It was a week ago this morning that I sat down to watch Sia’s Music (2021). Much to my chagrin, the film was actually released to the general public. Despite months of controversy surrounding this movie, there was never a point where everyone decided to cut their losses and just shelf the movie forever. Now it’s out there and, as I can personally suggest, it’s not a good movie in the slightest. It is exactly why I spent last week promoting autism in media and doing what I could to raise awareness of neurodivergent perspectives. This can’t be the work that defines the spectrum. It’s not just a bad portrayal. It’s downright harmful.
At its core, my issue is how it disrespects the relationship between neurotypicals and neurodivergents. A moment that continues to frustrate me involves Ebo (Leslie Odom Jr.) suggesting that the young autistic girl Music (Maddie Ziegler) has the emotional intelligence of a drug addict. Ebo is sold as our moral compass despite being the one who encourages restraints during mental breakdowns, acting like he has insight despite being very condescending in these small ways. Given that Music as a character never builds or grows, only ever staring with her mouth agape and dancing in hallucinogenic musical numbers, it doesn’t do anything to refute this belief. I’m sure Sia meant this drug addict comparison as something empathetic, but all it does is suggest an inflicted damage, that she has chosen her condition and, like relapsing addict caretaker Kazu (Kate Hudson), can recover and become a better person. Music has one mode. You understand Ebo’s boxing class subplot a whole lot more than neurodivergence.
It is very frustrating.
There’s obviously so much more that is worthy of being explored. As someone who has only self-identified for two years, I don’t entirely feel comfortable being a spokesperson for representation. With that said, I’ve actively tried to educate myself on ASD culture and feel that my understanding has grown a little bit with each passing month. To be totally honest, I don’t know much about people who would be a realistic version of Music. I’m aware of the basic behaviors that come with being autistic, and it’s partially what I judge the film on. That, and my four film studies courses from college.
My fear was not how the autistic community would take this film. I know very well that they would hate it. The number of people I’ve seen on Tik Tok complain about the restraint scenes, fearing that they’re “cursed” as deadly behavior, is insurmountable. There has been so much discourse about Music’s failure as a film that I’ve even seen complaints about how Music picks up the phone during a dance sequence. Considering how offensive or bleak the rest is, that one makes me chuckle.
But I guess that I still had a fear that neurotypical people would respond differently. Given that The Golden Globes validated it with two Oscar nominations, I had this fear that the problems that were obvious to us were going to be overlooked. I think back to The Danish Girl (2015) and notice how I didn’t notice the problematic use of transgender characters until I read an essay by Sally Jane Black. I think back to Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and realize that my standards for good LGBT depiction differ greatly from Oscar voters. There’s basically room to believe that I’m too close to things, noticing what’s offensive because I live or know these stories. What’s obvious to me may not be so to the general public.
Which is to say that as much as the film is harmful, I sympathize with those who were attacked by Sia fans following the initial backlash. I never personally faced those issues. I only ever got into a brief spat over blackface controversies (yes, I know), but I did fear that the discourse would go sour. I still remember on Indiewire’s Facebook page having comments go on at length about their own personal ignorance. To summarize, I read comments that suggested “Neurodivergence? You Americans want a word for EVERYTHING.” There are others that suggested that autistic people are too sensitive or that they can’t act. While there were those fighting back, it’s still alarming how much is not understood.
The idea that being neurodivergent being a way to add useless labels felt like the most offensive comment I read. I know there’s worse, but again I ignored a lot of it because I didn’t spend my life being self-aware of it. In fact, I feel somewhat of an imposter to say that Rain Man (1988) was one of those films where I empathized in ways I hadn’t with too many other characters. I wouldn’t say I was him, but we shared something. With that said, the “good at math” stereotype has made me feel isolated more than anything. In fact, before I self-identified, I occasionally thought I had a catchall form of schizophrenia because of how weird I sometimes was. To me, the term autism has given me peace. It’s helped me understand these minor ways that I’m not actually alone. Following like-minded individuals has given me great comfort.
I sincerely doubt any person unaware of their ASD will watch Music and proudly be like “That’s me!” Part of it is solely due to inaccuracies and harm. However, I do feel like those who have been raised to see disabilities as “other” may find it easier to think that this is the way that things should be. If this film took off (it thankfully hasn’t yet), would this inspire like-minded representation? More than Sia encouraging behavior that has killed autistic people with restraints during meltdowns, would it make neurotypicals more likely to continue seeing us as something less than human, incapable of really understanding something resembling normal emotional intelligence?
To their credit, I’ve seen autistic YouTube creators reaching out with their own insight. Princess Aspien is personally boycotting the film. The Aspie World did a great video with Paige Layle about the film’s history and how even Sia’s apology isn’t enough. Given that she failed to add warnings to prints of her film about the restraint scenes, there is a sense of dishonesty that is hard to forgive. There’s even a whole movement called “Not about us without us” that pushes to have neurodivergent actors represent themselves. I knew that the autistic community would come out in force, but would everyone else listen?
Again, I can’t say that everyone is. Whether it’s those Facebook commenters or Sia fans bullying the community that is supposed to be represented, it’s important to remember that you can’t win them all. Still, I’ve been relieved to know that neurotypical audiences in my closer circles have at least suggested that the film is bad. Every review that I’ve read has highlighted the ways that the film is incompetently made, even addressing that this is a bad representation. I can’t say that they always gave the best insight, but they’re at least conversing in a healthy way. I love how it’s become culturally accepted that this film is just bad.
I suppose to some level I say it out of spite. After all, Sia once agreed that autism people are like wigs. She has a hero complex that is very frustrating. With that said, I’ve gone out of my way to engage with the conversation and it has been worthwhile to see everyone come to their own realization that this is wrong. This is not the right behavior. I can’t speak for if they notice every small way that it hurts (I for one don’t have the sensory issues that make the dance numbers problematic for some), but there’s at least the feeling that we’re reaching a turning point. People like Walter Chaw have publicly admitted that they need to do more research into neurodivergence because of how disagreeable this film ultimately is.
A LOT of credit should go to The Autisticats. In a now-viral thread, they laid out the dozens of ways that the film can be perceived as problematic. It starts simply enough with the exaggerated facial acting and dives into a whole host of issues. It’s a good primer for those who want to understand the various issues. There have been others, noticeably on Twitter and Tik Tok, who have laid out the film’s various problems, helping to raise awareness of boycotting it.
I’ll admit that it’s only been a week and it’s impossible to know what the long-term impact of a film is. However, the past week has been very encouraging. People have been listening, realizing the importance of representation. I don’t know if the film would’ve ever been a big hit, but it doesn’t feel like it’s had the cultural permeating that it wanted. If anything, it’s been roundly mocked. While I do worry that it leads to people watching it for the “so bad it’s good” reasons and not wanting to engage with a more productive conversation, it at least has started its life in the right direction.
More than anything, I’m also thankful to know that I’ve connected with so many great neurodivergent people online because of this film. We share general interests and it’s allowed us to have a more structured conversation about what representation should look like. We’ve discussed media that does a better job and it has been exciting to know that the conversation didn’t immediately die. I’ve been recommended films like X+Y (2014) as well as the TV series Atypical and Mark Haddon’s excellent book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.” If nothing else, I hope this past week has encouraged others to pursue like-minded perspectives.
On a side note, this inspired me to watch Please Stand By (2017) where Dakota Fanning played an autistic woman who writes fan fiction. I understand that it’s another case of neurotypical casting and that the story is a bit silly, but to me it’s a much more satisfying depiction of how autistics navigate an ableist world. It may be a bit schmaltzy at times, but I think it shows just how much of the spectrum is deserving of being explored.
Sure, many will continue to fight the good fight. It is annoying how many people have brought up What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) in the past week as being a film we should’ve fought against despite being 30 years old. It’s one of those annoying deflections that tries to take away from Music’s very present problems.
With that said, I also came across this great video by Jessica Kellgren-Fozard about autism representation that I think gives great insight into the good and bad.
My approach to dealing with Music’s controversy may be a bit controversial, especially since none of us want Sia to profit off of this. My goal is to find those who are seeing it and asking them to seek out neurodivergent perspectives. I want to believe that this film can be a chance to learn and grow. I’m sure some will have the opposite impact and not see the issues, but for those willing to listen, I hope they better understand the community. In the past week alone, it has felt that people with bigger voices than mine have done a great job with this argument.
I had to mention this because of how much fear I had going into this week. There was a chance that this just marginalized the autistic community and put the most vulnerable in harm’s way. Instead, I’ve noticed many reaching out and offering their advice. I frankly want to continue learning more about how people perceive this film, especially those with more support needs. I will confess that I am imperfect and have to constantly check if I’m using appropriate language. It’s still new to me. With that said, it’s been a relief to know that neurotypicals ARE listening, that they want to make a difference. Even if it’s not the conversation that Sia wanted, it ended up being a worthwhile chance to unite in better understanding of a world that deserves to be better represented. I hope we continue trying to get there.
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