It's Getting Weird!!!!

The treatment of Sydney Sweeney and how women exist in the age of social media.

PART I: Who is Sydney Sweeney?

(Pictured Above: The diva in question, Sydney Sweeney, Source: ABC News, Rich Polk/Getty Images)

A silly question to open with. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you already have an idea or two on who Sydney Sweeney is. Love her or hate her, that diva has been popping off a bit as of late. Whether it be from her TV roles - most notably her two Emmy nominated performances from euphoria and The White Lotus - or her major sleeper hit romcom Anyone but You just in December, or just from being on social media. One way or another, if you are online, I’m sure you’ve engaged with her in the past few years.

Many would consider her official breakout in pop culture to be as Cassie Howard in euphoria, though she was acclaimed for her recurring role in The Handmaid’s Tale as well beforehand. The past five or so years have grown to establishing herself as a respected force in the industry. She has the Emmy recognition, she has Box Office success, she has worked with acclaimed directors in award-winning projects. Despite being a widely accomplished and successful presence, for as long as she’s been in the public eye, it has become impossible to separate how the straight male perspective has influenced her public image. The issue of this became particularly unavoidable with the very first episode of euphoria, when she was 21.

What got me writing today was a discourse which has taken place on X, regarding a promotional video for her hosting debut of Saturday Night Live. Video below:

(Author’s Note: Unfortunately, I just aged this newsletter. Bad. I’ve been working on this for Quite Some Time.)

She (jokingly) states, “weirdly a lot of my fans are men,” which kicked off an entire weeks’ worth of discourse. Admittedly, I did contribute to said discourse by quote-tweeting this video with “that’s so sad,” which for the record, yeah! I stand by that! I do think that’s unfortunate. The way Men speak on and perceive women, even just in their day-to-day life, far from just celebrities, far from just Social Media, is really horrifying, and we seem to only be regressing again!!! We’ve normalized a culture of sexual harassment on social media. We live in an age where there is AI deep-fake porn being made of child stars. Men don’t see women, girls, or any femme presenting living being as human. Sydney Sweeney has become the new “Sex Symbol” for men. That is a scary position to be in. Unfortunately, this is not where our conversation ends.

(DISCLAIMER: Sydney Sweeney has been the face of countless discourse over the years. About her talent, her career, her appearance, her politics, her family, her interviews. I admit now that I could’ve approached this with a wider scope, but none of these other issues pertain to me today, so… you’re just going to have to understand!!!)

PART II: Misogyny

When that aforementioned clip from SNL went semi-viral on X, the general response I had seen held a lot of animosity towards Sydney for “leaning into” her male fanbase. An excessive amount of animosity, really. The tweet I posted got a lot of quotes, and though I try my best not to read quotes on social media, the quotes I did see were largely critical of her for how she handles fame and said fanbase. Said critical tone addressed at Sydney spread further after a skit of her as a Hooters waitress also went viral. Video below.

Her “playing into it” has resulted in masses of condemnation. Another common claim you’ll see is that she “built a career off of sexualizing herself.”

That, specifically, is a claim I particularly want to dive deeper into. Not even the misogynistic undertone of it, though I do have thoughts on that as well, but whether it’s even accurate. Let’s circle back to her filmography. Sydney Sweeney is likely best known for her role as Cassie on euphoria. A role in which sexuality is built into all facets of her character. In just about every episode, really. Multiple graphic sex scenes. The extent of which has been criticized, though Sydney says she felt very comfortable on set, which is far from a cure-all for criticism, but relevant to my general point. She has done a few more graphic scenes since; in The Voyeurs, an erotic thriller, most notably. Anyone but You has a steamy scene or two in it as well, but I wouldn’t say anything out of place for a romcom with an R-rating. I’d argue euphoria and The Voyeurs are the only roles in her catalog in which her “sex appeal” is exploited in any real way. I could go through every single other one of her roles and none of them would be gratuitous or explicit. I can’t agree that she built a career off of sexualization, because she has an extensive acting career!!! You are talking about maximum three roles!!!

Though, I can imagine disagreements now. Perhaps this argument is more about her public image, then…. But, no, I would disagree again. If you scroll through her Instagram or look at most of her red carpet looks… there’s nothing terribly scandalous to be found. If I’m being honest, I think some people just want her to chop her breasts off because existing in her body means she is inherently sexualizing herself. Which is quite blatant in the rhetoric people use when they see her.

Honestly, I feel guilty even giving this discourse the time of day, because being comfortable in sexual situations shouldn’t be worth being shamed to begin with. I consider a lot of the discourse I see on Twitter to just be repackaged socially acceptable slut-shaming, because… Yes, I do believe her making certain jokes on SNL were to play into the male audiences’ hands… that much, I can admit. And, yes, I’m sure if she were uncomfortable with certain jokes being made, she did not have to deliver them… have we considered that Sydney Sweeney just isn’t uncomfortable with existing as she currently does? And instead of relentlessly shaming her for specifically that, causing non-stop discourse… we just move on? Or at least engage with this more meaningfully?

PART III: This brings me to Megan Fox.

 

I admit this comparison is not direct or exact. It has been made before, and often is met with disagreement. I agree they are not the exact case study, but they both are examples of a greater problem. What sparked this comparison is actually the institution of SNL. I used to be a Megan Fox stan… still am, sorta kinda, but not the point here… my point is, I was well aware of her SNL episode. For research purposes, I revisited it. What originally stuck out to me was her monologue. Honestly, to a degree I think it was more progressive than any of the jokes writers gave Sydney Sweeney, which is crazy considering they are 15 years apart, but still… it starts with a joke about how the dress she’s wearing is a “13 year old boy's dream” and then was about the amount of “naked pictures of herself” there were on the internet, and that’s what most people likely know from her, although all end up being edited and fake. The joke of her monologue was leaning into her sexuality.

The one thing I find interesting about both Megan Fox and Sydney Sweeney is… they’re both in control of their image. Megan might’ve been poked more fun, been more critical, whereas Sydney is more embracing, but they both fully knew what they were doing, and how they’re being perceived. They both understood the power in manipulating their own public image.

Megan Fox was one of the most famous people of the 2000s, until she called out her personal mistreatment, resulting in becoming blacklisted. Her career and public image never fully recovered, as much as some have reappraised her work since. Her male fanbase did not support her whatsoever, as they never cared for her as a human being, they cared for her as an object.

PART IV: What I Actually Am Scared Of.

I don’t blame Sydney Sweeney for “pandering” to her male audiences. I believe “she’s trying to attract men” being used as a criticism is very… flawed. Not because there isn’t truth to it, although I do believe it to be exaggerated. Men sexualize her when she’s just existing. She could go out in a hoodie and baggy sweatpants, and still would be the victim of sexual harassment on the internet. She doesn’t publicly react to that mistreatment in the exact way people deem “right” so now she’s somehow a piece in the patriarchy machine. It’s all very mask-off misogynistic slut shaming.

The conversation we should be having, though, is how having a fanbase with a lot of straight men does end up burning the Sydney Sweeney’s of the industry. Time and time again. These men do not like Sydney Sweeney as a “personality” they like her as an object. She can play to them now, but if she does one thing to shatter the illusion of idealism, she will be discarded without a second thought. See: Megan Fox standing up for herself and getting blacklisted. I mean, for that matter… see any “sex symbol” who has ever called out the inherent misogyny of their position. Men don’t like morality complicating how they consume… literal human beings. I think every girl should be a misandrist, but if Sydney Sweeney were to condemn her audience, or call it what it is (harassment) she would be met with the worst backlash you’d see in her entire life. Because as much as she may “play into” the patriarchy, she is a victim of it. I don’t mean that to project victimhood towards Sydney. If she genuinely doesn’t perceive it that way, I’m happy for her! That’s the difference. The animosity towards Sydney Sweeney for how SHE navigates her placement in the industry perplexes me.

Though, with a straight male fanbase, Sydney could do everything right for the rest of her life, and they will still ultimately grow off of her and call her “mid” by 2025. Straight men don’t respect women. It’s worse for non-fully white women. The way in which they speak on Zendaya in 2024, compared to how those very same people spoke about her in 2020. They will build women up to tear women down. The way in which they have continuously spoke on women in the public eye such as Nia DaCosta, Halle Bailey. Despite their situations differing, it’s all connected through a very specific audience. I try to move in circles as far away as possible from them, but in the wake of post-2022, “anti-woke” counter-culturist nature has become less condemned. A cultural regression, of sorts. Straight men are not the audience to cater to, because if you are a woman, you are disposable.

EPILOGUE: What Now?

Unfortunately, ever since I have started writing this… it has not stopped. Every day, it seems something new comes up. Which is good on one hand, because this never became irrelevant. On the other hand, I was very focused on what I wanted to discuss going into this. Going in, I already knew I’d have to gloss over some parts of the discourse, but then it kept… growing. People can’t engage with the girl normally!!! It all comes down to, people have fixated on her body to a disturbing degree. Literal articles get written about … her body. The proportion of her body. While this isn’t new, she’s literally gone on live sobbing over people talking about her appearance, it has become such…. a thing now. Like, if you bring up Sydney Sweeney SOMEONE will have SOMETHING to say about her body, specifically. People physically can’t talk about her without it circling back around to her body. Update Pages on social media gain platforms solely from exploiting this fact. So called “fans” who seem to not be fans of her as an actress, but to be fans of her as an “aesthetic” because they know if they post her in sexual scenes or suggestive clothing, it will get engagement.

I’m still discovering more situations where she’s treated as an object to flaunt around. When doing research for this newsletter, I discovered that there was some weird scam going around Twitter, where people pretending to have leaked photos of Sydney would deliver malware. I don’t even know where to begin with that one!!! These factors go with my point of the normalized sexual harassment on the internet. A more disturbing revelation to me was that the #AntiWoke crowd has somehow latched onto her as… owning the Libs by wearing… dresses… I only discovered this trend in the past two days, and if I had discovered it sooner, I would’ve read way more into it, because… that’s so concerning!!! I’m really scared of that!!! But I had already written out this entire draft when I stumbled upon this trend, and I don’t feel like spending any time on the #AntiWoke side of Twitter… I just can’t do that.

So, do I think there’s a solution? The total deplatforming of incel accounts, perhaps. We have this reactive instinct on social media to respond to all obvious wrongdoing, but a lot of the time these accounts feed off of our reactions. A lot of them have X Premium, a lot of people profit from being strange!! Though, in Sydney’s case it’s quite interesting, because it sometimes feels as though EVERYBODY has an issue with how her just because she exists. Obviously, she can’t effectively change how she looks, so if she goes out wearing a cute dress, people decide she is sexualizing herself, and boom! There’s a days’ worth of X discourse. I suppose my take is, if you can’t be normal when you’re discussing her, it might be time to just leave Sydney Sweeney alone.