[QUOTE 3933512, member: 45"]Rainman wasn't great for autism to be honest. It was based on a bloke who wasn't "typically" autistic, and has led to many an assumption that autism is some kind of gift.[/QUOTE]
Yup... but it's not just Rainman, it's all the 'gifted' autistic stories the news gives us. A close friend has an autistic son and is often asked if the lad can draw highly detailed pictures really quickly or has any other autistic super power.
I guess it's 'our' fault for stereotyping. 'we' see a film called Rainman, or read an article about the autistic guy drawing huge accurate cityscapes from memory, or mastering the etch-a-scetch and think... well... 'we' don't think, that's the problem (and another topic).