Rain Boy Stereotypes

Improved Essays
The Truth Behind Boys with Autism In today’s society, individuals and groups are labeled with either positive or negative stereotypes. People encounter stereotypes everyday and everywhere. It is the picture people paint in their minds when approaching a group or individual when in fact it may be different in reality. Stereotypes affect a person’s way of living and thinking either in a negative or positive way. Stereotypes are based on truth but in an exaggerated way, while misconceptions are formed from having stereotypes. Misconceptions are beliefs that are incorrect based on untruths. Stereotypes are a widely believed image of a particular group or person. One of the many reasons why people create or have stereotypes is because of what …show more content…
The portrayal of the movie Rain Man lead to the stereotype that boys with autism are better at numeracy than literacy. In the movie, “Rain Man,” the main character, Raymond, is an autistic man who can quickly calculate complicated mathematical problems in his head with accuracy. This is an exaggerated stereotype that leads to the belief that all boys with autism have some sort of special talent. Jesus is on the spectrum and is no genius. He is in high school and does not know how to spell his own name. He knows english and spanish but he can’t read or write. It does not necessary mean that boys with autism could either be smart or dumb. In fact only a small percentage of boys on the spectrum have savant …show more content…
According to the article, Circumcision Linked To Autism in Controversial New Study written by David Freeman, “The researchers found that the overall risk of developing autism before age 10 was almost 50 percent higher for circumcised boys than uncircumcised boys.” Despite the statistical proof there is no valid evidence that links circumcision to autism. The belief that poor parenting causes autism lead to the Refrigerator Mom Theory. The Refrigerator Mother Theory was first proposed by Bruno Bettelheim and is thought that lack of maternal warmth causes autism. There is also unreliable evidence that suggest vaccination and autism are linked. In contempt of all these stereotypical myths, uniformed people seem to believe that autism does not exist, that it is just another way to refer to a spoiled child. The truth is that autism can only be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors due to the fact that it is a genetic

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