Have you heard of this song? Have you seen the video?
Apparently the video is making quite the wave of hate on the Internet. So much so that Sia has issues an
apology.
I am a fan of Sia. I
am also aware of young Maddie from Dance Moms that made a smash hit of the
Chandelier song, which featured her in the video. I watched it and loved it.
I admit it. It’s a great video
and Maddie does a great job whether you like her or not. So when the new video came out with Shia
LeBeouf and Maddie, I went out and gave it a look-see.
It’s…strange. It’s a
bit off putting. It’s very weird. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it. It did however get me thinking about it. Maddie is a whole 12 years old. Shia is 28.
There is a bit of…something…not love, not romance, or desire, but
maybe…wanting. I pushed it off as one
that I wasn’t going to be in love with and moved on. Then I saw post after post and hate after hate about the
pedophilia nature of the video and I stopped and thought, wait, what did I
miss.
I have now watched it several times as I wanted to make a real,
time spent opinion of it. So what do I
think? I don’t believe that Maddie is
supposed to be a girl in the video. I almost think of her as a wild
animal. Not a girl. She changes
throughout and becomes less wild and more human’esq, but still that wild beast
of the first part, rings true. Is she a
shifter? Is she a beast that changes to
human? That I couldn’t say, but wild
creature she is. Shia spends the video
angry at times running and shouting and swinging fists. Then others he spends trying to tame the
beast. He is stuck within the cage
(physical and metaphysical I think) and can’t get out. Maddie is able to leave and does so, which
at first infuriates Shia and then leaves him broken and sad and maybe dead or
dying. I didn’t find it pornographic or
pedophilic and I am a bit of a prude. Maybe it's an innocent/evil thing. She is an innocent (then why the wildness???) and he is evil, a monster trying to take or hold onto it.
Again, I have to say, it’s weird. It’s very
strange. Not thinking it gets to the
point of calling it child porn or pedophilia though. I think it stays well within the range of artistic insanity. I still don’t really like it. However, Shia does an awesome job in it all
the same. It surprised the holy heck
out of me.
That’s my personal take on the video. You can have a different one. This is mine.
Video - Sia - Elastic Heart Utube
Apology - RollingStone Article
Sia probably should have worn a matching blond wig, just to clear things up. (Half joking.) She is fighting two sides of herself, from what I read, but I don't understand what those two sides are. The artist/director(?) in the article didn't really explain. Maybe she's separating herself from a bad father, a bad experience, or it's the struggle we all go through to become an adult and her crazy child self won (in which case the blond wig would have come in handy). I guess, though, being an interpretive dance piece, this is more a case of "You see the world not as it is, but as you are."
ReplyDeleteMy personal opinion is I think it's such a shame that people can't seem to ever enjoy life anymore. Can't we just enjoy the beauty of the girls dancing and the man's acting abilities? Why do we have to add "sex crimes" to everything these days? I saw this as art, which is exactly what interpretive dance is. There was no kissing, not even much exotic touching of any kind. Just dancing! But because it was a young girl and an older man, society has to see it as pedofilish. To me it was just an expression of art.
ReplyDelete