A USA Today columnist ripped the overreaction to actress Sydney Sweeney’s latest racy advertisement and blasted those who oppose her for attacking the actress over politics, not the actual content of her ads.
Sweeney, 29, has steadfastly refused to engage much in politics, but that hasn’t stopped detractors from assigning her MAGA beliefs, whether she actually supports them or not. USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques also seems fed up with the unfair attacks on the Euphoria star.
The columnist opened her Sept. 16 op-ed by recounting the kerfuffle Sweeney kicked up over her American Eagle jeans ad last year and noting how progressives decided that Sweeney — a blond, blue-eyed beauty — was “dog whistling” for Nazism with the ad’s slogan about “good jeans.” And now, Sweeney is at the center of attacks over yet another ad, this time the one for sports betting company Novig in which Sweeney is nude with her best parts covered only by sporting equipment.
“Is it provocative? Sure,” Jacques wrote. “It’s also fun, and Novig’s marketing team clearly knows its audience – mostly men. It appears to be working, judging by the millions of likes and views the posts are racking up (pun intended).”
But to Jacques, the latest controversy is more interesting for the “overreaction” than for the ad’s content.
“It’s the overreaction to anything Sweeney touches – and the fact that it has everything to do with her being a registered Republican,” Jacques explained.
Jacques went on to recount the screeching blather from several female athletes who have claimed that Sweeney’s ad is a “kick in the face to every woman.”
“Prudish? Maybe. Or maybe something else is going on,” Jacques pondered.
Jacques continued, saying, “Forgive me if I missed it, but I don’t recall hearing the same uproar every year when Sports Illustrated releases its swimsuit edition, a decades-old tradition that features models, actresses and, yes, even female athletes in various states of undress.”
Sweeney, the writer points out, isn’t even an athlete and is just “advertising a product to people who like sports – nothing more.”
“Let’s be honest: It’s Sweeney these folks are disgruntled with, not her partnership with Novig,” Jacques logically notes.
Jacques goes on to recall that Sweeney has become a target of so-called progressives because of her jeans commercial last year and because President Trump offered his encouragement on social media. Then they outed Sweeney as a registered Republican to serve as their excuse for continuing their attacks.
“Unlike most of Sweeney’s liberal acting colleagues, who can’t shut up about their obnoxious anti-Trump views, Sweeney is very private about her personal politics, demurring consistently when she’s asked about it. And she often is,” Jacques said.
Sweeney herself has said she has no desire to be a political figure and doesn’t want to be used as a pawn for anyone’s political ideology. But “that’s exactly what [liberals] want to do,” Jacques insists.
She closed her column pleading for people to leave Sydney Sweeney alone and stop using her for political jockeying.
“Despite all the discourse and uproar over Sweeney and her bosom, she’s trying to live her best life and make the most of her 20s (which, trust me, go all too quickly),” Jacques concluded. “Let’s not stand in her way.”
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