Talk of the "Law and Order SVU" episode entitled "Calculated"
I need input from Autistic folks and Intellectually Disabled folks.
I'm working on an article about an episode of Law and Order SVU (it'll hopefully be a bonus article tomorrow) and I need thoughts/opinions/input.
To summarize the episode: the team are trying to arrest 50 child predators. They do this by chatting to these predators on a game for children and getting them to meet (who they think is) a child with condoms at a hotel.
When a team member is talking to someone on the game, she says it feels like she's talking to an actual child. (They even show this person asking what condoms are when the team member tells them to bring them.)
The person is later revealed to be disabled. (Which the team member could apparently tell by just looking at him.)
(This adds to the infantilization of disabled people, I know. I don't need input on that.)
Someone says his file says he (quote) "has the cognition of a 5th grader" (end quote)
First of all, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like "cognition" is not even the correct word for what they're trying to say. (Which, in my opinion, is even though he's 32 and brought condoms, he has the (quote unquote) "mental age" (for lack of a better word or term) of a 5th grader so he couldn't have had the intent of being a predator.)
Second of all, the actor himself has high functioning Autism. (I know that's not an overall preferred label but it's on IMDb so if that's how he identifies, I don't want to be disrespectful.)
So would you call this casting choice authentic or inauthentic representation?
It is never said what disability or disabilities the character has.
