“It is not representation, it is not informative and it is not useful.”
The film follows a newly sober woman, played by Kate Hudson, who becomes the guardian of her stepsister, Music, who is autistic. The song is played by Sia’s longtime collaborator, dancer Maddie Ziegler.
As soon as the trailer was released in November, it generated a significant reaction by casting a neurotypical actor (Ziegler) to play someone with autism:
@Sia @leslieodomjr @maddieziegler This is totally unacceptable and there is no excuse, you should know better than allowing individuals and neurotypes to represent the disabled community. It is incredibly offensive, as is the character’s childishness. Seasick. And not even subtitled. Do not release this.
Sia responded to the reaction, saying, “Actually, I tried to work with a beautiful, non-verbal young woman on the spectrum, and she found it unpleasant and stressful. That’s why I chose Maddie.”
Some people called Sia, saying, “We all said that we could have acted in the short term. These excuses are just that – excuses. The fact is that no effort was made to include anyone who was really autistic.” Sia replied with this:
Earlier this month, more reaction followed after a scene leaked, showing Ziegler’s character being kept under control:
@Sia A terribly strange “love letter” to promote restrictions that literally killed autistic people …
Sia ended up deleting her Twitter account after this wave of reaction.
Well, now that the controversial film has been released, criticisms from critics, the autism community and others have been released, and well, not great.
One person drew attention to the offensive portrayal of the film of self-stimulating behavior, or “stimming”.
I said a lot about how horrible this movie is and how disgusting Asia is for doing it, but that really sucks. I’ve always been self-aware of the way I move my hands to the music when I’m gesturing or trying to stay calm and it makes me feel like an aberration. https://t.co/htYWkqSyej
the way sia’s film “portrays” autistic stimulation literally looks like the way bullies at school make fun of autistic people. it is not representation, it is not informative and it is not useful. It’s disgusting. she claims to have educated herself about autism, of course she doesn’t
This person had a few words to describe the film:
I’m so happy to see topics about Sia’s “Music” going viral. It’s just a vile, shitty, capable, trashy movie, and people need to know that. I doubt that this will do much in the long term in relation to the disability / autism representative (this conversation has happened so much …), but I will stay with her for now.
But yes, in general, the film was totally badly received:
Oh my God, “Music” is SO VERY BAD. She thought THIS was a “love letter” She thought THIS was “a voice for the voiceless?” I feel physically ill, I am on the verge of tears. Is this REALLY how the world sees us? Fuck Sia and her disgusting “autism” film. Cum.
@ThatRangeThoGRZ / Twitter: @ThatRangeThoGRZ
I am beyond disappointed. Really disgusted. She obviously didn’t do any research on autism, nor did she think, hey, maybe I should really hire someone who is autistic to do the part. That was a terrible representation of autism. The film Sia, Music, is garbage. https://t.co/ohNcHEXeOZ
And according to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film so far has a rating of 17%, which is considered “rotten”.
Vertical entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection / Rotten Tomatoes / Via rottentomatoes.com
Although Sia’s Twitter is still disabled, we’ll keep an eye out if she comes back and responds to criticism and then updates it.
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