Our fashion expert asks whether we are conditioned to respond to the pretty actress with outrage, or does she go a step too far?
Sydney Sweeney on a billboard for American Eagle jeans that promoted some to say the ad campaign promotes eugenics. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Quickly, people began to speculate whether the star would face criminal charges or jail time – eye roll! I’m jaded by this rage bait style of advertisement and even more jaded by the public feeding into it so quickly. Sweeney would have known that the repercussions for this stunt would be minimal. And if the actress had ended up with a mugshot it would have been great PR for her brand.
It does beg the question though: are we conditioned to respond to Sweeney with outrage, or does she consistently cross the line?
She’s certainly well-versed in selling controversy thanks to the limited-edition Dr Squatch soap supposedly made from Sweeney’s bathwater that went viral last May. Then in August came her campaign for American Eagle, which received enormous backlash and saw her accused of promoting eugenics thanks to its ‘my jeans are blue’ tagline – quite the stretch for denim in my book.
Both campaigns also drew criticism for hyper-sexualisation of Sweeney – but in this case I hate the game, not the player. Sweeney has found a sexy and controversial recipe that works, and of course she’s going to keep this tactic in her back pocket. Quite frankly, I’m more disappointed in the public for falling for it each time with the dramatic flair of someone fainting onto a chaise loungue.
Megan Fox attends The 2008 MTV Movie Awards. Photo: Andreas Branch/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
I do wonder if this is a case of a woman being too beautiful for her own good. How she’s treated by the media and the internet reminds me of all of the negative attention that was focused on actress Megan Fox in the past. At one point, people began to say Fox had a thumb that looked like a big toe – yes, we really had to search that hard for a flaw.
Granted, in the early 2000s the public discourse around women’s bodies was openly cruel. Nowadays, it’s not kosher to attack someone on their looks, so we attack them on politics instead. Sweeney has been accused of being part of the MAGA movement, which she has never outright confirmed or denied.
Sydney Sweeney modelling for her lingerie brand Syrn
Regardless of the backlash Sweeney has been getting for her (supposed) politics and her stunts, she’s sold out all of her stock of Syrn lingerie, which its website proclaims to be ‘from the heart, brains and boobs of Sydney Sweeney’. I’m a fan of the campaign shoot where Sweeney can be seen in a picturesque rose garden, doing her errands in her skivvies. It’s fun, flirty and cinematic.
The lingerie line includes sizing up to an F; as a larger chested woman herself, it’s smart for Sweeney to market to this community who notoriously have a difficult time picking up lingerie in their size, and an even harder time finding anything beyond the functional. I would like to see Syrn expand on this further by offering a larger selection of plus-sized bras.
Kim Kardashian in her Skims
It’s yet to be seen if the sold-out lingerie is beloved long-term, but Sweeney has a fierce road ahead if she wants to compete with other celebrity lingerie brands.
Unlike Kim Kardashian’s Skims, Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty and Lizzo’s Yitty, which are all marketed as being empowering for women, Syrn is more akin to Victoria’s Secret: cute lingerie with the male gaze present in the design process. In the era of the tradwife, that could be Sweeney’s best stunt yet.