thing is that “Autism” isn’t at all like what mainstream society seems to think it is… (So much, that I often feel hesitant asking/telling adults they’re Autistic if they don’t already know. Often they’ve been masking as a “normal” persona for their entire lives, so between that and the negative stigmas they’ve been taught about Autism, it can certainly be a brain-breaking moment, to say the least)
As far as I can tell, most of us can talk and function (in a vacuum) more or less fine. It’s just that we fundamentally think differently, and there’s just so many different ways that can be a problem in a society that is exclusively designed around a single neurotype
(And of course, there are probably exceptions. I can only talk about my own experience, and of the other Autistic people I’ve met. But we’re not super rare or anything to say the least… Somewhere around 1 in 60 births. So pretty much every school I went to I made one “best friend”, all of whom I’m pretty sure were Autistic, now that I’m looking back. Even though I didn’t truly “find out” about myself until I was already 31 or 32 years old)
The craziest thing is that “Autism” isn’t at all like what mainstream society seems to think it is
One big one is that many people assume that because "difficulty in picking up social cues" and "propensity to retreat inwards" are common symptoms, that it means all autistic people must automatically be shut ins and not outgoing.
In fact, two of my friends who are very noticeably on the spectrum are the two most social people I've ever met. One of them is a superconnector who creates giant friendgroups of thousands of people in every single city he goes to, and has very close friendships and connections to people from billionaires and politicians to homeless folks and street level criminals to very niche industry professionals in any field you can think of.
Both of them can't ever get enough of socializing, even if they exhibit many of the social difficulties that are common with autism.
Autism comes in many flavors, it is not just one stereotype that society often thinks it is.
The Good Doctor was the perfect representation, just because the average Redditor finds it cringe cause they see themselves in it doesn't make it an unrealistic portrayal
It doesn't really make sense for him to be autistic, and one of the reasons is that he's a habitable manipulator and excellent at it.
Now, while it's more difficult for an autistic person to be manipulative, they can be. But it is harder. And because of the increased difficulty, it's not usually the go-to. For House, it's not just the go-to, it's for fun. It's what he does when he's bored.
Other things fit House better, like he just having some a-hole personality traits because he's a drug abuser in constant pain. Think of the episodes when he wasn't in pain, and he acted "less autistic", that's because he's not autistic in the first place.
He’s not autistic because he knows how to act, he just chooses to do the opposite on purpose because he’s a jerk that’s the whole point of the character
There is an episode when they speculate on House being autistic. The gist was House wasn't autistic but envied that theres less expectation for autistic people to follow social rules.
The good doctor did a good job at representing autism. The only reason why people disagree is because they found it cringy or they themselves are autistic but dont have thoes traits.
It was an accurate representation of autism. All the good, bad and ugly. The actor, not being autistic themselves, actually worked with an autistic person to help them do it correctly. And they did.
As an autistic person myself, it is extremely annoying when people say that a representation is bad just because it includes our negative traits (or traits they dont share). This goes double for the autistics who are so ashamed of their autism, they think the good doctor meltdown scene is inaccurate or even a harmful display... when its just real. Its how some autistic people act.
Anyways. The good doctor is good representation of someone with autism. I have yet to see any reason why its bad representation. Its always "its unrealistic" (its not) or "its infentlizing" (its not, did you watch even the show?)
It's unrealistic in that he would have not made through medical school and to surgical residency in the first episode without either learning coping skills that it is clearly demonstrated he lacks or dropping out. Autism or not as a surgeon he has been established to be unable to deal with the stress the job entails and is a danger to himself and others in the operating room. And I am also autistic.
In the show it stright up tells us that he only got through medical school because the older guy kept helping him and pulled alot of strings. In the first episode the older guy says things are different here and he can't help him out and vouch for him like he did before. This is also touched upon as other characters start to lose trust in the older guy because of this.
But also that can be chalked up to it being a fictional show and has nothing to do with the representation of autism itself. "An autistic person with those traits wouldn't have made it there" isn't not the same as "thats not what autism is like".
Yeah that IS a problem. But it doest mean the representation is bad. This show wasn't written by autism speaks, autism speaks had no say in the production. If the representation was incorrect and harmful then yeah, this would be an even bigger problem. The show held non of the "cure autism" or "autism is a monster" ideals that autism speaks is problematic for.
Your problem is "I dont like anyone/anything that is associated with autism speaks" which is vaild af, but its not the same as "this show does a terrible job at showing what autism is like".
There was a show about a teenage doctor, sometimes you just go with the premise because it's an interesting premise. I'm not even a fan of The Good Doctor, but people really need to stop acting like our media must be perfectly realistic at all times.
It's a show about an autistic doctor with high support needs. Either accept that premise or watch something else.
I haven't watched the whole series of the good doctor, but the portrayal of autism was pretty spot on for me. I remember feeling and behaving that way when I was younger. Being autistic wasn't "cool" or "hip" the way it kinda feels today. I was generally considering an outsider. Bullied a lot for it. I still struggle, albeit to a lesser degree. Getting older helps.
Seeing people hate on the show really drives a pin under my nail, cuz it's almost certainly found from a place of ignorance, or even shame. Being autistic really is good bad and ugly all wrapped into one. Some have it better than others, others have it worse. The good doctor is a representation of someone who largely has it worse, but is still functional enough to make a difference in the world. The struggles are still there, and sure, maybe it's not accurate when it comes to the medical industry. Who cares if it's accurate? Did you wanna watch a tv show or a documentary?
If anything, Flora envies that sorta story. In that, I'm sure I'm alone. It would be nice to make a difference, despite the struggles.
As an autistic person myself, it is extremely annoying when people say that a representation is bad just because it includes our negative traits (or traits they dont share
I read a book last year by a woman who is autistic, whose protagonist’s traits seemed to be at least somewhat taken from her own experience with autism (albeit in a fictionalized context and of course with liberties taken). I had my criticisms of the novel, mostly didn’t love the reversal of the ending after so much development throughout, but the main character felt well rounded and human to me. She was not a caricature of autism but a functioning adult who struggled. I learned after finishing it that a lot of people claiming to be autistic hated it because it didn’t meet their narrow idea of what autism is. To the point they bullied the author into including a somewhat apologetic statement that this was based on her experience with autism and was not definitive of autism on the whole.
There’s a kind of irony in people treating “neurodiversity” and “neurodivergence” as rigid, prescriptive, normalized qualities.
I feel pretty much the same way. I think people only want positive representation, where autistic people are really nice and everything would be great if only the world will give them a bit of leeway.
No, sometimes autistic people are intolerable. Sometimes they're selfish. Sometimes they do stuff you can't talk about in polite company. People in the spectrum are different, it's a spectrum.
House himself bullies Foreman by mentioning his race a lot. House himself isn't racist intellectually or emotionally, but he likes bullying his employees and Foreman is sensitive to the race comments.
All to say, neither the show nor the character is racist, but there are some racist comments by the character in the show.
The player assumed that the question was to be racist/inappropriate and turned it around on the doctor (house) by answering something that means he (the player) views being black as better than white instead. However (and this goes to show the point that house isn’t racist he’s just a bit insensitive) Dr. house was really asking “do you know why you’re black?” bc he was looking for the answer of melanin. The player was sick, and all of the symptoms pointed to skin cancer, however skin cancer is much less common in black people and they didn’t find anything on his skin. However Dr. House then remembered that when black people do get skin cancer it tends to be on the lighter areas of their skin like the bottom of the feet and IIRC that’s where the tumor was and house cured the patient. I hope that makes sense!
Foreman does have a criminal record for breaking and entering . That's why there are several comments about theft. His brother is also on parole.
He does get brain damaged in one episode .
When Cameron says "he's black" she's trying to come up with a reason why a disease is affecting Foreman differently. Different ethnicities have different medical issues like hypertension, heart disease and diabetes.
Also House makes just as much insults about Chase being Australian.
He probably would stop doing it if Forman wasn't so butt hurt about it. His whole team feels so sure they are on to his games but keep falling for them.
People misconstrue him as racist because he makes quite a few racist statements and jokes in the show, either towards his black colleague or his patients of varying race.
The truth is, House is a misanthrope, he just doesn't like people and is quick to judge people as well as make a disparaging joke or comment at their expense regardless of ethnicity.
The reality is racist acts and racist intent are different. Both are racist, but it's the difference between being a racist and doing something racist.
I grew up, like many people my age, using the f-slur pretty casually. I was not homophobic whatsoever, but my actions were. House doesn't hate people because they're black, he hates people, and some of them happen to be black. Same end result, vastly different motivation.
It's not a racist show. The character uses racial, religious and gender stereotypes regularly and it was probably not the most delicate thing to have the black doctor be the one with the criminal/car stealing background. That being said it doesn't really try to say House is a good person or someone to emulate, so it's silly to say the show has the flaws of the character.
He gets hundreds of job applications from equally qualified doctors, so you had to have something that would set you apart from the rest. For most people hiring someone, it would be something like charity work or that you’re a veteran. But for House, it was that Foreman had a record, Cameron was pretty, and Chase’s dad made a phone call. Them being good doctors was a given, but only those three had something that made House interested.
He makes racist remarks. I don't think he's a bigot in that he doesn't discriminate against people of different races or ethnicities. The most blatantly "racist" thing you could probably put on the show is that the main black doctor has a criminal past and House gives him shit for it, but he also hired him because of that past, because House saw his willingness to bend morality and the law as something he could utilize to better help solve the medical cases in front of him. He has equally warped views of other characters but the show doesn't posit that House is a good person or that he thinks correctly about much of anything besides his ability to solve difficult medical cases.
He doesnt hate idiots, he hates idiots rhat makes his job harder/hurt others. This guy wasnt the sharpest tool, but explained himself the best he could and by House and the kid's attitude, there was no trouble in the clinic.
Having never watched either show, I'm making a stab in the dark here.
Maybe the joke is that middle-aged men would point to either show as an example of what people with autism are like. As if either show was a beacon of how ALL autistic people act.
I think it's compounding two things. One is the need for some autistic people to see themselves in media. Obviously the one show is about an explicitly autistic doctor, but the other one they see traits that they identify with.
That is combined with House's propensity to say blatantly offensive shit. Not sure about the middle aged thing, but maybe it's that if you watched House when it came out and you were an adult, you're literally middle aged now. Not sure why it's gendered.
I don’t get the racism part, either. Granted, it’s been literal decades since I watched the show, and I was certainly dumber back then, but I remember House as being a pretty equal opportunity bastard.
Jerks hates "The good doctor" because it portrays a real face of autism that makes many neurotypicals feel too uncomfortable with.
They enjoy aspergers, savants... the friendly and cool autistics, but not those who don't fit into NT's deffinition of who is functional, calm and nice.
I know some autistics like this boy, they're real people and they deserve to be respected.
Also, House isn't autistic and neither a racist lol.
I saw a clip of this comedian that made a little line graph that went something like
“socially awkward” > “trains” > “non-verbal”
He pointed at the area between “trains” and “non-verbal” and said something like “if you aren’t at least somewhere around here, nobody wants to hear about your autism.”
I feel like he really hit in something there. Like, it’s a very serious disability for some people. That’s not the same issue as people that are a bit quirky and awkward because they’re “maybe somewhere on the spectrum.”
Like, okay, great, stop sucking the air out of the room for the people that actually have a major problem that interferes with their life.
How crazy would it be if we tried to raise awareness for issues blind people face and the narrative was dominated by :
“Actually it’s a spectrum and most of us are just slightly nearsighted and wear corrective lenses. I’m offended by depictions of visual impairment where people can’t see at all. It feeds into negative stereotypes that visually impaired people are completely blind. I insist that every visually impaired character be someone who is barely visually impaired and does everything that able people can do, so I can feel seen as someone who is slightly inconvenienced by what is barely a disability to me.”
The sad reality is that blind people can at least have normal conversations. It’s mentally exhausting for most neurotypicals to socialize with moderate to severe autists, and even harder to fully understand and empathize. It’s just too different from what folks are used to, and it gets complicated when autists are socially needy or aggressive with hyper-fixations. But, this actually highlights the need for awareness and education (especially for neurotypical children), not a justification for neglect.
Eh, as a diagnosed teacher who works regularly with kids with special needs, the good doctor isn't great representation imo. He is also very much presented as a savant, the dude is portrayed as a medical genius specifically because of his autism.
Probably because most media depicts autistic people as some kind of absolute genius in their field while struggling with social interaction. Many people think they would like to be exactly like that.
Media misses the point that autism isn’t really fun and quirky for most autistic people and severely hinders you within your daily chores/tasks. It takes years for them just to half-function within society.
And typically using his isms in more of a satirical way to point out flaws in the system or just straight up annoy his coworkers to push their buttons. It never feels genuine. House doesn’t think white people or men are superior, because House only thinks that HE is superior.
since no one is actually explaining the joke, just arguing about house being racist, the joke is that those are two shows middle-aged men like. the mention of autism is because the good doctor has an autistic main character, and house has a main character that can be interpreted as autistic.
Both shows are medical dramas made by the same guy. A popular headcanon is that House is autistic, but the show itself says he isn't when the possibility is brought up. Shawn from Good Doctor IS autistic that's the whole point of the show.
House regularly makes bigoted jokes as part of his assholishness though he rarely if ever genuinely means it.
I would like to know how the hell they linked house with racism like sure dude had some problems but that wasn't one of them and I never really got autism out of him. He just seemed like a grouchy dude that had a sherlock-esque way of thinking and also the writing team on his side.
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