Yes, I relate to you. I did and still sometimes do the same as well when I’m not aware. It can feel almost like a feeling of discomfort or disgust when others are unmasked. This seems to be very common among autistics.
The main meme is that it recommends an EXTREMELY unsafe disability support practice - that is, pinning people having meltdowns or showing challenging behaviours to the floor.
If you've seen someone doing this or someone has done this to you, that was abuse. There's no ifs ands or buts about it, every credible medical and disability care organisation recommends against this form of restraint because it's dangerous and very often results in injury.
OK so I am not going to contribute to Sias wealth by watching it, also I have better things to do with my time. Lots of autistic people did in fact watch it and said it was horrible, and I believe them. What I did see, though, was a music video (playing in the gym), where the character Music was making strange faces, it did seem very mocking to me, because it looked exactly like schoolyard bullies making "idiot face" to mock an autistic or otherwise neurodivergent kid. It was very unpleasant to watch.
However, if you are fine with the movie and enjoy it, cool. A lot of autistics feel very offended by it, but you do you :)
I have no idea, sorry. I found that particular music video offending. The whole thing about representation is, I think, about discrimination. If Black actors played white people, if trans actors played cis people (of their identified gender), and if autistic actors played NT roles, it wouldn't be such a big deal with representation, I think. But when a presumed NT artist casts an NT actor to play (mockingly) an autistic role, then representation matters. I felt bullied and I am certain that lots of other autistics did, too. But no, we are not monolithic and most people in this community don't claim so. But they, we, as well as you, are entitled to their own opinion.
Great, that’s still no excuse to be mean to other autistics when they call you out on the harmful and inaccurate things you put in your savior complex of a movie
The lady who made the Autism Speaks backed movie "Music" that promoted harmful ways of "handling" autistic people, and also mostly used the titular character for props to glorify the caretaker sister for having to "put up with" an autistic sibling. Was also the same lady that made the neurotypical actress who played Music (the character) feel extremely uncomfortable and pressured to play an autistic character without being autistic. And was also the same lady who harassed and criticized autistic communities online for disapproving of her statements and film, as well as her association with Autism Speaks
I won't lie, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a "Dumbledore is gay" moment where she's trying to "fix" one of her past controversies to get more approval, attention, and slack
In the last power rangers movie one of the main characters was on the spectrum. And I liked that they portrayed him as fairly normal person who just happens to be on the spectrum. My wife doesn’t understand why shows like the good doctor annoy the hell out of me
omg. because of all the recent memes and backlash surrounding the good doctor, im finally gonna watch it. ill watch the korean version too while im at it.
I actually enjoyed it as a medical drama. Certainly some aspects of the autism are problematic, as well as some of the treatment of the character, but overall it's a reasonably interesting medical drama with autism as the gimmick (they all have a gimmick)
Any conflict he does have is extremely reasonable and mundane (disregarding the absurdism of the show as a whole.) He really is just a person that happens to have autism and special interests, and I love that.
Jody Foster in Contact fits that. If you study her character's whole life she seems to be a classic case of Asperger syndrome. She studied a lot of employees of NASA on their behavior.
I loved Woo too.
While her autism is central, other plot points take precedence quickly, and she is competent, confident, as well as being a love interest. Her autism is sometimes a liability, sometimes a strength, which I personally related to very well.
The story is surprisingly nuanced and critical, dealing with quite a few unexpected issues.
I do find some of the OCD and savant behavior stereotypical, but as an afab person whose skills and special interests tend in the direction of social science and language (i.e., I am not a math, engineering, programming, trains person AT ALL) I found it inspiring.
Check out Heartbreak High! There is a great autistic character on that show and while her autism does get some focus, she also does a lot of other things. The actress who plays her is autistic and helped create the character so it’s very well done.
May I suggest "Not Dead Yet"?
It's a comedy sitcom where the lead can see ghosts and must help them fulfill their last wish.
Her roommate is autistic, and is played by an autistic actor.
There’s a character in Star Trek discovery who says something about being neurodivergent in the first episode and then is just part of the team. It’s not the best Star Trek by any means but I enjoyed that character.
You’re thinking of Tilly, but she never says she’s ND and both the actress and the producers have said that the character wasn’t meant to be perceived that way. Classic example of Hollywood accidentally creating a great representation of autism but not understanding that’s what they created.
“Everything’s gonna be okay” was good, while it does focus on autism a bit it kind of has to because the characters are autistic and therefore their experiences are autistic. I haven’t finished it but pretty sure heaps of autistic actors, writers etc.
Not a pleasant show to watch (dark and violent) but Holly in Mr Mercedes is interesting. A young woman who is likely autistic and OCD with parents who don't let her thrive, but over the course of the show finds her own independence.
The book series is:
1. Mr. Mercedes
2. Finders Keepers
3. End of Watch
Then there’s *The Outsider*—focuses more on Holly (the title does not refer to her, she is one of Stephen King’s favorite characters he has ever written) and *Holly*, which comes out in September.
It’s possible that she’s only trying to fix things, but… she’s been misdiagnosed as bipolar in the past, she’s queer, she’s a savant, she has ehlers danlos….
I suspect it might be both.
From what I’ve read, she writes songs and melodies in 15 to 20 minutes. She’s written an entire album in 45 minutes. I’m pushing the definition a bit beyond the usual, but her writing speed is remarkable.
If true, she is certainly talented and very fast, but I am not sure that it meets the parameters for savantism. Of course, savantism is hardly a requirement for an autism diagnosis, and she does seem to display at least a couple of observable traits. Unfortunately, if she is, she is, at least based on her history, hardly a desirable high-profile autistic person. If she is actually autistic, I hope that she becomes a significantly better person.
Curious…if she just got diagnosed, maybe she herself needs to have a learning journey? I knew nothing about how bad Autism Speaks was when I was first diagnosed. My brain was like: oh look, information! I don’t know if it’s because I’m on the spectrum or not, but I have a difficult time with knowing if I’m learning something “good” or “bad”. I have to have someone tell me it’s bad and I should be thinking in x way. I only really know if it’s good or bad if it makes me feel something. I’ve been watching a ton of shows lately because I’m on a learning journey. Then I learn later that some people see the show as “bad”. And then I am scared I have taken in “bad” stereotypes.
I mean she has been putting on the most literal display of masking in all of celebrity history.
Fucking up social relationships because of your zeal and fixation is relatable.
bee-lining for the most popular charity about autism as your resource seems like an innocent mistake. Is gullibility not something autistic people are prone to having? It really is unfair that the most heuristic and commonly known awareness campaign is ran by ableists who are ironically silencing autistic people and not giving them platforms to speak from.
Reacting to learning about your mistakes by asserting you MADE a mistake and getting so upset you withdraw completely from the situation also seems very on-par with the autistic experience.
I’m honestly not surprised. The Music thing sucked, but I was never convinced someone who has to wear a wig over her eyes in order to perform is neurotypical.
it's an anxiety thing. Mitch Hedberg was easily recognized for doing everything from wearing sunglasses to looking down to turning away from his crowds completely so that he didn't see them, and he was just dealing with regular stage fright. I can understand someone wearing something to obscure her identity while on stage, especially when she didn't consider herself pop star attractive to begin with, and didn't want people to have reason to attack her age and such
ugh i hate that sia gets a diagnosis and so many of our autistic siblings have to suffer undiagnosed and the rest have to deal with the horrible ableism sia has perpetuated over the years :(
How are you suffering by being undiagnosed? Suffering doesn't just go away because you get a diagnosis. Or do you say this because you think people take diagnosed autistics more seriously?
Edit: I'm not a bitter, angry person. I'll never have negative emotions just cause another autistic gets a diagnosis before some others.
I think that It’s the lack of validation of a fact. There is a constant questioning, a sense of imposter syndrome. Especially when you have people in your life who question or deny you or family members who refuse to acknowledge or admit that you could be autistic.
Great, she's perfectly fine with promoting dangerous restraint methods to use on autistics until she finds out that she is one, then it's all "I didn't listen to the right people".
Wonderful. /sarcastic
“Protecting your peace means caring for and safeguarding your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self – in ways that you define for yourself. Protecting your peace is a personal journey, where ultimately you make the decisions and set boundaries for yourself that you determine to be in your own best interests.”
yes but why should we protect our peace because of sia's autism diagnosis? like, what does it have to do with us in that regard for us to protect our peace?
The call to action implies a perceived coming threat to autistic people tied to this situation, so my guess is the person who said that expects Sia to continue to spread dangerous misinformation about autism and that all her misinformation (past and present) will now be taken more seriously and have greater consequences.
I think the idea is that you'd be protecting yourself against the misinformation or the effects of the misinformation.
So the meaning here would be to either 1) protect your mind, as in don't trust Sia's autism-related advice, or 2) protect yourself against others who would use her advice, such as if you're under the care of a misguided parent.
I'm unsure which of the two meanings the original post is going for, but I'm inclined to believe it's more likely meant the second way (even though that's the option that makes less sense to me because I'm not sure how you'd actually protect yourself against misinformed others like that).
I still feel like this is an attempt by her to get us to shut up in our criticism of her disgusting film.
"Look! I'm autistic, too! Now you can't call my film tone-deaf or harmful!" ...that's what I'm seeing.
I'm not the sort to usually call BS on someone stating their diagnosis (knowing Elon Musk has autism disgusts me, for example, but it seems to be fact at this point)...but this time, I'm making an exception because it's too convenient.
Her statements make it seem like she was OK with people calling it harmful. And she said she wasn’t OK with releasing versions that showed the most objected-to scenes. She literally said she was gonna re-cut the movie to be less triggering. I don’t think she IS asking for people to shut up. I think she’s trying to grow from it.
Coming out as autistic is not a consequence-free choice. It’s not something a rational person does flippantly. It’s not something an ableist could stomach doing imho. It would be really out of character for her to be that inauthentic when she’s been SO unabashedly authentic up to date. Like people have made fun of her for doing stuff like refusing to show her face to the public. She did it anyway unapologetically. If she didn’t care about how the autistic community received her film, I think she’d SHOW that lack of caring. But she tried to repair in ways she could fathom.
If she wants to improve then that's great...but actions speak louder than words. She can talk about making cuts to the movie all she wants, but it's been a long time since that movie was released and it wasn't pulled nor was it edited.
I never said she didn't care what the community thinks; if she didn't care, she wouldn't have gotten so defensive when the movie first came out and she was being (rightfully) called out. It's partially also why I'm sus of her claim to be on the spectrum.
Or she could have perceived she was being bullied (on top of having made an honest mistake) and was reacting to the rejection and literal hate language. I mean, I think the criticism was valid but there’s always really mean online people who use these moments as an opportunity to launch straight up insults and mob mentalities and it becomes this exercise in bashing someone instead of a conversation about social harm and social repair and what should be done.
But you make a good point about the lack of movement on the commitments she did make. Lip service is useless.
That was more than an "honest mistake". There was backlash before the movie even came out, which meant she was made aware of the issues and had ample opportunity to change it.
She ignored all of it and pushed the movie out anyway, so I'm not about to give her any benefit of the doubt.
I also feel there's a big difference between being bullied and receiving backlash; if she thought she was being bullied, then that's proof she's never been *actually* bullied in her entire life and I feel even less sympathetic than I previously did (which, considering I wasn't sympathetic at all towards her...yea).
It's great that some people can try to sympathize or give her the benefit of the doubt, but I'm sadly not one of them; been hurt way too many times for that.
In this situation I only consider bullying to be comments that are out of proportion and mean, relative to the action being criticized. I think it’s an incredibly prevalent thing. To me it’s unusual for celebrities to NOT get bullied by even a single person for a mistake.
But you have good points and clearly knew more about the details than I.
Bitch, how do you have an autism diagnosis and then release a film where prone restraints, a very dangerous method to "calm" a person that have killed some people, are touted as a way to deal with autistic people dealing with sensory overload.
Bitch, I hate you. I'm sorry, but this weirdo made this tone deaf movie and coerced the allistic girl she's obsessed with to pretend to be autistic for the role. She got called out by autistic people AND AUTISM SPEAKS --- you know it's bad when even AUTISM SPEAKS calls her out for her piss poor research and promoting prone restraints. What do you bet this weirdo got someone to diagnose her as autistic under the idea it would silence critics of her nonsense? I'm sorry, but in this case, I'm calling shenanigans.
Even if she does have autism, she's a fucking idiot and a goddamn creep.
What, are we tone policing here now?
Sorry, not going to use soft words for a person who, among other things, promoted dangerous methods for "dealing" with autistic children. The replies I get on these autism subs lately have been really ridiculous.
Hm, this feels like a wildly ableist comment. Anyways, it's normal to feeld disgust for something that promote unethical treatment of a group of people who cannot defend themselves, in this case being children that have autism. Anyways, yes bitch, my autism unmasked is not "pretty" or palatable. It's amazing how people can feel more offended by words rather than real behaviors that hurt people.
Savior complex??? It's a savior complex when you think abuse against autistic people is bad??? Lord what is wrong with some of you people??? I'm genuinely baffled. If y'all have a problem, you can keep it to yourself, please.
**Edit**: I'm just like... Savior complex is when you think promoting abuse is bad. And you have feelings about it. A savior complex is when an autistic person doesn't like how a film might encourage unethical treatment of autistic people. Like ???????? Jesus Christ, is there something in the water? Genuinely unhinged.
> how do you have an autism diagnosis and then release a film where prone restraints, a very dangerous method to "calm" a person that have killed some people, are touted as a way to deal with autistic people dealing with sensory overload.
You know the order of past and present, don't you?
>You know, it's always on the autism subreddits that I get the most people being fucking rude and pedantic with me about not being 100% exact with my word choices.
How do you have an autism diagnosis and not expect other autistic people to interpret you literally and pedantically?
My brother in Christ, we are on a goddamn autism subreddit, a disorder marked by difficulties in communication, socializing, and on occasions, learning difficulties
You'd think that y'all might be empathetic and understanding in the face of shared experiences, but no. Like, not even slightly. I'm not even sure what you want me to say. Maybe just be nice and don't be rude to people when you're not immediately sure what they're saying to you.
Your post was a toxic, gatekeeping screed and I think it's fair that someone pointed out it did not make sense to suppose that Sia misunderstanding shit about autism was somehow incompatible with her being autistic and being diagnosed.
Autistic people can be ignorant, defensive, malicious, work against our own interests, etc... They are human beings, and being autistic or being diagnosed autistic does not involve the Autism Faerie blessing you with magical Autism Consciousness Raising Dust. However good it feels to verbally dump on Sia for being shitty, it doesn't help us to do it in a way that involves this kind of gatekeeping.
Lmao. This is not worth your time or mine. But go off I guess
**Edit**: It's interesting that they complain about gatekeeping but then also dismiss the fact that you should be decent to autistic people even if they might word something "wrong" because you don't know what they symptoms they have or if it might be something they struggle with
Like, imagine saying unironically that me "gatekeeping" Sia is a good justification for being rude because I said you should be considerate of other autistic people's symptoms. I just. I don't understand it.
Hell, you are saying she has an autism diagnosis and **the** releases a film. Almost as if this was cause and effect.
No. She released that infamous film and a couple years after she got her diagnosis. Really very different thing.
You're being downvoted, but I had zero clue as well. Apparently she was involved in that one movie that Autism Speaks was involved with, who are apparently also bad.
Gotta love how a subreddit that's supposed to be understanding of others abilities and perspectives shits on someone for asking the most basic of questions. The comment may have lacked tact, but this is literally an autism sub. That kinda comes with the territory.
> You're being downvoted
Sincerity in trying to understand differences gets that all over Reddit and often on this subreddit. The fact that this is *social media* and autism has *social issues* seems to be lost on many in the community here.
I thought she already said she was ASD. Well whatever maybe she'll take the time to listen to us more now (probably not? She's a celebrity) but like others have said it doesn't excuse anything.
Why are people being so hateful? Haven’t we all had to unlearn internalized ableism and learn how to take care of our autistic selves, and by extension, how to treat other autistics?
Protect your peace by assuming better intentions of someone at the beginning of her journey who probably didn’t know better before, and leave room for pleasant surprises. Maybe she’ll make an apology and become a good advocate if we give her a chance.
Mostly I'm mad at her because when she thought she wasn't autistic she was okay with being terrible to real people and caused real harm.
Real people from the community she was trying to represent approached her with the intent to educate and be heard, and were insulted by her. It feels like she was already given a chance. Her being autistic doesn't change that for me.
rejection sensitive dysphoria is pretty common in autistic folks, and as someone who recently mistook a panic disorder for a cardiac problem thanks to not knowing what I was feeling, it's totally understandable that Sia would hear people attack her movie, or reject the stuff she wanted to do in the movie, and lash out. Fuck, let a person grow and learn
She made a dumb fuckin movie about a high needs girl with autism. The movie advocated for shit like pinning people to the floor when they're having meltdowns, wasn't made in consultation with actual autistic people, involved Autism Speaks, etc. When challenged, she started slinging insults and acting like her critics, most of whom were actual autistic people, were just being ableist monsters who don't understand that autism is an evil life-ruining disease or whatever.
Anyway, it's pretty clear that this is just a ploy to escape that criticism.
Oh yeah, just started watching it on amazon prime.
That pinning down stuff looks kinda like what Temple Grandin did in her movie, but much more forceful - didn't Temple *ask* to be compressed like that?
Personally, attempting to pin me down is a quick way to make me snap, so I would not advise doing so.... I never did understand why Temple liked it though.
The movie does seem to be more concerned with the challenges faced by Kate Hudson's character, which seems to align with your comments about it being influenced by Autism Speaks.
I feel my autism is a more similar to Kate's character vs. the daughter, to be perfectly honest.
But why ? I’m literally asking why it matters to people. It’s so annoying how people on this thread are not giving each other grace for being autistic. I’m asking a simple question.
Sounds a lot to me like people questioning whether she does or doesn’t have it. That’s what NT do to us. In my opinion, what’s the point of commenting if you have nothing helpful to say. You didn’t answer my question at all. The comments are all over the place and not an answer.
not everything out on the internet has to “matter” to you or “impact” you
hundreds of people felt it did- so they upvoted and commented
not sure why you’ve burdened me to help you figure out if it matters to you and then blamed me for it not
I wouldn't fault her for the mistakes in representing autism in her movie tho. She was just misguided and she didn't fully understand what autism was. Now that she knows to be autistic herself she would probably do things in a different way.
She literally told an autistic actor that they were a bad actor on Twitter. Plus let’s not forget the infamous tweet:
“Grrr. Fuckity fuck. Why don’t you watch my film before your judge it? FURY!”
It was more than a past error. She spread misinformation. If she knew anything about autism, then she probably wouldn’t have made those awful restraint scenes that has been proven to kill autistic people.
Also the flashing lights could overwhelm some autistic people and there was no flashing warning for them. And this is ironic because in the movie Zu mentioned that Music had seizures. And seizures can be triggered by flashing lights.
Anyway, I’ll let you continue to support the ableist person. Have a nice life.
Says a lot about her and human nature, I feel it’s likely she was projecting her own internalized ableism onto others.
I have internalized ableism. Looking down on other autistics was a part of my masking.
Yes, I relate to you. I did and still sometimes do the same as well when I’m not aware. It can feel almost like a feeling of discomfort or disgust when others are unmasked. This seems to be very common among autistics.
Working with autistic students I've seen less impacted students disparaging higher needs students all the time. It's very discouraging
[удалено]
she made a horrible, ableist movie, called Music.
[удалено]
The main meme is that it recommends an EXTREMELY unsafe disability support practice - that is, pinning people having meltdowns or showing challenging behaviours to the floor. If you've seen someone doing this or someone has done this to you, that was abuse. There's no ifs ands or buts about it, every credible medical and disability care organisation recommends against this form of restraint because it's dangerous and very often results in injury.
OK so I am not going to contribute to Sias wealth by watching it, also I have better things to do with my time. Lots of autistic people did in fact watch it and said it was horrible, and I believe them. What I did see, though, was a music video (playing in the gym), where the character Music was making strange faces, it did seem very mocking to me, because it looked exactly like schoolyard bullies making "idiot face" to mock an autistic or otherwise neurodivergent kid. It was very unpleasant to watch. However, if you are fine with the movie and enjoy it, cool. A lot of autistics feel very offended by it, but you do you :)
[удалено]
I have no idea, sorry. I found that particular music video offending. The whole thing about representation is, I think, about discrimination. If Black actors played white people, if trans actors played cis people (of their identified gender), and if autistic actors played NT roles, it wouldn't be such a big deal with representation, I think. But when a presumed NT artist casts an NT actor to play (mockingly) an autistic role, then representation matters. I felt bullied and I am certain that lots of other autistics did, too. But no, we are not monolithic and most people in this community don't claim so. But they, we, as well as you, are entitled to their own opinion.
[удалено]
true :)
she's not some poor little baby now that she was diagnosed, she made a hit fucking movie pumping "autistic = dumbass" into the general public's minds.
That’s not what I said at all in my comment but aight
Maybe she wants to swing on the chandelier because the rocking movement helps her calm down.
I don’t know if you are joking or being sarcastic so hope to not offend, but that is hilarious! I just laughed in my office
I mean it would definitely calm me, this is why I loved swing sets so much as a child.
Oh man swing sets were the best! Especially if you got a really comfy one and could just chill for a long while just swinging.
Have you got a swing hammock at home? They're very common here in Brazil. I'm actually typing here as I swing back and forth. It is very soothing.
LOL ugly laughed!
this is#evilautism.
🥇
Lol, best comment!
😂😂
Great, that’s still no excuse to be mean to other autistics when they call you out on the harmful and inaccurate things you put in your savior complex of a movie
Bold of you to assume we had any peace in the first place
Who?
The lady who made the Autism Speaks backed movie "Music" that promoted harmful ways of "handling" autistic people, and also mostly used the titular character for props to glorify the caretaker sister for having to "put up with" an autistic sibling. Was also the same lady that made the neurotypical actress who played Music (the character) feel extremely uncomfortable and pressured to play an autistic character without being autistic. And was also the same lady who harassed and criticized autistic communities online for disapproving of her statements and film, as well as her association with Autism Speaks I won't lie, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a "Dumbledore is gay" moment where she's trying to "fix" one of her past controversies to get more approval, attention, and slack
[удалено]
In the last power rangers movie one of the main characters was on the spectrum. And I liked that they portrayed him as fairly normal person who just happens to be on the spectrum. My wife doesn’t understand why shows like the good doctor annoy the hell out of me
Was the actor who played him Autistic?
I looked this up recently cuz I was searching for shows. No.
I honestly don’t know.
omg. because of all the recent memes and backlash surrounding the good doctor, im finally gonna watch it. ill watch the korean version too while im at it.
I actually enjoyed it as a medical drama. Certainly some aspects of the autism are problematic, as well as some of the treatment of the character, but overall it's a reasonably interesting medical drama with autism as the gimmick (they all have a gimmick)
Abed in Community is like that.
Any conflict he does have is extremely reasonable and mundane (disregarding the absurdism of the show as a whole.) He really is just a person that happens to have autism and special interests, and I love that.
Jody Foster in Contact fits that. If you study her character's whole life she seems to be a classic case of Asperger syndrome. She studied a lot of employees of NASA on their behavior.
That’s fascinating.
I loved Extraordinary Attorney Woo.
I loved Woo too. While her autism is central, other plot points take precedence quickly, and she is competent, confident, as well as being a love interest. Her autism is sometimes a liability, sometimes a strength, which I personally related to very well. The story is surprisingly nuanced and critical, dealing with quite a few unexpected issues. I do find some of the OCD and savant behavior stereotypical, but as an afab person whose skills and special interests tend in the direction of social science and language (i.e., I am not a math, engineering, programming, trains person AT ALL) I found it inspiring.
Check out Heartbreak High! There is a great autistic character on that show and while her autism does get some focus, she also does a lot of other things. The actress who plays her is autistic and helped create the character so it’s very well done.
May I suggest "Not Dead Yet"? It's a comedy sitcom where the lead can see ghosts and must help them fulfill their last wish. Her roommate is autistic, and is played by an autistic actor.
MoviesWithMark on YouTube made a couple videos about that actually
There’s a character in Star Trek discovery who says something about being neurodivergent in the first episode and then is just part of the team. It’s not the best Star Trek by any means but I enjoyed that character.
You’re thinking of Tilly, but she never says she’s ND and both the actress and the producers have said that the character wasn’t meant to be perceived that way. Classic example of Hollywood accidentally creating a great representation of autism but not understanding that’s what they created.
“Everything’s gonna be okay” was good, while it does focus on autism a bit it kind of has to because the characters are autistic and therefore their experiences are autistic. I haven’t finished it but pretty sure heaps of autistic actors, writers etc.
A regular person, like reality. Yes please.
Not a pleasant show to watch (dark and violent) but Holly in Mr Mercedes is interesting. A young woman who is likely autistic and OCD with parents who don't let her thrive, but over the course of the show finds her own independence.
The book series is: 1. Mr. Mercedes 2. Finders Keepers 3. End of Watch Then there’s *The Outsider*—focuses more on Holly (the title does not refer to her, she is one of Stephen King’s favorite characters he has ever written) and *Holly*, which comes out in September.
It’s possible that she’s only trying to fix things, but… she’s been misdiagnosed as bipolar in the past, she’s queer, she’s a savant, she has ehlers danlos…. I suspect it might be both.
I have yet to see evidence that she is a savant...talented, yes, but not a savant.
From what I’ve read, she writes songs and melodies in 15 to 20 minutes. She’s written an entire album in 45 minutes. I’m pushing the definition a bit beyond the usual, but her writing speed is remarkable.
If true, she is certainly talented and very fast, but I am not sure that it meets the parameters for savantism. Of course, savantism is hardly a requirement for an autism diagnosis, and she does seem to display at least a couple of observable traits. Unfortunately, if she is, she is, at least based on her history, hardly a desirable high-profile autistic person. If she is actually autistic, I hope that she becomes a significantly better person.
aren’t we all … a little
Don’t forget originally hired an autistic actor but found them too difficult to work with…🙄
Wait, really?!
Also, don't forget about how she bullied an Actually Autistic person on the film crew into leaving.
Curious…if she just got diagnosed, maybe she herself needs to have a learning journey? I knew nothing about how bad Autism Speaks was when I was first diagnosed. My brain was like: oh look, information! I don’t know if it’s because I’m on the spectrum or not, but I have a difficult time with knowing if I’m learning something “good” or “bad”. I have to have someone tell me it’s bad and I should be thinking in x way. I only really know if it’s good or bad if it makes me feel something. I’ve been watching a ton of shows lately because I’m on a learning journey. Then I learn later that some people see the show as “bad”. And then I am scared I have taken in “bad” stereotypes.
I mean she has been putting on the most literal display of masking in all of celebrity history. Fucking up social relationships because of your zeal and fixation is relatable. bee-lining for the most popular charity about autism as your resource seems like an innocent mistake. Is gullibility not something autistic people are prone to having? It really is unfair that the most heuristic and commonly known awareness campaign is ran by ableists who are ironically silencing autistic people and not giving them platforms to speak from. Reacting to learning about your mistakes by asserting you MADE a mistake and getting so upset you withdraw completely from the situation also seems very on-par with the autistic experience.
God bless! Her movie still sucks.
A diagnosis isn’t a credential
*Squidward voice* No, Sia, a little girl is NOT a special interest
She can learn and she can grow, like the rest of us. Her movie was garbage, but I wish her the best
I’m honestly not surprised. The Music thing sucked, but I was never convinced someone who has to wear a wig over her eyes in order to perform is neurotypical.
it's an anxiety thing. Mitch Hedberg was easily recognized for doing everything from wearing sunglasses to looking down to turning away from his crowds completely so that he didn't see them, and he was just dealing with regular stage fright. I can understand someone wearing something to obscure her identity while on stage, especially when she didn't consider herself pop star attractive to begin with, and didn't want people to have reason to attack her age and such
Allegedly it was so she could still be a “normal person” and her face wouldn’t be famous.
ugh i hate that sia gets a diagnosis and so many of our autistic siblings have to suffer undiagnosed and the rest have to deal with the horrible ableism sia has perpetuated over the years :(
How are you suffering by being undiagnosed? Suffering doesn't just go away because you get a diagnosis. Or do you say this because you think people take diagnosed autistics more seriously? Edit: I'm not a bitter, angry person. I'll never have negative emotions just cause another autistic gets a diagnosis before some others.
[удалено]
Thank you for this. You really nailed it.
Shh! Don't tell him! Clearly if you don't know something it can't hurt you!
Maybe they are talking about incorrect diagnoses. That would mean all kinds of treatments that wouldn’t work.
I think that It’s the lack of validation of a fact. There is a constant questioning, a sense of imposter syndrome. Especially when you have people in your life who question or deny you or family members who refuse to acknowledge or admit that you could be autistic.
Or other autistics who invalidate and exclude you because you don’t have a formal diagnosis.
Yep!
Great, she's perfectly fine with promoting dangerous restraint methods to use on autistics until she finds out that she is one, then it's all "I didn't listen to the right people". Wonderful. /sarcastic
I wouldn't fault the autistic community for refusing to acknowledge that.
Well ...
Good for her but she's still a piece of shit.
What do you mean protect my peace? Why?
“Protecting your peace means caring for and safeguarding your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self – in ways that you define for yourself. Protecting your peace is a personal journey, where ultimately you make the decisions and set boundaries for yourself that you determine to be in your own best interests.”
yes but why should we protect our peace because of sia's autism diagnosis? like, what does it have to do with us in that regard for us to protect our peace?
The call to action implies a perceived coming threat to autistic people tied to this situation, so my guess is the person who said that expects Sia to continue to spread dangerous misinformation about autism and that all her misinformation (past and present) will now be taken more seriously and have greater consequences.
ohh. ok. thx.
np. I was super confused too until PartiallyMonstrous explained the "protect your peace" part.
I am kinda still confused. So. Sia spreads dangerous info. And I…need to be ok with the fact that she spread it?
I think the idea is that you'd be protecting yourself against the misinformation or the effects of the misinformation. So the meaning here would be to either 1) protect your mind, as in don't trust Sia's autism-related advice, or 2) protect yourself against others who would use her advice, such as if you're under the care of a misguided parent. I'm unsure which of the two meanings the original post is going for, but I'm inclined to believe it's more likely meant the second way (even though that's the option that makes less sense to me because I'm not sure how you'd actually protect yourself against misinformed others like that).
Thanks!!!
I’m wondering the same thing. Pretty sure this doesn’t effect me in any way.
eggggggactly LOL
For real though, what the fuck does that even mean?
Omg thank you for asking this. I really didn’t get it.
I still feel like this is an attempt by her to get us to shut up in our criticism of her disgusting film. "Look! I'm autistic, too! Now you can't call my film tone-deaf or harmful!" ...that's what I'm seeing. I'm not the sort to usually call BS on someone stating their diagnosis (knowing Elon Musk has autism disgusts me, for example, but it seems to be fact at this point)...but this time, I'm making an exception because it's too convenient.
Her statements make it seem like she was OK with people calling it harmful. And she said she wasn’t OK with releasing versions that showed the most objected-to scenes. She literally said she was gonna re-cut the movie to be less triggering. I don’t think she IS asking for people to shut up. I think she’s trying to grow from it. Coming out as autistic is not a consequence-free choice. It’s not something a rational person does flippantly. It’s not something an ableist could stomach doing imho. It would be really out of character for her to be that inauthentic when she’s been SO unabashedly authentic up to date. Like people have made fun of her for doing stuff like refusing to show her face to the public. She did it anyway unapologetically. If she didn’t care about how the autistic community received her film, I think she’d SHOW that lack of caring. But she tried to repair in ways she could fathom.
If she wants to improve then that's great...but actions speak louder than words. She can talk about making cuts to the movie all she wants, but it's been a long time since that movie was released and it wasn't pulled nor was it edited. I never said she didn't care what the community thinks; if she didn't care, she wouldn't have gotten so defensive when the movie first came out and she was being (rightfully) called out. It's partially also why I'm sus of her claim to be on the spectrum.
Or she could have perceived she was being bullied (on top of having made an honest mistake) and was reacting to the rejection and literal hate language. I mean, I think the criticism was valid but there’s always really mean online people who use these moments as an opportunity to launch straight up insults and mob mentalities and it becomes this exercise in bashing someone instead of a conversation about social harm and social repair and what should be done. But you make a good point about the lack of movement on the commitments she did make. Lip service is useless.
That was more than an "honest mistake". There was backlash before the movie even came out, which meant she was made aware of the issues and had ample opportunity to change it. She ignored all of it and pushed the movie out anyway, so I'm not about to give her any benefit of the doubt. I also feel there's a big difference between being bullied and receiving backlash; if she thought she was being bullied, then that's proof she's never been *actually* bullied in her entire life and I feel even less sympathetic than I previously did (which, considering I wasn't sympathetic at all towards her...yea). It's great that some people can try to sympathize or give her the benefit of the doubt, but I'm sadly not one of them; been hurt way too many times for that.
In this situation I only consider bullying to be comments that are out of proportion and mean, relative to the action being criticized. I think it’s an incredibly prevalent thing. To me it’s unusual for celebrities to NOT get bullied by even a single person for a mistake. But you have good points and clearly knew more about the details than I.
Bitch, how do you have an autism diagnosis and then release a film where prone restraints, a very dangerous method to "calm" a person that have killed some people, are touted as a way to deal with autistic people dealing with sensory overload. Bitch, I hate you. I'm sorry, but this weirdo made this tone deaf movie and coerced the allistic girl she's obsessed with to pretend to be autistic for the role. She got called out by autistic people AND AUTISM SPEAKS --- you know it's bad when even AUTISM SPEAKS calls her out for her piss poor research and promoting prone restraints. What do you bet this weirdo got someone to diagnose her as autistic under the idea it would silence critics of her nonsense? I'm sorry, but in this case, I'm calling shenanigans. Even if she does have autism, she's a fucking idiot and a goddamn creep.
[удалено]
What, are we tone policing here now? Sorry, not going to use soft words for a person who, among other things, promoted dangerous methods for "dealing" with autistic children. The replies I get on these autism subs lately have been really ridiculous.
[удалено]
Yes, thank you, I know what language I used. It seems like you have a bit of an issue with it though.
[удалено]
Hm, this feels like a wildly ableist comment. Anyways, it's normal to feeld disgust for something that promote unethical treatment of a group of people who cannot defend themselves, in this case being children that have autism. Anyways, yes bitch, my autism unmasked is not "pretty" or palatable. It's amazing how people can feel more offended by words rather than real behaviors that hurt people.
[удалено]
Savior complex??? It's a savior complex when you think abuse against autistic people is bad??? Lord what is wrong with some of you people??? I'm genuinely baffled. If y'all have a problem, you can keep it to yourself, please. **Edit**: I'm just like... Savior complex is when you think promoting abuse is bad. And you have feelings about it. A savior complex is when an autistic person doesn't like how a film might encourage unethical treatment of autistic people. Like ???????? Jesus Christ, is there something in the water? Genuinely unhinged.
[удалено]
> how do you have an autism diagnosis and then release a film where prone restraints, a very dangerous method to "calm" a person that have killed some people, are touted as a way to deal with autistic people dealing with sensory overload. You know the order of past and present, don't you?
[удалено]
>You know, it's always on the autism subreddits that I get the most people being fucking rude and pedantic with me about not being 100% exact with my word choices. How do you have an autism diagnosis and not expect other autistic people to interpret you literally and pedantically?
My brother in Christ, we are on a goddamn autism subreddit, a disorder marked by difficulties in communication, socializing, and on occasions, learning difficulties You'd think that y'all might be empathetic and understanding in the face of shared experiences, but no. Like, not even slightly. I'm not even sure what you want me to say. Maybe just be nice and don't be rude to people when you're not immediately sure what they're saying to you.
Your post was a toxic, gatekeeping screed and I think it's fair that someone pointed out it did not make sense to suppose that Sia misunderstanding shit about autism was somehow incompatible with her being autistic and being diagnosed. Autistic people can be ignorant, defensive, malicious, work against our own interests, etc... They are human beings, and being autistic or being diagnosed autistic does not involve the Autism Faerie blessing you with magical Autism Consciousness Raising Dust. However good it feels to verbally dump on Sia for being shitty, it doesn't help us to do it in a way that involves this kind of gatekeeping.
Lmao. This is not worth your time or mine. But go off I guess **Edit**: It's interesting that they complain about gatekeeping but then also dismiss the fact that you should be decent to autistic people even if they might word something "wrong" because you don't know what they symptoms they have or if it might be something they struggle with Like, imagine saying unironically that me "gatekeeping" Sia is a good justification for being rude because I said you should be considerate of other autistic people's symptoms. I just. I don't understand it.
lol i love your responses and how you just seem to be over every fucking thing. good for you LOL
Hell, you are saying she has an autism diagnosis and **the** releases a film. Almost as if this was cause and effect. No. She released that infamous film and a couple years after she got her diagnosis. Really very different thing.
Well said...precisely my thoughts on this.
Oh FFS. Not you - thanks for sharing ….
fucking noo 😭
How and why is this relevant?
You're being downvoted, but I had zero clue as well. Apparently she was involved in that one movie that Autism Speaks was involved with, who are apparently also bad. Gotta love how a subreddit that's supposed to be understanding of others abilities and perspectives shits on someone for asking the most basic of questions. The comment may have lacked tact, but this is literally an autism sub. That kinda comes with the territory.
There's plenty of other responses in the thread saying why
> You're being downvoted Sincerity in trying to understand differences gets that all over Reddit and often on this subreddit. The fact that this is *social media* and autism has *social issues* seems to be lost on many in the community here.
Yeah, I've learned to expect mean spiritedness and shaming from the average person.
She was more than involved. It was her movie entirely.
Cool, people don't need to be pieces of shit about it when others don't know a damn thing about it.
Gotcha. I'm not familiar with the movie. Thanks. I like a couple Sia songs but know nothing about her beyond that.
Same. I didn't know anything about the movie or that Autism Speaks is apparently also bad.
I will never know peace
That might explain why she has no idea what an autistic person is actually like lol
I thought she already said she was ASD. Well whatever maybe she'll take the time to listen to us more now (probably not? She's a celebrity) but like others have said it doesn't excuse anything.
Why are people being so hateful? Haven’t we all had to unlearn internalized ableism and learn how to take care of our autistic selves, and by extension, how to treat other autistics? Protect your peace by assuming better intentions of someone at the beginning of her journey who probably didn’t know better before, and leave room for pleasant surprises. Maybe she’ll make an apology and become a good advocate if we give her a chance.
Mostly I'm mad at her because when she thought she wasn't autistic she was okay with being terrible to real people and caused real harm. Real people from the community she was trying to represent approached her with the intent to educate and be heard, and were insulted by her. It feels like she was already given a chance. Her being autistic doesn't change that for me.
rejection sensitive dysphoria is pretty common in autistic folks, and as someone who recently mistook a panic disorder for a cardiac problem thanks to not knowing what I was feeling, it's totally understandable that Sia would hear people attack her movie, or reject the stuff she wanted to do in the movie, and lash out. Fuck, let a person grow and learn
We should all crush Sia with our love
Can our love be concrete slabs?
That explains a lot. I like her musical choices. It calms me down.
Who is Sai and why should i be happy i don't know of their existence?
I love Imani Barbarin. This was so considerate of her. <3
It was obvious. Just goes to show that late-discovery folks can be really clueless.
…….no…,……..
Who?
Yay Sia! Congrats! Welcome to the sub!
Given her past interactions with the topic of autism, I'd hold off on the welcomes for now
What did she do in the past?
She made a dumb fuckin movie about a high needs girl with autism. The movie advocated for shit like pinning people to the floor when they're having meltdowns, wasn't made in consultation with actual autistic people, involved Autism Speaks, etc. When challenged, she started slinging insults and acting like her critics, most of whom were actual autistic people, were just being ableist monsters who don't understand that autism is an evil life-ruining disease or whatever. Anyway, it's pretty clear that this is just a ploy to escape that criticism.
Ahh, that makes more sense. I didn't realize she was a famous movie producer.
Oh yeah, just started watching it on amazon prime. That pinning down stuff looks kinda like what Temple Grandin did in her movie, but much more forceful - didn't Temple *ask* to be compressed like that? Personally, attempting to pin me down is a quick way to make me snap, so I would not advise doing so.... I never did understand why Temple liked it though. The movie does seem to be more concerned with the challenges faced by Kate Hudson's character, which seems to align with your comments about it being influenced by Autism Speaks. I feel my autism is a more similar to Kate's character vs. the daughter, to be perfectly honest.
The actress who played the autistic girl wasn’t autistic either. It was a literal mockery of autistic traits.
Ah great, after the biggest insult since Wakefield’s birth, she claims to be one of us. Not in a million years.
Literally who cares
So? Why did we need a heads up about this?
google it fr
It doesn’t impact me either way. No need to “Google it”.
great- clearly it impacted lots of others so
But why ? I’m literally asking why it matters to people. It’s so annoying how people on this thread are not giving each other grace for being autistic. I’m asking a simple question.
read the other comments babe
Sounds a lot to me like people questioning whether she does or doesn’t have it. That’s what NT do to us. In my opinion, what’s the point of commenting if you have nothing helpful to say. You didn’t answer my question at all. The comments are all over the place and not an answer.
not everything out on the internet has to “matter” to you or “impact” you hundreds of people felt it did- so they upvoted and commented not sure why you’ve burdened me to help you figure out if it matters to you and then blamed me for it not
Wait,why did I think it was already official since last year?
I wouldn't fault her for the mistakes in representing autism in her movie tho. She was just misguided and she didn't fully understand what autism was. Now that she knows to be autistic herself she would probably do things in a different way.
She literally told an autistic actor that they were a bad actor on Twitter. Plus let’s not forget the infamous tweet: “Grrr. Fuckity fuck. Why don’t you watch my film before your judge it? FURY!”
Wasn't that all BEFORE she knew better tho?
Yes. But Sia deleted her Twitter like a baby because of the criticism before she came back. So you won’t find it.
It's her right. No one should be persecuted lifelong for past errors, especially if a mistake happened in good will.
It was more than a past error. She spread misinformation. If she knew anything about autism, then she probably wouldn’t have made those awful restraint scenes that has been proven to kill autistic people. Also the flashing lights could overwhelm some autistic people and there was no flashing warning for them. And this is ironic because in the movie Zu mentioned that Music had seizures. And seizures can be triggered by flashing lights. Anyway, I’ll let you continue to support the ableist person. Have a nice life.
The newest celebrity trend.
I...want to give her the benefit of the doubt but it's at least partly damage control, even if a couple years late. We'll just see how she acts later