Sydney Sweeney Outrage Has A Pretty Obvious Blind Spot

Okay ladies, huddle up. You’re probably hearing a lot of buzz about who qualifies as a “real” female athlete in women’s sports. Does it count if you happen to be frolicking in the nude with strategically placed footballs for a betting platform? The internet will be the judge of that. 

By this point, you may be able to recall Sydney Sweeney’s scantily clad Novig ad as she beats the “sports … sports … sports” drum backed by a funky Anderson. Paak beat. “You can’t trade this, I just look good here,” she says while draped over a billiard table in nothing but Novig-branded tighty-whities. 

“No betting on wars or deaths, and no politics,” she assures us. Glad we cleared up the meaning of “sports.” Tying a bow on the brand for which she’s an equity partner, she says, “Just you, your takes, and sports.” Like every other Sydney Sweeney promo (does she ever not flaunt the goods?), the ad did its job. Cue 40 million views and the obligatory outragepocalypse.

Four-time Australian Olympic gold medalist Ariarne Titmus posted to Instagram, “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel … How do we live in a world where monetizing a woman’s body and sexualizing women’s sport is still a thing?”

Just after a race, British sprinter Amy Hunt breathlessly told the BBC, “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like … muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears.” 

Taking the cue on the so-called “healing” moment from a few big stars across the athletic space, social media immediately drowned itself in videos of women (nay beasts, which by the way is a massive CrossFit compliment) deadlifting, sprinting, tumbling, throwing weights every which way and that, and flexing their fittest form at their competitive best. It was the spontaneous internet Olympics of muscle mommies and fit girlies. To quote Chris Farley in “Tommy Boy” when it comes to their capabilities: “Holy schnikes.” 

U.S. gymnast Gracie Kramer noted, “We shouldn’t all have to worry about the way we look every single day in order to do the things that we want to do.” She told the BBC that she “just wanted to uplift women and remind them that you may see these types of ads but remember that this is not the only thing that matters.”

Kramer essentially launched the trend of female athletes posting their own me-toos with the battle cry “this is what women in sport look like.” Along with a carousel of herself and friends in thong bikinis, crop tops, and sports bras, she wrote, “Recognize that your value extends so far beyond your appearance.” But just in case it doesn’t, here’s a cute butt shot from the stands of a WNBA game.

Under the caption, a supportive comment read, “Now let’s show the same enthusiasm about getting men out of women’s sports [muscle emoji].” That was followed by another user’s reply, “Don’t use this movement here to spread your transphobia.” 

“It’s amazing women are attacking women and yet protecting men in women’s spaces. Make it make sense,” wrote a third person who appeared to be a man, totally mansplaining, right?

I wondered if I missed the part where Sweeney claimed she was actively participating in all the sports she was promoting. She’s obviously not getting drafted for the NFL anytime soon, but I’m pretty sure even women’s flag football typically requires a mouthguard, at least. And, like, somewhere to attach the flags. 

For the record, Sweeney’s a former athlete. “I grew up loving sports,” she told Complex. “I was on a soccer team, I was on a softball team, I was on a snow ski team. I learned how to slalom ski when I was little, and I did MMA. So sports have been a really big part of my life, and I love watching hockey and boxing … I have a really huge appreciation for every single fighter.”

So is the problem that we can’t accept that the curvaceous denim darling from the American Eagle “Great Jeans” commercial could also exist as the sexed-up bombshell from the Novig ad? Or that our acceptable vision for women — despite our ongoing yo-yo diet of obese Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models and red carpet Wegovy waifs — remains unwaveringly narrow, despite the current “positivity” thing?

If the issue comes down to her come-hither poses with various sports balls, how dare Sydney Sweeney reel in participants by appealing to the basest concupiscence of the prediction market! But heck-to-the-no if she thinks she’s getting away with trivializing women in sports. Perhaps we should all be like the European Broadcasting Union banning “sexualized” camera angles on female athletes. Still, isn’t it sexist to assume that women who literally spend every waking minute perfecting their bodies so they function at an elite level wouldn’t want to be seen on the world stage? You know what? Maybe we shouldn’t show women on TV at all. Just men! Solved. 

I’m no expert. I’m just a woman who works out, who was once a girl who loved high school soccer and watching my sister crush NCAA D1 gymnastics at Penn State. But I have another theory about the hot mess Syd Sweeney backlash. In our misguided cultural effort to forward the movement our athletic ancestors so graciously handed to us on a silver platter — Title IX — we women destroy ourselves by obsessing over who counts as women in women’s sports. The current scorecard:

She/her = yes. But not too much of her actual body, her politics, or her voice.
He/him = yes. If he identifies as she. Full stop. The world is his/her oyster.

We’ll pass out holding our breath waiting for the outrage mob to catch on to the fact that not all biological sexes should be welcome in women’s sports. What about all that blood, that sweat, and those tears we’re supposedly aiming at Sydney Sweeney? The same contingent screaming their guts out about a pretty girl doing sports wrong seems totally fine with a man doing whatever he wants all over the equal playing field. 

Listen, before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, it’s perfectly fine to support women’s sports without condoning commercialized debauchery — or even gambling in the first place. Yes, Sweeney’s ad is meant to be tantalizing. But it’s not about women’s sports. And I’d argue it’s not really about women, either. There’s a larger conversation to be had around who gets to step into the arena and represent women. And it ain’t about Sydney Sweeney.

As most of the internet swims around in a memory hole of mid-2000s Carl’s Jr. campaigns and comes to terms with the Sadie Sink Calvin Klein ad that — while bursting with euphemism — didn’t quite achieve the same “brand awareness” that Syd’s did, I’m holding out hope that women can find a way to support each other. Aimed at the right target, this kind of outrage machine could actually make a difference in protecting women’s sports for girls and women. Yes, even those who look like Sydney Sweeney. 

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