by Katherine Simon
The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
In an era where media has made great leaps and bounds with positive representation of social minorities and making sure sensitive subjects are handled tactfully, it can be really frustrating to see ignorant writers producing problematic content despite the strides toward a more progressive media landscape. No film encapsulates this frustration better than Netflix’s Sierra Burgess is a Loser. To give a quick synopsis, the film centers around high school student Sierra Burgess, an unpopular student who is constantly bullied for her appearance and social awkwardness. One of Sierra’s bullies, Veronica, decides to give Sierra’s number out to a guy named Jamey, telling him that it’s actually her number. Once Sierra and Jamey start talking, they start to hit it off and Sierra has to keep Jamey convinced that he’s dating Veronica in order to keep the relationship afloat.
When the film was released, a lot of people were upset with the movie’s insensitivity towards LGBT and disabled communities, romanticism of catfishing, and the overall poor quality of the film’s writing—to the point where a petition to get the film removed from Netflix has gained over 6000 signatures. While I do consider myself to be anti-censorship and believe that online petitions are easily one of the most egregious forms of online slacktivism, the film itself is still extremely problematic and, even if it’s too late to remove the film, it still deserves of all the criticism it’s received.
How insensitive it?
The catfish in the room
Catfished was actually a victim of catfishing
The Petition Site TeenVogue ComicBook Thought Catalog IMDb
