Sia Furler and Ellen DeGeneres have perpetrated the biggest double standard on television this week — and we're calling them on it.
The Australian singer performed her smash hit 'Chandelier' with her back to camera while 11-year-old Maddie Ziegler performed an energetic dance interpretation of Sia's vocals. Ziegler was dressed in a skin-tight, skin-coloured leotard with nothing added for modesty and all the bumps, such as they were, on show.
All was revealed on the ratings-busting Ellen (DeGeneris) show last week. The wonderfully dynamic and expressive dance set — which was certainly artistic — consisted of three minutes of straddled and scissored legs in various combinations, all no doubt necessary in a contemporary routine.
There was a bed upon which Ziegler duly rolled around and a window, in front of which she splayed her legs to silhouette. When I, along with my colleges, were shown a clip of Sia’s performance, we were shocked and confused to see the audience cheering and Ellen praising the eyebrow-raising performance.
Not the ‘oh what is Miley Cyrus doing now’ kind of eyebrow raising, but the ‘how are people okay with this’ kind.
I thought the general consensus was that we had all accepted that the world has some pretty messed-up people — people who, pardon my bluntness, would get off seeing a young girl dance around in a costume that has been specifically designed to make her look like she’s only wearing her underwear. We can see artistic merit and we acknowledge that Sia’s intentions behind the performance probably weren’t to sexualise the 11-year-old dancer, but does that make it any more acceptable? In trying to garner a sense of balance, we can find justification for any single aspect of this performance, but the collective effect of: the simulated nudity (choice of leotard colour), the lack of modesty, the presence of a bed, the splayed legs, the silhouette, all make for us an unacceptable combination.
In 2012, retail giant Target received harsh criticism for allegedly selling clothing that sexualised young girls. Concerned and angered parents across Australia demanded the chain of stores recall the products.
So why is it acceptable for Sia and Ellen to pull this off on The Ellen Show? Is it an issue of art and context? A context defence was tried and denied in the court of public opinion in Australia last September when Bill Henson wanted to depict actual nude children in a photographic exhibition in Sydney — and that was in the somewhat controlled environment of an exhibition, not launched upon an unsuspecting public.
So because the Henson analogy is not exact, there opens myriad warrens and loopholes down which justifiers may ferret. In an effort to resolve the question of double standard, we would like to know whether this identical routine had been performed for another artist — say for an artist not so ostensibly fragile, feminine and vulnerable as Sia currently presents — on another program, would Twitter have melted in outrage — faux or otherwise? Would careers be on the line and would memes be blanketing newsfeeds?
We can’t help but wonder if it’s purely because of the platform and source of the performance that somehow no one dares question it at all.
Written with Lexi McKee
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