Sia Still Doesn't Get Why Her Movie, Music, Got Huge Backlash For Being Ableist

[RAMROD 103,962]

The movie, which starred Maddie Ziegler in the titular nonverbal role, was met with considerable backlash from the moment its trailer was released. The movie itself was further called ableist and has a 7% on Rotten Tomatoes, with one review calling it "offensive and poorly judged."

One of the major points of criticism was over Maddie's casting, rather than an autistic actor. It reached the point where Sia even responded to one autistic actor who accused the movie of making "zero effort to include" people with autism by writing,

Sia did say that she "actually tried working with a beautiful young girl, nonverbal on the spectrum, and she found it unpleasant and stressful."

As Alaina Leary wrote for Bitch Media, "The implication is that a nonspeaking autistic actor who might require accommodations on set is, in essence, incapable—thus reinforcing ableist ideas that already lock out such performers. By contrast, one of the main characters in the 2020 Pixar short Loop is a nonverbal girl of color played by Madison Brandy, an autistic teenager who is mostly nonspeaking, which shows that casting nonspeaking actors can be done well and that it’s possible to make set accessible to neurodiverse actors."

After revealing earlier this year that she was diagnosed with ASD, Sia spoke about Music in an interviewwith Zane Lowe. "It took me 20 years to make that movie. I wrote the music and wrote the film with my friend, and it took me 20 years of thinking about it and then five, six years to make it and then edit it. And then I got into a stupid Twitter spat with somebody autistic," she began.

"Of course, when it comes out that I was just speaking to a peer, oh the irony! It was so interesting," she continued, going on to attribute the online "negativity" to QAnon, Reddit, and algorithms. "I thought it was my fans and that they hated me, that they had turned against me. But actually, it was people pretending to be my fans that turned against me."

"When I look back on it, it wasn't really real. It never affected my music business — it affected the movie, like I got a Golden Globe nomination and they sent a petition trying to get it taken away from me. So that was heartbreaking, but ****, I got a Golden Globe nomination!"

Zane then affirmed that "the movie will forever exist" and said that people will view it differently with "time." Sia agreed and said, "I think it will have a little renaissance, that would be really nice."

Here's the thing: Sia and Zane chalking criticism of Music to Twitter nonsense over Sia's own neurodivergence feels willfully ignorant at best. Regardless of whether or not Sia responded to an autistic actor like an "arsehole," it doesn't change the fact that a neurotypical actor played a role that numerous people, professional critics included, deemed offensive, stereotypical, and even harmful.

Many journalists who reviewed the film are also autistic themselves.  

Autism Speaks was involved with the movie, an organization that many autistic people have long criticized — from the way they speak about autism to the way they spend their money. Sia said at the time that she had "no idea it was such a polarizing group."

On the note of harm, the movie shows the use of prone restraints, a sometimes-deadly technique that has been used to restrain autistic people. While Sia said that she would ensure that the scenes were removed and a warning was added, the scenes are still present in at least the Amazon Prime version. "I am not [hurting her], I am crushing her with my love," Leslie Odom Jr.'s Ebo says while restraining Music. Numerous autistic children have died from prone restraints.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/sia-music-autism-diagnosis

https://music.apple.com/us/room/6446958645

https://youtu.be/fkDg0D9Oy5A?si=s7-ridQIz3-HrPGt

 

[bionic 41,678]

3 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

she continued, going on to attribute the online "negativity" to QAnon, Reddit, and algorithms. "I thought it was my fans and that they hated me, that they had turned against me. But actually, it was people pretending to be my fans that turned against me."

This shows that she

A) wasn't really reading the critiques at all, and

B) hasn't learned from them

It's giving

[River 104,537]

The ego is as big as her wig..

[VTV 12,447]

As much as I love my girl Sia, I know she is not gonna be the same pre-Hollywood. She must still have some grounded friends who can tell her what she's doing wrong and not echo chambers.

[Future Lovers 6,432]

And she never will get it because her ego refuses to allow her to even consider she was wrong

[weed 70,882]

3 hours ago, RAMROD said:

Sia did say that she "actually tried working with a beautiful young girl, nonverbal on the spectrum, and she found it unpleasant and stressful."

inb4 Sia was the one who found it unpleasant and stressful

[Gohan 16,088]

5 hours ago, bionic said:

 

It's giving

This picture screams Doja Cat and Sia lmaooo

[Controversiaga 9,219]

This is embarrassing 

[hELXIG 41,549]

OH now I remember why she mostly disappeared from the popular scene

[Better Day 5,766]

I’ll never understand why she support theft over an artist owning their masters 

[Ziggy 10,723]

Honestly not much more to say than f*** off and good riddance I hope your stuff flops. Especially after that sh!t recently about how oh she’s on the spectrum but getting treatment. F*** so far off. Just so much ignorance and ego for someone who spent how long locked in Beyoncé’s basement. Kylie minogue really is like one of the only Australian celeb/famous people who isn’t like violently backwards??? You have that deranged CEO the other day talking about the arrogance of workers, Rupert Murdoch in general, and now her a$$. Like I’ll cop to America being messed up and awful in its own way but damn Australian rich folk give us a run for our money in sheer bs they’ll say full chest

[Red 94,198]

I volunteer to draw it for her

[Ultimecia 6,025]

That woman is a gigantic piece of ****.

[nATAH 42,134]

and this is why, as an autistic individual, i will never forgive her

[RichAssPiss 4,686]

This is a big yikes. At the very least you can say, "I thought I did my research, but realized there were other perspectives out there. This is a very complex issue, and I am listening." Not "the people who didn't like it were just trolls."