'Represented In Wes Andersen's 2009 Film Fantastic Mr. Fox'

As culture has progressed, society has assigned connotative meaning to various adjectives. The word ‘different’ is a word repeated throughout Wes Andersen’s 2009 film ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’, often associated with a vague gesturing of hands as the word is said. This word has evolved to have significant meaning in society, with viewers using context clues throughout the film to draw their own connotations of the word, positive or negative. The ‘different’ may equate, depending on your personal experiences and cultural beliefs, to uniqueness. Similarly, it can also mean weird or unpleasant. According to social scientist Arthur Berger, ‘Semiotics argues that we are social animals and the way we find meaning in the world is connected to the social milieu

The representation of autistic people in the media plays a key role in society’s perception of neurodiversity. This representation can allow neurotypical people to be more tolerant towards us, however due to the fact that no two autistic people are the same, it can also pose a problem. For me, I’ve been told several times that I ‘can’t be autistic because I don’t act like [fictional character with autism] does’. This notion that there is only one way to be autistic leaves neurodivergent people struggling in society. This is an issue as society is already built by and for neurotypical people, with negative representations of autism adding stigma around the subject. This is called hegemony, where certain ideas dominate society’s views due to popularity. ‘[Hegemony] forms part of a system that repeats certain kinds of images, roles, and ideas while neglecting others.’ The portrayal of neurotypical people is repeated throughout the media to the point that any other way of thinking, such as neurodivergence, is neglected. ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ is one portrayal of autism that is accepted in Hegemony due to Ash’s autistic traits being ‘encoded’ rather than labelled as ‘autism’. This ‘coding’ method means Ash still fits into what society deems ‘acceptable’. However, it furthers the negative stereotypes around autism by refusing to define it. If the media refuses to represent and label autism, how can neurodivergent people expect to be accepted into society or get the necessary diagnoses needed in order to obtain