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witchstormm · 1 year

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Hello everyone! A few days ago, I wrote an essay on Accidental Autistic representation in media using the character Diane Nguyen from BoJack Horseman as an example of that as a part of a bigger college paper I'm writing about autistic representation in media! I decided recently that I wanted to make my current essay public as I work on the bigger paper, just as a bit of a taste tester for those interested in what I have to say as well as a way to showcase why I believe Diane Nguyen is autistic coded (as an autistic person)! To those interested, the essay will be put right under the cut! I hope you enjoy it! To those who aren’t, I understand! I hope you have a wonderful day as well!

When trying to come up with ways to make characters with diverse personalities, creators will often end up representing groups of people without initial and deliberate intent. While it may be a bit misleading to call something that was unintentional “representation,” media, in general, is a subjective art form, so it’s important to recognize the merits of what an audience can take from a piece of media, even if it was unintended by its creators. A rather notable occurrence of this would be the abundance of media portraying autistic characters. Accidental Autism in media is often presented as characters who were intended to come off as “quirky” and/or “different” by their creators without realizing the “quirky” traits in question are diagnosable qualities of autism. As a result of this phenomenon, these characters and their reflective arcs often have more focus on who they are overall rather than solely existing to be an “autistic character,” which ends up humanizing and more accurately portraying autistic people and how they function in society. A good example of this happening in a modern-day show would be the accidental representation of autism in BoJack Horseman with the character Diane Nguyen, a frequently recurring character who is one of BoJack's closest friends.

BoJack Horseman is an animated series that debuted on Netflix in August 2014. It stars the titular BoJack Horseman, a washed-up celebrity horse from a popular sitcom from the 90s, and his eccentric friends Princess Carolyn, Mr. Peanutbutter, Todd Chavez, and Diane Nguyen as they all go through the motions of day-to-day life while dealing with heavy topics such as childhood trauma, drug abuse, mental health, abortion, overwhelming fame, etc. Such portrayal of real-life experiences has won the show numerous accolades as well as high critic and audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and other similar websites. The show’s writing has managed to touch the lives of a lot of people, and the characters within it are still often discussed to this day as their relatability has withstood the test of time and maintained their relevance in popular culture, even though the series has ended.

A lot of the characters in the show have their respective fans and portray unique viewpoints on life that many can relate to; however, the case of Diane Nguyen (BoJack’s former ghostwriter-turned-friend) in particular, is an interesting one. Of the main characters, she's the only one that people seem to be perplexed by, being labeled as weird or odd, because on a surface level of examination, she may not trigger a general audience's perception of what an autistic woman is. Thus, these traits are unfortunately often perceived as annoying or inconvenient when it comes to furthering the narrative of this show. It is not until all of her acclaimed “annoying” traits are added up that a general audience will recognize how she ends up properly representing the autistic experience.

As outlined by the CDC, certain diagnostic criteria need to be met for an individual to be considered autistic. In particular, there is a minimum of no less than 5 traits an individual must possess that are deemed as being persistent and cause significant impairment in multiple areas of functioning. One of the foremost traits of autism Diane possesses is that of info-dumping, a practice in which someone regurgitates as much information about a specific topic as they possibly know onto someone else in an unprompted manner at random parts of conversations throughout the run of the show. In season 1, episode 3 “Prickly-Muffin,” Diane goes on a tangent about her thoughts on Sarah Lynn, tying into her feminist views in general without understanding fundamentally that BoJack wasn’t meaning to ask for her actual opinion of Sarah Lynn; he was more trying to get Diane’s opinion of her being in his house (Bob-Waksberg). Another instance of this occurring would be in Season 3, Episode 7 “Stop the Presses.” This time, Diane goes on a tangent about her disastrous trip to work, which led her to be nearly 2 hours late. This event proceeds from a comment Princess Carolyn had made where the latter replies, “I’m hanging onto every word” (Bob-Waksberg). She says this in a sarcastic tone, which is implied to have flown over Diane’s head, as she responded to her literally. While these instances may seem innocuous at first glance, “deficits in social-emotional reciprocity…from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation” as outlined above is a rather important trait of autism (CDC). While this is still a noticeable way to indicate autism to an audience, the usage of how her traits are portrayed is visible enough to cause some people to consider it while not overriding who the character is fundamentally.

Diane’s link with the traits of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) doesn’t end there. She often misreads social situations and ends up spouting inappropriate conversation as a result of not understanding nonverbal behaviors. She exaggerates her facial reactions in situations that don’t necessarily warrant said expression, such as times when she’ll widen her eyes for no reason mid-conversation. While it's not expressly stated in the show whether or not it is something she does purposely, the intention of showcasing this behavior, in particular, could go either way. Either she's doing it as a result of years of masking, a process in which an autistic person attempts to conform to societal norms, or she’s just the type to make random faces from time to time. She also tends to have the opposite problem where her delivery of important information comes off as dry as a result of her lack of intonation and expression in her delivery. A good example of this would be how she responded to her co-worker (at the time), Guy, in the episode “Feel-Good Story.” He invites her over to his place to watch a game, and her tone while accepting the invitation is monotonous, even though you can tell she’s genuine in her delight (Bob-Waksberg). Diane’s also very prone to viewing situations logically by default, which often leads to negative reactions by others, best showcased by the time she alluded to the harassment she experienced as a result of some popular cheerleaders in high school who wrote “virgin slut” on her forehead. Her initial reaction to their harassment was to question how she could “be both a virgin and a slut at the same time", disregarding the elephant in the room of the fact that she was being harassed at all (Bob-Waksberg). She’s missing the social situation of what’s occurring then entirely, focusing more on the logical fallacy of the cheerleader’s statement rather than the fact that they were harassing her. Another example of this behavior occurring in the show would be when she first met Sonny and he talked about how his parents would get back together, as they’re secretly still in love after their divorce, whereas Diane’s initial reaction was to tell him that it wasn’t true because “[his parents] hated each other and fought all the time” (Bob-Waksberg). These traits would all constitute what the CDC labels “deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction,” but are done in a way where they don’t feel like a caricature. As a result of her tendency to read situations and respond literally, it feels as though it comes more naturally to the character, rather than feeling as if there are very specific beats that she needs to hit for the writers to feel as though they’ve accomplished autistic representation.

Diane furthermore largely dislikes social events as they make her uncomfortable because she often fundamentally doesn’t understand what to do and how they’re supposed to work. In that manner, Diane admits: “When you’re Diane, you can live your whole life like it’s a puzzle, put together from the pieces of different sets…your whole life is full of these pieces that don’t quite fit. But at some point, you start to think it’s you. You’re the piece that doesn’t quite fit” (Bob-Waksberg). This behavior of hers would constitute “Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example… difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts,” according to the CDC. Shown struggling to understand how people around her go about partying and/or socializing in general, it makes her feel like an outcast due to her innate differences. Moreover, her over analyzation of people and what they’re doing in certain situations to decode and then imitate such behaviors is a great example of when she described how she would simply observe and study how people interacted together at parties in the first episodes of the show (also directly linking to how she mimics her friend's unique behaviors unconsciously). Such as when she copied one of BoJack’s quirks in which he asserts his full identity over phone calls; “This is Diane by the way… Nguyen, obviously” (Bob-Waksberg). This further supports her tendency to try to adjust to her environment.

Whether she’s adjusting her glasses an unnecessary amount of times or she’s pushing her hair back over and over again, Diane tends to fidget around in a manner that would be seen as excessive and distracting from an outside perspective. She always seems a bit uncomfortable with conversations, especially when said conversations involve her communicating en masse with people, so as she’s interacting with others to calm herself, she’ll repeat certain motions. This falls under the diagnostic category of stereotyped/repetitive motor movements, repeating these actions as a form of soothing herself in uncomfortable situations一 also known as stimming.

“Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus” are a rather well-known autistic trait, and something that Diane exhibits in a wonderfully noticeable yet subtle way (CDC). She tends to develop obsessive interests in random things that can go unnoticed in the grand scheme of the show if not focused on, such as when she fixated on making the perfect grilled cheese when she first moved to LA, making them for every meal she ate at that point in her life until she had felt she perfected the recipe (Bob-Waksberg). This demonstrates how intensely focused she can become on a topic, and how willing she is to see the ideas she has through. Another would be her strong desire to help people and her fixation on change and fixing things, even when it comes to her detriment, such as when she took a very public stance against a celebrity in the show who’d been accused of sexual assault and continued to hold her ground even when she received several threats to her life for refusing to drop the allegations she made against him in the season 2 episode “Hank After Dark” (Bob-Waksberg).

While it’s clear that characters like Diane are autistic to an audience who are looking for these traits, they often fly over the heads of those who aren’t intending to view said characters as autistic, including creators. In trying to come up with a character that they deem as different from what would be considered socially acceptable, the media will often take inspiration from autistic traits, which creates a rather interesting result of good autistic representation. Unintentionally, the accidental combination of traits resulting in an accurate depiction of autism, such as those seen in Diane Nguyen, creates a clear dichotomy between characters with qualities forced into checking the boxes of CDC guidelines. These content creators, along with the characters born from simply recognizing autistic traits as common in society and innately human, deliver an accurate, relatable, and profound representation of a subgroup that is often dramatized and embellished in a manner that becomes inaccurate in modern media.

My Works Cited

“Diagnostic Criteria.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2 Nov. 2022, https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/hcp-dsm.html.

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, writer/creator. "Prickly-Muffin" BoJack Horseman, season 1, episode 3, The Tornante Company / Boxer vs. Raptor / ShadowMachine, 22 August 2014. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298932?trackId=14170289&tctx=2%2C0%2Ccd3cc07a-d98d-468c-8bc4-dfcb3ded2d58-331248819%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961-B9F225DDE3A711-3DF1649C24_p_1678406684315%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C70300800%2CVideo%3A70300800

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, writer/creator. "Stop the Presses" BoJack Horseman, season 3, episode 7, The Tornante Company / Boxer vs. Raptor / ShadowMachine, 22 July 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80073223?trackId=14170289&tctx=2%2C0%2Ccd3cc07a-d98d-468c-8bc4-dfcb3ded2d58-331248819%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961-B9F225DDE3A711-3DF1649C24_p_1678406684315%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C70300800%2CVideo%3A70300800

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, writer/creator. "Feel-Good Story" BoJack Horseman, season 6, episode 3, The Tornante Company / Boxer vs. Raptor / ShadowMachine, 31 January 2020. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/81026961?trackId=14170289&tctx=1%2C0%2C9a11e1d5-7da2-450e-8743-fc53e5b0bcb0-47084340%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961-B9F225DDE3A711-AE978428A7_p_1678524571926%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C70300800%2CVideo%3A70300800

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, writer/creator. "One Trick Pony" BoJack Horseman, season 1, episode 10, The Tornante Company / Boxer vs. Raptor / ShadowMachine, 22 August 2014. Netflix,https://www.netflix.com/watch/70298939?trackId=14170289&tctx=2%2C0%2Ccd3cc07a-d98d-468c-8bc4-dfcb3ded2d58-331248819%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961-B9F225DDE3A711-3DF1649C24_p_1678406684315%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C70300800%2CVideo%3A70300800

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, writer/creator. "Xerox of a Xerox" BoJack Horseman, season 6, episode 12, The Tornante Company / Boxer vs. Raptor / ShadowMachine, 31 January 2020. Netflix,https://www.netflix.com/watch/81026970?trackId=14170289&tctx=2%2C0%2Ccd3cc07a-d98d-468c-8bc4-dfcb3ded2d58-331248819%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961-B9F225DDE3A711-3DF1649C24_p_1678406684315%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C70300800%2CVideo%3A70300800

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, writer/creator. "Angela" BoJack Horseman, season 6, episode 14, The Tornante Company / Boxer vs. Raptor / ShadowMachine, 31 January 2020. Netflix,https://www.netflix.com/watch/81043629?trackId=14170289&tctx=2%2C0%2Ccd3cc07a-d98d-468c-8bc4-dfcb3ded2d58-331248819%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961-B9F225DDE3A711-3DF1649C24_p_1678406684315%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C70300800%2CVideo%3A70300800

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, writer/creator. "See Mr. Peanutbutter Run" BoJack Horseman, season 4, episode 1, The Tornante Company / Boxer vs. Raptor / ShadowMachine, 8 September 2017. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80117548?trackId=14170289&tctx=2%2C0%2Ccd3cc07a-d98d-468c-8bc4-dfcb3ded2d58-331248819%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961-B9F225DDE3A711-3DF1649C24_p_1678406684315%2C%2C%2C%2C%2C70300800%2CVideo%3A70300800

Bob-Waksberg, Raphael, writer/creator. "Hank After Dark" BoJack Horseman, season 2, episode 7, The Tornante Company / Boxer vs. Raptor / ShadowMachine, 17 July 2015. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/watch/80048082?trackId=14170289&tctx=1%2C0%2C9a11e1d5-7da2-450e-8743-fc53e5b0bcb0-47084340%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961-B9F225DDE3A711-AE978428A7_p_1678524571926%2CNES_BB936C03657FFA88767C5DAF178961_p_1678524571926%2C%2C%2C%2C70300800%2CVideo%3A70300800

#bojack diane #diane nguyen #bojack netflix #bjhm #actually autistic #autism #neurodivergent

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