Published November 2020 ND Neuro News on WordPress

The pop star known for songs like ‘Chandelier’ a chart topping hit which made her a household name, much to her recognisable appearance. But not a recognisable face, an artist who has reached fame but at the same time scurried away behind the mammoth curtained wig symbolic with they artists identity. Rarely, photographed with out the wig. has she confronted a challenge she is in denial to recognise.

The collaborator with artists like Diplo, Labrinth and Sean Paul has caused quite a storm over her latest project ‘Music’ a movie the artist claims to inspired by her friend with special abilities. Depicting a non-speaking character played by an abled actress with the only evidence of research seems to be from a so-called autism charity ‘Autism Speaks’ a charity which has been widely condemned by the community for its ableist practices of trying to aim for autistic people to be more like their non autistic counterparts and has been deemed ableist for their work on research for a cure rather than aiding autistic causing harm to the community. Many questioned how after she claimed that she never saw how polarising the organisation was after supposedly researching the topic for three years. This has become a disappointment for many in the community like myself, who’ve found her music motivational.

Personally, I’ve found myself taken by her comments from a pop star who has a chronic illness herself to be so ignorant and in denial of ableist content and to be so outrage if people aren’t as warm in their responses. I admit I’d be find it pretty difficult dealing with such criticism for a project you’ve been creating and ready to realise to the world as a a gift for a friend and their child.

Personally, I’ve found myself taken by her comments from a pop star who has a chronic illness herself to be so ignorant and in denial of ableist content and to be so outrage if people aren’t as warm in their responses. I admit I’d be find it pretty difficult dealing with such criticism for a project you’ve been creating and ready to realise to the world as a a gift for a friend and their child.

Autism is a complex thing to understand I admit since no autistic person is the same that’s why I personally questioned who were the actually autistic people she employed? Who were the autistic people she talked to? Definitely doesn’t seem like many or anyone with from an account with clocking up almost four million followers to be so patronising belittling and anguished in her comments choosing the choice of colourful expletives.

The disabled community, say nothing about us without us this seems yet another manufactured project which has heard the sound of silence from the words of autistic people when have been more than clear we want a space in the arts. A real slap in the face for many autistics to see the Hamm someone with such a large following having such damaging consequences on many autistics mental health. Insulting an autistic actor said that they could’ve acted in the film in short noticed, as simply as a bad actor without seeing them act.

She quoted to have said that she did try to employ an actress for the main role, who was autistic but due to distress of the actress acting in a role and then diverting to hire an abled actress. Movies with disability as the fore front should have disabled people working in all areas of film production to ensure inclusivity and accessibility. As much as well accuracy and to add judgment of thought.

Until this nothing will suffice the disabled community with the continuation of disabled inspirational porn which isn’t it. Again, I’ll say nothing about us, without us.

This article was written by Autisticly Aaron originally published on their medium blog