Australian singer and songwriter Sia released a music video for her deep and artistically meaningful song “Elastic Heart.” Featuring Shia Labeouf, actor, and Maddie Ziegler, reality TV star of the show Dance Moms, the video received criticism because of the dancers’ skin-tone leotards and vast age difference, with people calling both Sia and Labeouf’s work “pedophilic.”

The song was originally added to the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and available for digital download in October. At this time, Sia proved herself capable of brilliant work through both this song and “Chandelier,” and she showed that she chooses the beautifully talented performers featured in her videos with extreme care. Much like poetry, the song lets viewers interpret different meanings from the lyrics, a much needed aspect in modern art.

After the release of the video, Sia’s fans turned on her, describing her as “perverted” for casting a 12-year-old and 28-year-old in the same dance. The point of the song, however, clearly was not a romantic relationship. The feel of the video struck me more as a playful father-daughter relationship, especially since we know that Ziegler acts as a younger Sia and Sia’s father suffered from mental illness when she was young. US Weekly implied a romantic relationship between the two by commenting on their clothing, claiming that Labeouf wore “a dirty pair of nude-colored underwear,” as though the dancers prance around in a soiled pair of Hanes rather than legitimate dance costumes.

Yes, Ziegler and Labeouf both wear nude-colored costumes just as any sophisticated performer. Yes, they touch one another during the dance, but the public acted as though they have never seen an adult and child interact with each other. Because dancing remains a full-contact sport, touching proves inescapable. Some say Ziegler’s age gets in the way of her becoming a mature dancer, but those who watch Dance Moms would disagree. Her dance teacher, Abby Miller, dubbed her the best young dancer at her studio, and she has dance experience dating back to 2004, when she was only 2-years-old. With her complete understanding of dance and vast dance experience, few can criticize Sia for casting an “immature” dancer.

Because of the age difference between the dancers that she casted, Sia predicted that some might see it as pedophilia, but she felt that only Ziegler and Labeouf could play the “two warring ‘Sia’ self states.” Critics must remember that Sia writes more for herself than for the public, one of the reasons her music pulls on the heart strings. She also apologized to those who interpreted the video this way, and yet many still obsess over it.

I definitely saw an affection between the two in the video, but people at first glance sexualized the implied relationship. Part of the uproar came from our media perpetuating the idea, but most of the criticism came from people who saw a man and a girl and immediately thought the worst. It proves saddening me to think that we as a society might remain too hyped up on scandal to see that love can exist beyond sexual romance.