Backlash for Sia Over Her Film Music
Sia has been recently criticized especially by the autism community for her insensitivity to their reality and challenges. This backlash has come in the wake of the thriller of her film music which featured a person without autism – Maddie Ziegler; playing the role of someone that has autism.
Why the Backlash?
The autism community and some public analysts are angered by the fact that the Australian pop singer did not make use of an autism actor or actress. For them, this sends the wrong message concerning the abilities of people living with this condition.
In response, Sia explained that she initially cast an autistic actress who found the role challenging. She stated that it was in light of this that she eventually made do with Maddie Ziegler who happens to have featured a lot in her performances.
Secondly, the annoyance also stems from the fact that the video has portions where restraints were used on the autistic character. For them, this sends the wrong message as regards how people living with this condition should be treated by the larger community. The fact that the video has been nominated for some awards is not making things any better.
Sia Promises to Readdress things
The Australian Pop singer did admit that the use of restraining scenes was wrong and apologized as a result. She warned her viewers and the entire public to avoid such tactics as it should be unheard of. Furthermore, she promised to remove those parts of the video when aired in public.
She meant this when she tweeted that she plans to “remove the restraint scenes from all future printings. I listened to the wrong people and that is my responsibility, my research was clearly not thorough enough, not wide enough”
She went on to infer how music was supposed to be a platform for social reengineering rather than sending the wrong message.