Please Sia, don't show us your face | The Guardian 

‘I have admired Sia’s determination to save something of herself from us.’ Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Last modified on Wednesday 2 December 2015 02.45 EST

Please Sia, don’t show us your face.

It’s not because I don’t want to see Sia’s face that I make this impolite request. It’s just that I’d prefer to enjoy Sia’s music uninhibited by how sexy she is or isn’t, by how beautiful she may or may not be, by whether she has a big nose or thin lips. I don’t need to know any of this to be totally captivated by her voice, to get goosebumps watching her videos, to cry again and again while listening to Chandelier.

Sia – who since her meteoric rise to fame hasn’t shown her face in public – has been on Ellen wearing the trademark blonde wig that covers most of her face. The marketing geniuses behind the show have released a clip ahead of the episode being aired that shows Ellen asking Sia to remove it.

So Sia hides herself? So do Daft Punk. The only difference is she\'s a woman

“Would you please, when you’re performing, take your wig off and let people see you because you’re beautiful and I want people to see what you look like.”

But what if Sia wasn’t beautiful, Ellen, would you still encourage her to show her face in front of the world? Would you still be her friend?

I love Ellen. In fact, up to now, I actually thought it impossible for Ellen to do anything wrong, ever. But when I saw this clip I was furious. Why should Sia be pressured to show her face when she performs? Why should she have to show all of herself in order to be accepted? Why should she have to subject herself to all the ridicule and judgment that every woman in the public eye – and even those who aren’t – has to deal with?

Has Ellen ever demanded that Daft Punk reveal their faces “because they’re beautiful?” I haven’t checked but I don’t think I need to.

I have admired Sia’s determination to save something of herself from us. Of course, she

shown her face: before she shot to global stardom, she was already a successful musician, and has written many hit songs for other global stars including Beyonce, Rhianna and Britney Spears. It’s easy enough to find full frontal photos of her face with a quick internet search.

But I’ve never looked myself because Sia’s explanation is enough for me, which she outlined in a column for Billboard:

If anyone besides famous people knew what it was like to be a famous person, they would never want to be famous. Imagine the stereotypical highly opinionated, completely uninformed mother-in-law character and apply it to every teenager with a computer in the entire world. Then add in all bored people, as well as people whose job it is to report on celebrities. Then, picture that creature, that force, criticizing you for an hour straight once a day, every day, day after day.

I’ve always interpreted her decision, in the face of global superstardom, not to show her face as a device to train attention on her music rather than her looks. And for me, it has worked.

Her many public statements on the matter seem to indicate that she’s not ashamed of her face, but just that she’d rather you look at something else – like the magical dancing of young Maddie Ziegler.

It’s never been enough of an explanation for the force that is the internet, of course. People have accused the act of being “attention-seeking”, which is really a wonderful illustration of why the tired old trope, “women can’t win” is still in high rotation. Women are attention-seeking for posting too many selfies (see: Kim Kardashian, random girls at a baseball match), and they’re

On Ellen, Sia says her reason for covering her face in public is “just so that I can go to Target and buy a hose if I want to. Or if I find I’m in need of a restroom, I can go in the side of the road, no one would be following me with a camera trying to get a shot.”

Perfectly good reasons not to show your face, if you ask me. And let’s face it, Sia is now 39 – nobody really wants to look at her anyway, right? Not when she is so fast approaching her use-by date.

I won’t be watching the show to discover if Sia takes off her wig and reveals her face to Ellen’s audience. I know that I don’t have to watch it to find out, I just have to watch the internet and see the scorn pour forth to be aware of the outcome. And I’d rather live in a world where I can remain perfectly unaware of what the woman singing on the radio looks like.

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