What happens when sex becomes your entire brand? Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney has amassed a long list of controversies since her infamous “good genes” American Eagle advertisement. How does a woman who felt she had no control over her hypersexualized image play right into it? She continued to work on both feminist and female-centric projects such as Immaculate, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Christy. To many fans, the sudden pivot to fully embracing the culture surrounding her scrutiny doesn’t make sense.
Sweeney has been dubbed a sex symbol since her first featured role in Netflix’s Everything Sucks in 2018. Still a teenager when the show aired, Sweeney’s character Emaline was a fan favorite for her outspoken, theatrical young girl who explores her sexual identity as a queer person in the mid-1990s. Although her original fanbase was full of young women, that soon changed after Euphoria. It seemed as though Sweeney deliberately tried to broaden her fanbase to include more women with the release of Immaculate, which she produced. A decade in the making, Sweeney restored Immaculate’s story by using her notoriety to get it greenlit and funded.
Immaculate was a feminist masterpiece; its ethos paralleled the restrictions on women’s reproductive rights following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. I first watched this movie during Accepted Student’s weekend at Emerson College. I was seventeen, and I felt so connected to Sweeney’s character and to her as an actor. Although it remains one of my favorite movies, I cannot watch it with the same reverence I did as a teenager. I get angry knowing that someone who once created such introspective, empowering art like Immaculate can do a nude ad campaign for a sports trading company, making a mockery of women’s sports as a whole.
Many female athletes took to social media to express their disdain for the ad. A now-expired Instagram Story from former Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus read, “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this. Not only is it a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is – teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity,” Titmus continued, “How do we live in a world where monetising a woman’s body and sexualising women’s sport is still a thing?”
The implications of Sweeney’s Novig ad are clear: for women, sex is mandatory. No matter what we are doing, who we are, where we live, and what we do for a living, we will be sexualized. Some people have already taken to various social media platforms to point out the “hypocrisy” of the outrage against Sweeney. “Why is there outrage over Sydney Sweeney ad when female athletes themselves post thirst traps on IG?” a user asked in a now-deleted Reddit post. The difference is simple. A female athlete posting a so-called “thirst-trap” on her own personal social media account is vastly different from a woman who has nothing to do with sports posing nude for a corporation promoting sports betting. Sydney Sweeney becomes a marketable product for a perverted audience to consume. A bikini picture on Instagram does not carry the same weight.
This line of thinking lends itself to rape culture. By automatically assuming everything a woman does – even a simple action like posting a picture on Instagram or playing a sport – is her giving consent to being sexualized, rape culture starts. Sweeney emphasizes this through her portrayal in the ad. The very essence of women in sports being taken seriously compromised as she poses with various equipment while repeating the words “sports.”
Although she is no stranger to controversy, this ad feels different. It’s more direct in its goal of subjugating women. With the clapback from women and girls from all kinds of backgrounds – athletes, academics, young Gen-Z and older Gen-X – I truly do think that we are learning as a society. Perhaps 20 years ago there wouldn’t be this much backlash from a nude sports campaign. Now, people aren’t held back from sharing their opinions and uplifting women. With the rise of AI deepfake pornography, many women and girls do not feel safe on the internet. The normalization of the exploitation of the female body means that we must keep speaking out against instances of sexualization.
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