Disability history lesson time! grab ur pens.

The character of Artie in Glee was heavily and widely criticised by disability theorists and the wider disabled community, both upon release and in the decade since.

Here, have some sources! (I did my dissertation on this)... https://twitter.com/Matthew18708066/status/1361249483745595395

Contemporary article in The Guardian (2010) 'No Glee for disabled people':

"The representation of disabled persons is limited and often very bad ... in part because of the insistence on casting nondisabled actors in disabled roles." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/19/no-glee-for-disabled-people

Reactions to Glee's representations of disability (2010)- David Kociemba

"The experience of disability isn't something he can fake because disability is located in social barriers, not individual impairments. But McHale is faking the mobility impairment."
https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/225/185

I would also recommend reading theorists such as Beth Haller and Paul K. Longmore

Reading List:
Representing Disability in an Ableist World (Beth Haller)
Why I Burned My Book (Paul K. Longmore)

There were similar reactions to Me Before You (2016) and Come As You Are (2019).

My point here is that the disabled community have *always* called out poor/harmful representations of disability in media, and the practice of casting non-disabled actors.

Sia's movie is (sadly) nothing new. Perhaps you're only hearing about it now because - with social media - our voices are getting louder and harder to ignore.

I'd suggest reading and learning, and joining the movement for disability liberation.