I'm an Autistic Woman, and Bones Is the Only Character Like Me on TV

However, there’s one big difference between us: Bones is never diagnosed on the show, even though she has significant problems with social interactions and displays repetitive or obsessive behaviors—the main characteristics of ASD. In an interview, Hart Hansen, the creator of the show, admitted that he based Bones on a friend with Asperger’s syndrome (which is now diagnosed as ASD). But, according to him, Fox never came out and said this because the broadcast network was hoping the show would appeal to a larger audience. Deschanel has also said that her “character almost has Asperger’s syndrome.”

A few years after Bones became an established show, Hansen said he considered a storyline in which Bones explores the possibility of having Asperger’s syndrome, but this never came to be. It's disappointing. If popular TV shows that portray highly likable characters with autistic traits (like Bones or Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory) were also willing to diagnose them, they could help destigmatize autism by acknowledging that these characters are on the spectrum.

But even without a diagnosis, Bones is an important role model for women on the spectrum because a lot of people assume that autism, especially on the high end of the spectrum, is a male disorder. The gender ratio is believed to be as high as 10 males for every one female. Because autism is often expressed differently in women than in men, a lot of women go undiagnosed, or, even worse, they are misdiagnosed. According to one study, women are better at masking their autistic traits, especially their difficulty with social communication, compared with men on the spectrum. I unknowingly hid my autism until I got my own ASD diagnosis in my late thirties.

Bones is also an important role model because she's not a one-note character. By the end of the series, she demonstrates how much she's improved her ability to empathize. In the show she normally serves as a forensic anthropology expert witness at trials, but at the end of season 12, she unexpectedly provides the closing testimony for her former intern and friend, speaking about his good character, and he's exonerated of a murder charge.

Like Bones, I too am becoming more flexible in my views, seeing the world without relying only on logic. I’m also learning how to be more comfortable in my social environment by making more of an effort to initiate conversations. I can even laugh when I miss my husband’s unrelenting attempts to fool me with sarcasm.

But now that Bones is ending, television needs more role models like her. In order to destigmatize autism, we need to see women who are on the spectrum, especially those who unknowingly hid their autism, as I did.

The Bones series finale airs tonight, March 28, at 9:00 P.M. ET.

Jennifer Malia is an English professor at Norfolk State University who is writing a memoir about her travels around the world as an autistic woman.

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