Sia’s Strained Girl: Performing Persistence in Neoliberal Environments

Australian singer-songwriter Sia (Kate Isobelle Furler) has become known as much for hit songs such as “Elastic Heart” and “Chandelier,” as for unusual claims to anonymity and privacy: Sia performs with her face covered by an oversized wig topped with a big ribbon or a hat, while child-dancer Maddie Ziegler takes the spotlight. Sia discussed her avoidance of visibility as an attempt to preserve a sense of privacy and freedom that celebrity culture does not usually afford stars. Ziegler has become the face and body of Sia’s videos and concerts, sometimes accompanied by other child actors. In Sia’s videos, the girl signifies multiply. She not only catalyzes the artist’s larger preoccupation with consumption and sacrifice in celebrity culture, but performs the entrapment, vulnerability, and will for a livable life of a neoliberal youth subsumed to the logic of self-investment (Wendy Brown). This article analyzes how the girl, usually a figure of preoccupation, hope, and worthy investment (Angela McRobbie, Anita Harris), appears as one of strained persistence who defies both concern and hope, while, instead, spurring questions about the affective modalities available to young women in the age of increased neoliberal precarity.