Sia Furler, an Australian singer-songwriter and nine-time Grammy nominee, attempted to create an autism awareness film named ‘Music’ in January 2021 and received a lot of backlash due to the offensive stereotypes within the film and its disagreeable executive decisions. The movie stars Maddie Zeigler who plays the role of a girl named Music, a low functioning autistic teenager. Maddie has since come out and said she was ‘terrified’ to play the role but felt obliged to as she had significant ties to Sia.
Originally, Sia had cast an autistic actor but said that she found it “unpleasant and stressful". Sia has been accused of ableism on social media for casting a neurotypical actor in the role of a neurodivergent character, a situation all too common in the film industry. The environment and aspects of the film were also not comfortable for the original actor. This is clear as the film is full of loud noises and bright flashing lights, also making it inaccessible to neurodivergent viewers. Furler combatted this by, at first, responding to individual people, but ultimately ended up removing her Twitter account.
The film also received backlash due to the way autism is portrayed. Maddie’s facial expressions and general demeanour come across as mocking, as well as the overdramatization of autistic meltdowns. Although Sia claims to have done 3 years of research in order to create the film, for the most part, it comes across as ignorant and stereotyped.
Overall, music seems to be a money grab on Sia's part, with little care for the autistic community as it promotes the stereotype that autistic people are a burden (and it isn’t even sensory-friendly, so few autistic people are able to watch it).
What do you think?
By Isla Bellamy
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