TW: Ableism, Racism, and blackface/blackfishing
It seems like it was just yesterday when we were all singing “Snowman” by Sia on Tiktok, basking in the holiday music–while hoping that she would stop the production of her then-upcoming film Music of course. Alas, Music has officially been released this month, and has even been nominated for two Golden Globes. The story is inherently ableist and also surprised audiences with scenes of blatant racism. Here, I summarize Sia’s cancellation and provide links to insightful posts from folks in the disabled community. Most of the information for this post comes from the twitter account @autisticats and their review of the film. They reviewed the film so that no one else has to watch it and Sia won’t be supported. Also, keep in mind that this is by no means the first instance in which a non-neurodivergent actor has played a neurodivergent character. With that said, let’s talk about Music!
1. Maddie Ziegler was chosen to play the main character, a young girl with autism. Maddie, however, is not autistic. Her facial expressions and movements are ingenuine and mock the autistic community’s behavior. Further, the movie is inaccessible to audiences on the autism spectrum due to, for example, scenes with harsh, flashing lights.
2. Sia defended her choice to cast Maddie as the main character and she attacked members of the autism community through her tweets. Initially, Sia casted a young girl who had autism, but she changed her mind because she didn’t want to make the filming process more accessible to the actress. The autism community asked Sia why she didn’t cast another person with autism instead of Maddie, which made her lash out.
3. Sia also admitted in an interview that Maddie would stop during the filming process to cry because she didn’t want to play the role. Sia laughed about this and would try to console Maddie so they could continue filming. Many twitter users say that Maddie was contractually obligated to play the role, however Maddie has not yet commented on this.
4. Audiences were shocked at Sia choosing to make Maddie do blackface and/or blackfishing while mimicking a neurodivergent person. The video below shows this scene.
Resources and Posts from people in the autism community: Of course, I highly recommend checking out more of @autisticats tweets. I would also recommend @crutches_and_spice on Instagram to learn more about the disabled community. Lastly, here are some movie recommendations from @KestonTheo which depict autism in a more accurate manner.
Thank you for reading this post, and I hope that it will help you identify ableism in the future! I am new to discourse in the disabled community, so please leave a comment if you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns for me.
The Waterhole 
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