Often very stereotypical perpetuating only one or two “varieties” of autism, mostly involving white male character and often geniuses or the other extreme of autistic people who cannot live by themselves and have high support needs in managing every day life.

Stereotypical. It was often white men.

Autistic characters have been portrayed with stereotypical behaviors and made to look a bad behavior.

It’s stereotypical, it’s offensive.

Uneducated.

Autistic people often struggle with things that go unsaid, like when you move from being friends to dating, or from dating to being in a relationship. These things are often assumed. An autistic person might just miss these signs and not notice. We need these things to be said.

Personally I would have been different from WYW. I would have noticed we are dating, but I would have worried a lot about what everything he does means and I would have been worried to read too much into it, to think he likes me when he does not or vice versa. I would have been scared to make mistakes, to show too much affection and scare him off, or to seem indifferent … I personally, like WYW like things to be clear and said out loud, so there can be no ambiguity or misunderstanding about what people mean.

As an autistic girl, I ask what our relationship is. Are we friends or colleagues? What am I to you? Do you see me as a woman? I would say I like you as a friend or as a man. I don’t want to guess. I don’t want to look like an idiot when he sees me only as a little sister.

We want to make things clear. If no relationship is defined, then no relationship exists. We don’t want to assume just to find out later that our assumptions were wrong.

I don’t know why there were people who reacted negatively to it. Isn’t it rude to assume you’re dating? It is pathetic. Woo Young-woo did the right thing for not assuming they were dating. Lee Jun-ho was wrong. He understood Woo Young-woo, but still assumed they were officially dating without confirming it with Young-woo. If Wooyoung-woo wasn’t autistic, these people would point their finger at Lee Jun-ho as the bad guy, but because Young-woo is autistic they blamed her. Typical discrimination.

I had two neurotypical ex-girlfriends who broke up with me without explaining their reasons. Were they indifferent? No, I don’t think so. There is a reason behind their actions and we should not judge them. There are situations where men, women, autism, or neurotypicals cannot explain the reasons behind our decision.

I don’t think she was being inconsiderate. Quite the opposite. She thought she could not make him happy and she did not want to cause a rift between him and his sister. Those are two very considerate things. It’s this trope of heroic self-deprecation, where the character breaks up, because they don’t think they are worthy of love, although both love each other.

I think why people didn’t like it, was because it was out of character for WYW to not speak her mind and say it as it is. The problem with the show is also, that they didn’t show very many of the negative sides and maybe people don’t understand what it really feels like when you are rejected and judged and bullied by people all your life simply for who you are. It creates lack of self confidence and lack of self-worth. her decision was absolutely understandable taking together what her dad said about having been lonely with her and what she overheard the sister say.

I still think he deserved an explanation of some sorts though, but I understand if maybe she didn’t really know how to handle the situation and we know she has trouble lying and making up an excuse, if she did not want to reveal the true reason.

If Young Woo was not born with autism and is in a similar situation, then as a girl I know she will do it again. Her autism has nothing to do with how she handled her breakup. Divorce is not easy. If you’ve experienced an easy breakup once in your life, you’ve never loved them. She broke their relationship because she likes him.

It’s not me. EAW was a stereotype. I have two children with autism. None of what WYW was is relatable.

I doubt a person is autistic if they don’t agree the portrayal was good. Autism is a spectrum! A true autistic person understands what a spectrum is. How can anyone say it was a bad representation simply because they can not see themselves in Attorney Woo Young Woo?

There is no way to portray autism properly. There are too many ways to be autistic. I thought they did a decent job.

I would have liked for them to include a few more things, specifically more on the topic of double empathy and stuff about exhaustion after social interactions and stressful situations and how to recharge. I feel like this is a very universal thing about autism and navigating the neurotypical society, that it drains you and you need to do things to recover.

I was personally a bit disappointed they again went with the genius autistic person stereotype. It is such a small percentage of autistic people who are like that.

We are often told that “no two autistics are the same,” and this is true. Young Woo is just one of the many autistic children in the world. Yes, autism has been described appropriately and respectfully.

It wasn’t perfect, I don’t think it’s possible to have a perfect representation of autism, it’s a spectrum. The portrayal of the actress was respectful when she didn’t exaggerate her performance. In the past, actors exaggerated the performance of autistic characters, but did not do research. Park Eun Bin did a good job and showed respect.

There are a lot of people around you who have autism. Boys have the highest number of autistics, but that doesn’t mean autism is rare in girls. We women are better at masking than men. It’s harder for us to be autistic than it is for boys.

There are as many ways to be autistic as there are autistic people. WYW is only one of them. A lot of problems autistic people face in everyday life are communication differences and it is often assumed, that autistics should just learn how to behave like neurotypicals. But communication goes both ways. The effort should not only be made by autistics, but by both sides. We’re all people, we should all respect each other and listen to each other.

Don’t believe everything you see in reality. I and my two children are autistic, but attorney Woo was stereotypical. We don’t walk like her. We don’t talk like her. We don’t introduce ourselves the way she does. There are millions of autistic people in the world, but fictional autistic characters are always stereotypes.

I heard that the incidents were based on true cases in Korea. I usually watch dramas with fictional court cases, but it’s “refreshing” to watch actual cases. I can’t think of anything else they should have done. They inserted Woo Young-woo, an autistic attorney, into these actual cases. I don’t know if there’s anything better than that.

Typical cases. I hope there was a controversial case to put to the test WYW’s autism. There’s more about autism than they used in EAW.

I thought there was too much emphasis on the cases, because it didn’t leave enough time for character development for the main characters. They were trying to do too much (autism, romance, cases, sidestories for all the other lawyers, the story with the mum …) and ended up not doing any of these things properly. They should have drastically reduced the cases and focused only on a few that were helpful for the actual story.

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay was brilliant, despite also using a lot of stereotypes.

I can only think of three right now Good Doctor, Innocent Witness, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay.

Move to Heaven, Innocent Witness, Adam, A Brilliant Young Mind

I recommend Adam, Atypical and A Brilliant Young Mind, they consulted directly with autistic people to create relatable autistic characters.

Ocean Heaven, Adam, Good Doctor, A Brilliant Young Mind, Innocent Witness, Atypical Watch them and you will know why.

My biggest issue with this show is that you didn’t involve any actually autistic people in the making of it. I find this very disrespectful. You make a show about autistic people and don’t even have the decency to talk to them or even just one directly? That’s like white actors and writers and directors making a show about black people without involving black people to consult about the portrayal, without involving them in the acting, but only talking to other white people, who have previously studied black people.

I am not saying the portrayal was wrong or that it would have massively changed the story, but who knows better about autism than an autistic person? Even if it is “just” their autism and not representative of all autistics? Surely that means you have to talk to at least several autistics rather than none at all??

The director and screenwriter should have consulted autistic people. Psychologists who are not autistic cannot give a big picture or accurate advice about autistic characters or the difficulties we face in the world. Experts’ observations only see what the autistic person shows externally, but the autistic person can relay what happens internally and privately that experts will never understand.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo was a good entertainment show, but it fell short as WYW was stereotypical. A character like her cannot represent autism. She is a minority in the autistic population.

First of all, you did a good job. It was a good drama and a lot of people were educated about autism. Introduce another regular autistic character next season. The new autism attorney could be Young Woo’s junior. Introducing an autistic prosecutor is also an exciting plot twist in season 2.

Thank you very much for choosing a female character and not a typical autistic male.