This is about Sia’s movie, “Music,” and the Autistic response to it with “Listen.”
The Movie, “Music” is a Mess
This is what happened: the singer Sia wanted to make a movie about Autistics. She didn’t cast an Autistic actor for the lead part, nor did she consult the Autistic community on the script or the story. Added to that, Sia lashed out and blew up at criticism and advice from the Autistic community regarding the inaccuracy of her film and the damage it would do to the Autistic community (see parts of the Twitter exchange between Sia and Autistics, linked here).
Read this article by Charlie Hancock at the Oxford Student, for some background, and this New York Times movie review on the quality of the film itself.
The Autistic community has created a response to “Music” in the form of, “Listen.”
It is below:
The Autistic community also created the most comprehensive toolkit I’ve ever seen. It has relevant blog posts, information, links to resources, better movies to watch and more. It’s a “must read” and also a “must-save”.
A wealth of information and resources FROM their perspective and BY them.
Click here for the toolkit, or the button below.
https%3A%2F%2Fsecureservercdn.net%2F166.62.108.22%2Fizh.66f.myftpupload.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F02%2FC1st-ASAN-AASR-MUSIC-Toolkit-021221-v2.pdf
PS
I don’t think highly of Kate Hudson, Leslie Odom Jr or Maddie Ziegler either. I can’t believe any of them thought this would be okay. In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Kate Hudson says that it’s important to have a “continuous conversation,” about representation (the interview is linked here) – and honestly? Would you say the same thing for blackface? Would you say you need to have a “continuous conversation” about a white person representing a black person? No? So, then.
Oh, but wait.
They DID do blackface in “Music” (more on this, linked here)
Meriah Nichols is a counselor. Solo mom to 3 (one with Down syndrome, one on the spectrum). Deaf, and neurodiverse herself, she’s a gardening nerd who loves cats, Star Trek, and takes her coffee hot and black.
