Sia continues to come under fire for her directorial debut in new film Music, with over 45,000 people having signed a petition asking the Hollywood Foreign Press to remove all of its Golden Globe nominations.
ICYMI, Sia came under fire when it was revealed Maddie Ziegler, who is neurotypical, would be playing a character with autism. Upon the film’s release, that criticism multiplied tenfold when those living with autism saw how it was portrayed.
In particular, a scene in Music depicts Ziegler’s character being subjected to prone restraint, which is a commonly opposed practice that can sometimes be lethal.
The film is nominated for two Golden Globe awards at the forthcoming ceremony – ‘Best Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy’ and ‘Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy’ for Kate Hudson.
The Change.org campaign asking for the rescindment of the two nominations cites the film as “severely ableist” and says it “contributes to harmful stereotypes of autistic people.” At the time of writing, it has over 48,000 signatures.
“The fact that ‘Music’ has been nominated for two Golden Globes awards illustrates the complete disregard the entire entertainment industry has for inclusivity and minority representation,” the petition’s creators, Rosanna Kataja and Nina Skov Jensen, wrote in the description.
“It will only use autism as inspirational porn to make neurotypicals feel good about their supposed ‘superiority’.”
For what it’s worth, Sia apologised for her mistakes while making and promoting the film, admitting that she hadn’t done enough research.
“I’m sorry,” she had tweeted from her now deleted Twitter account.
“I plan 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.”
View Kataja and Jensen’s petition here.
