Shia LaBeouf Embroiled in Pedophilia Controversy

As soon as the new music video of Sia's new song "Elastic Heart" had been released, the comment section was bombarded with negative comments. The video clip features Shia LaBeouf, 28, and 12-yearold Maddie Ziegler, who became famous with the American reality television series "Dance Moms". She was also starring Sia's latest music video "Chandelier". Both Shia and Maddie are wearing nothing but nude underwear/ a nude leotard while they are dancing, eyeing, chasing each other and mocking fighting movements during which they sometimes touch each other. Although there isn't any hint of sexual interaction in the five minutes that the clip lasts, critics were quick to deem the video as promoting pedophilia.

 

When I first saw the video I was on the bus and didn't have headphones with me. But since I love watching Dance Moms, had been following Maddie's career and had been quite impressed by Shia LaBeouf's acting in his latest movie "Fury", I was so curious that I couldn't wait to see them both together in one video. So I watched it without listening to the song. 

If you had asked for my interpretation of the video, I would have said that Shia and Maddie represent a father and his daughter. They have a difficult relationship, the father seems to be mentally ill, a drug addict or alcoholic that is caught in his own world. His daughter at first doesn't know how to behave in this situation. On the one hand she is somehow afraid of him, she wants to run away, but on the other hand she still loves her father and doesn't want to loose him. After some time she finds out how to deal with the situation; how to escape from the "cage". She could leave, but her strong feelings for father keep pulling her back. So she tries to release him from his "cage", get him out of his disease into the real world, but he simply isn't strong enough to break free.

I neither see any sexual, nor pedophilic action in the whole clip, all I see is a marvelous performance by two incredible dancers (even though Shia actually isn't a dancer). For me it is nothing but pure art. I find it rather sad that nowadays every physical interaction between an adult and a child is immediately declared as pedophilia, but that's another topic to talk about.

When I came home that day I couldn't wait to watch the video again, but this time with sound. While I was listening to the lyrics I noticed that Sia maybe had something other in mind than representing a father and his daughter, so I did some research and found out what Sia herself said about it. She refers to the two persons as being two warring 'Sia' self states.

"The video plays with Shia, representing adulthood and reason, and Maddie, as wild and at times vicious as a child or animal. Maddie plays the subconscious, our imagination, capable of attacking without cause, but also falling asleep in innocence. Shia seems wiser, but he can't control Maddie... and neither can he leave the cage of his own limits. The video makes us question who we like or hate more: reasoning or wild subconscious. And at the end, our dreams are trying to tug us free, but reason just can't get out."

If you want to form your own opinion to the video to Sia's new song
"Elastic Heart", here it is! Enjoy :)