Fans were keen to see the teen movie which finally showed some representation of what a real teenage girl looks like, but instead were left with some really concerning themes, including romanticising catfishing, sexual assault and homophobia. In fact, you can read everything that is wrong with the movie right here.
Now, there's a whole petition to remove the movie from Netflix.
Care2 have set up the petition, asking Netflix to remove it due to the “offensive jokes, slut-shaming and non-consensual kissing”.
The petition reads, “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser would be better titled Sierra Burgess Is a Problematic Movie.”
“From there, viewers are taken for a ride that includes transphobic jokes, mockery of deaf people, nonconsensual kissing, slut-shaming and an ending that makes it seem like the whole charade was totally fine. But it’s not totally fine and we can’t allow this train wreck of a movie to go on.”
Yikes.
Shannon Purser, who plays Sierra in the movie has responded to the backlash. According to her, we're meant to be angry with her character.
“I think it is absolutely fair to criticize what Sierra does because what she is doing is wrong,” Shannon told Clevver. “I was really interested in exploring this flawed character, like, what motivates her to act in this way? What insecurities are people who do this dealing with? And also exploring, is there room for growth? Is there redemption for people who do things like this? So, it has been interesting to see how some people are very vehemently sure that she should not be forgiven, that she should not have a second chance, whereas others are resonating with her.”