Is it me or is SIA movie 'Music' depiction of Autism HIGHLY offensive?!

[Mum2prince]

Ive just seen the trailer in YouTube, ive yet to research more about what in earth possesed this woman to cast maddie ziegler a NT person to play the role of a young autistic girl.

I am gobsmacked at all the stereotypes the have used to depict autism and i honestly felt horrible watching it. As someone who was concerned my ds may have asd, this is exactly the type of representation i did not like. Regardless of how much info about asd is out there and the awareness raises, there is still a large group of people who do not fully understand Autism and this movie makes things worse imo.

The icing on the cake is the movie trailer is a sensory overload for me, let alone someone neurodiverse who may want to watch it. Bright colours, flashing lights and breaking out into song regularly. Yikes.

AIBU?

*EDIT - Just watched and interview Sia did and she used offensive words like "low functioning" and even claimed she had an original Autistic girl cast for the role but she couldn't handle it. What?!

I wonder how many saying YABU are autistic because I am and in the communities I am in I would guess 90 % think it's awful, as is SIA's interactions with the autistic community. She has shown herself to be as ableist and vile as the film.

@Branleuse

Has anyone here seen it?

My daughter has. I’ve seen excerpts.

SIA lives with chronic pain and has EDS. A disorder with very close connections to autism. Its interesting that someone here has described her as intellectually challenged and lacking emotional maturity

My DD has aspergers she thinks it is a disgusting portrayal.

Yes, Leslie Odom Jrs character is also problematic. The only black character in the film is from a backwards village and has AIDS. Really?

Although many autistic people have EDS the condition on its own is NOTHING like autism.

@Branleuse

Has anyone here seen it?

I have, I didn't find it very good but have no problem with maddie ziegler playing the lead.

I mean im not saying its a great film. Ive only seen the trailer myself so dont feel qualified to have a proper opinion on it, and reluctant to spend £8 in case it really is shit, but i dunno, its had so much publicity now that its tempting

To add I think SIA is a genius in the music industry she may have messed up here. I haven't seen it, it doesn't interest me I don't think I'd watch it but I love her music.

I’m autistic. I can’t bring myself to give a fuck about this.

It is probably a good thing to see the meltdowns lots of people believe autism is just quirks traits and routine.
I might watch it now.

Haven’t seen it, probably won’t.

But I do find it interesting that there’s such condemnation generally about representation of non-verbal autistic people. I think there’s a lot of autistic people who would rather pretend that non-verbal autistic people (like my children, or the children they go to school with - boys and girls) didn’t exist. Their existence is quite inconvenient to some it seems.

I don’t agree in the slightest that there’s no representation of those who are not so profoundly impacted by their autism. I see and read content from them all the time. Who’s speaking for those who can’t speak (or right or otherwise communicate) for themselves?

If you’re a low-functioning autistic person it means that you don’t function well at day to day tasks.
Therefore you will not be capable of representing yourself on autistic forums or advocacy groups.
Therefore these groups do not represent all autistic people. Nor even a majority.

What do you mean by cancel? Pulled from the stores?

I think that's too extreme tbh, I wasn't a fan of the movie just wasn't my taste but I watched it and think others should have that opportunity if they want to, and those that don't shouldn't watch or pay for it.

I don’t have an issue with an actor who isn’t on the spectrum playing someone who is- many actors have done powerful, amazing performances of people who have medical or neurological issues. But. This isn’t one of them, it seems. It doesn’t sound like there’s been proper research into ASD, people who live with it etc and that really is the minimum you should do when you produce or star in a film/tv show about a subject you know very little about in my opinion.

@Justanotherlurker

This is a disclaimer, I am sorry if I've offended anyone with the wording if my thread. Its not my intention, my aim is to actually educate myself by hearing others opinions and people who are affected by this first hand.

So you thought you could jump on the offended bandwagon first and get the imaginary patts on the back, this thread wasn;t to educate yourself, it was you thinking you was ahead because you are part of the 'Terminally Online' crowd, you wanted approval after just watching the trailer and reading a few tweets.

These type of threads is why MN has the wider internet reputation as it does.

Wow some people on here are delusional! And by in here I mean on MN but thats a whole other thread.

@justanotherlurker i was apologising for the WORDING of my thread, i was unsure the correct term when saying autistic girl or girl with autism.

I have no idea what utter rubbish ur spouting i won't bother disect it.

@Santosug yes cancelled in every way possible. May seem extreme to you, but i feel its justified. So many individuals on the spectrum are disgusted by it. Im willing to support them

A group of non-speaking autistic people made a short film partly in response to Sia’s (offensive) film, it’s called LISTEN. m.youtube.com/watch?v=H7dca7U7GI8&feature=youtu.be

It's ridiculous to cancel something you haven't watched or to "cancel" arts at all, if you want to support those people who don't like it just don't pay money towards it.
It can't be cancelled anyway, it's digitally available to buy so past that point now.

I don't know about the movie, but the whole Sia/Maddie relationship gives me the creeps.

The film also depicts a very dangerous restraint technique, which was recently responsible for the death of a teenager in America, as a positive

I better pay to see it then if its gonna get cancelled soon.