Sydney Sweeney shows her breasts and it is a scandal. But wasn’t the problem in the eye of the beholder?

Long live the blonde. And long live the breasts. The former colony on the other side of the ocean generally produces rather uninteresting things, gets the names and rules of the main sports wrong, but has the great merit of being the birthplace of Sydney Sweeney. Until a few years ago, this publication featured photographs of scantily clad WAGs, accompanied by captions filled with pub-style banter—the sort that would now result in severe penalties for both myself and the editor. Sweeney, with her blonde hair and voluptuous figure, would certainly have occupied a prominent place in that gallery. She would likely have embraced such attention, given her penchant for showcasing her voluptuous figure in television series, social-media posts and advertisements. The issue, however, is that she is very blonde, very white, not particularly democratic (in the political sense), not notably committed to the worthy causes that earn Oscars, Emmys and Golden Lions, and is fond of displaying her derrière in a thong and a bra that appears ready to burst.

Last year she was accused of promoting racist eugenics for wearing American Eagle jeans; in recent days she has triggered Pavlovian reactions in dozens of female athletes who felt offended by her new advertising campaign: In the advertisement, Sweeney appears completely naked, holding a pair of footballs against her breasts, sitting with her legs apart on a basketball hoop, swinging a baseball bat, and playing tennis and golf in her underwear. The campaign’s slogan is ‘Just Sports’, and that was enough to draw the wrath of a host of women-who-have-made-it-in-sport-despite-prejudice, who have described it as humiliating for women’s sport, accused it of presenting a sexualised portrayal of female athletes and – to quote – “a slap in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, to every woman who loves sport for what it truly is: teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity”. Not only that, but according to yet another feminist organisation – I’ve lost count of which one – “there are so many women in sport, and the new advert featuring Sydney Sweeney does nothing to truly represent or support them”. The fact is that in that advert, Sydney Sweeney is promoting a betting site; the aim is to encourage the average punter – usually young and male – to risk a few dollars on match results, not to make a documentary film about the plight of female hockey and basketball players.

What drives individuals who have long maintained that a woman should be free to dress as she pleases, and that the issue lies in the eyes of the beholder, to label a woman who does so—and even earns money from it—with the degrading term 'slut'? They spend their days assuring us that women’s sport is commendable—would an advertisement for bookmakers really denigrate it? Seriously, would Sweeney, dressed in long trousers, a striped T-shirt and a cap in the centre of the baseball diamond, have lent more dignity to women’s baseball? That advert has as much to do with women’s sport as I have to do with non-alcoholic beer: it plays on the fact that the ‘basic’ bloke is usually horny and bets. A protest against the promotion of gambling, which is far more harmful to Sydney’s health (she’ll only make you lose a few dioptres at most), would have been more justified, but that was not the case. The frustration of those who see that, despite the efforts of recent years, good old ‘boobs’ still pull their weight, is understandable, but the narrative about the resilience of women who succeed in sport in response to an advert aimed at punters? No, please. Just sport, just boobs.