- "Armchair" internet diagnoses occur when a character or person is not named as being explicitly autistic (this force can apply to other disabilities as well), but viewers assert that a character or person is autistic.
- While fictional characters are often largely subject to armchair diagnosis, the real rhetorical power comes when people invoke real, historical figures as autistic.
- While identifying individual historical figures as autistic is often a completely speculative endeavor, when lists of historical figures who have been tagged as autistic are compiled they have the power to shift how we view autism because for the most part, all the historical characters identified are white. Often these lists also have high proportions of people in the STEM fields.

"Armchair" Internet Diagnoses and Autism As Rhetoric

- There is a common trope that autism is "the engineer's disorder" and that autism leads people to have a fascination and natural talent in the STEM fields. 
- This has led to a false portrait of autistic people as people who excel in the STEM fields. Due to the historic bias of the STEM fields this leads to a portrait of autistic people as male, middle/upper class and white.

The "Geek Chic" Stereotype and Autism As Rhetoric

- Sheldon Cooper is often pointed to as one of the most identifiable autistic characters on television, but the producers of The Big Bang Theory have publicly stated Sheldon is not autistic. This shows us the power of how our definitions of who is autistic shape our view of people and the diagnosis. 
- Sheldon Cooper exemplifies two forces that work to construct autism as a relentlessly white phenomenon: "armchair" internet diagnoses and the "geek chic" stereotype.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The Media and Autism and Rhetoric

Heilker, P. (2012). Autism, rhetoric, and Whiteness. Disability Studies Quarterly, 32(4). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v32i4.1756 

Autism, Rhetoric, and Whiteness

While rates of autism diagnosis have increased, most people still do not have regular, personal contact with individuals who they know are autistic. Thus, many people primarily see representations of autism in the media.

The Importance of the Media in Shaping Autism As Rhetoric

Examples of Autism Presentation in Media - Sheldon Cooper from "The Big Bang Theory"

Autistic individuals are portrayed almost exclusively by white individuals in the media.

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