About Sia's movie...

[ice bear Pronounshe/him/his]

i'm autistic.

(you might know me better as ice bear)

if you're not aware of the situation, sia directed a movie addressing "the subject" and it wasn't well received at all. For many, many reasons.

mainly for:

-working with autism speaks, an organization whose works involve supporting PARENTS of autistic people, and searching for some sort of "cure".

- casting a neurotypical actress to play the role of a stereotyped autistic person, and coercing the actress, maddie, because of their personal relationship.

- her unwillingness to listen to us when she decides to, unprovoked, "represent" us.

- having the movie be the least accessible possible for autistic people, with flashing lights and loud noises all around, which can be very harmful to us.

you might think that's all drama, but here's why this is important: it's an issue of representation of a community, of tokenizing our experiences to signal virtue, but not giving us any say in that, and in this aspect it's not different from racism, homophobia, misoginy and xenophobia when a person "doesn't mean to", when they say "i even have black friends myself"

one of the characteristics that divide us from the neurotypical world is exactly that: our literal voices, we struggle with that, and that's what we're being denied. on the spectrum of human diversity we are an easy kid to steal lunch money from. It's all so stressful and i feel i have my hands tied behind my back for defending who i am.

i don't want to be like "well you're neurotypical you wouldn't understand" but the feedback we've been getting from sia and team is "well you're autistic you wouldn't understand". how twisted is that?

last year we saw the motto "amplify black voices", and i think it's important we do just that for all minorities, so here's some autistic and disabled sources on the situation:

Spoiler

 

 

other channels from autistic and disabled people i follow:

https://youtube.com/c/TheAspieWorld

https://youtube.com/c/AutisticTyla

https://youtube.com/c/JessicaKellgrenFozard

they adress many things from therminology to explaining some actions from the community

plus if you'd like to help, there's this petition to take sia's nominations to a golden globe away

https://www.change.org/p/the-golden-globes-the-golden-globes-must-rescind-the-nomination-for-sia-s-ableist-movie-music

 

[blastertoyo Pronounshe/she/they/blaster]

On top of that it’s a horrible movie, horribly written.

The “autistic” character basically isn’t integral to the plot and could literally just have been a young girl and it would make 0 difference to the story. 
 

It’s honestly just a sorry excuse for Sia to make a long music video for Maddie to dance in 

the best part of the movie is Sia casting herself as a stuck up celebrity who transports drugs 

Edited February 21, 2021 by blastertoyo

[StormPulse Pronounshe/him]

I am autistic as well and even though these particular issues do not affect me, I find it baffling that the autistic girl portrayed sees the world through bright colors/lights and loud music and dancing, which are the most common big triggers for people higher up on the spectrum

It's baffling 

I have been to a treatment facility and several psych wards. They NEVER use physical restraints like that in the movie. If you are truly a danger, they might put you in an armlock and take you to a safe room with gym mats on the walls. Or at worst call the cops if you've hurt someone.

Truly shameful movie

Edited February 21, 2021 by StormPulse

[thetea]

i was confused as to why everyone was offended, until i did my own research and i agree with everyone who is offended. it's not really my place to speak on this, as I am not autistic but I've had many experiences with autistic people, my brother in laws sister is autistic and my mother has a degree and is trained to teach parents / teachers on how to correctly parent / teach special needs kids. The way they protrayed an "autistic" person was horrible and totally unnecessary. If they couldn't find an autistic actress/actor that would fit their requirements then they honestly shouldn't have done it. 

[Guest]

10 hours ago, thetea said:

If they couldn't find an autistic actress/actor that would fit their requirements then they honestly shouldn't have done it. 

They shouldnt have done it in the first place. they should've done a documentary with real people.

You cannot act autistic.

You either are or aren't.

[thetea]

1 hour ago, Monster said:

They shouldnt have done it in the first place. they should've done a documentary with real people.

You cannot act autistic.

You either are or aren't.

that's what i was saying.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, thetea said:

that's what i was saying.

Ik i was just adding more lol

[crazybadbich97 Pronounsshe]

i didn´t watch it cause I just heard it was bad so decided not too...Overall I am not that sold on sia generally so wasn´t intrested in the first place ...f- this bullshit 

[Joannesrats PronounsHe/Him]

I feel worse for the the Maddie girl being stuck in a contract with her, being forced to do this. 

[ProjectJoanne PronounsHe/Him]

It is SO disgusting! Sia even said through interviews that Maddie was uncomfortable acting the way she did and cried onset because she knew the way she was acting was wrong and people were gonna hate her for her role, but Sia told her she was never gonna let the happen... and now look what’s happening. There’s so much more wrong with this movie but this is another thing that I think people need to pay attention to as well, Sia basically peer pressured her into doing this movie :(

[blastertoyo Pronounshe/she/they/blaster]

21 hours ago, thetea said:

If they couldn't find an autistic actress/actor that would fit their requirements then they honestly shouldn't have done it. 

It’s like 

Don’t you just hate it when you can’t find a person with autism to portray your ✨specific ✨artistic ✨portrayal ✨of a person with autism 

Make it make sense 

Edited February 23, 2021 by blastertoyo

[Kattys Pronounsshe / her]

Thanks for posting this girl's video, it's good to watch and good summary on this topic.

[Musicisfreedom Pronounshe/him]

I have been a fan of Sia for like 10 years but I think this drew the line. Everything I've heard about this movie is just wrong on so many levels. I can't believe anyone thought this was a good idea.