Another month, another ginned up 'controversy' by the media. This time we're focusing (again) on Ms. Sweeney prattering around our television screens in various stages of undress which has, for some unexplained reason "set women back 100 years".
But, has it? Really?
Because 100 years back would be 1926 and, last I checked, their wasn't a flood of 3/4 naked women in advertising back then. As a matter of fact, that was an era where "showing some ankle" was considered risqué.
First it was the American Eagle good jeans ad (aside: The most shocking thing about that, to me, was that American Eagle is still a going concern) and now it's a sports betting (yes, prediction markets are betting) website NoVig.
So, of course, per the linked article, female Olympians (what???) are shocked and appalled.
It should be of some note that they were decidedly NOT shocked and appalled when fellow Olympian (and all around bad person) Meghan Rapinoe appeared in ESPN the magazine's body issue totally nude, nor were they when any of the other athletes (many Olympians) did the same. No, they reserve this state of utter disbelief for when an actress, known primarily for her racy, nudity baring role in the HBO Max show Euphoria (which I can safely say I've never seen) shows up in shoulder pads and......yeah.
Look, by all accounts Sidney Sweeney is an attractive lady. She is fit and has a traditionally attractive body. Looking at her is not unappealing. Now, she's young enough to be my daughter so yeah, well outside of my attractiveness wheelhouse. That said, as a heterosexual male, she is undoubtedly very easy on the eyes. That I haven't seen anything she's acted in makes me unworthy of being someone who can comment on her talent as an actor. No clue.
But she seems to understand that her figure and her looks are marketable right now and, despite some people being mad about it, companies are willing to pay her what I'm assuming are large amounts of money to appear in their ads in a sexualized capacity.
Enter the media, who have never had a groupthink outrage that they didn't feel they could exploit. If there is no outrage, go out and find some former Olympians who most Americans have never heard of and whip one up. Hell, Meghan Rapinoe is always good for an "I'm pissed off about x....." quote when you need it right? I mean, she has to desperately try and stay relevant somehow.
This is not something new to the media. They have a long history of inventing outrage for things they don't like. During the Estes Keyfauver mob hearings the Publisher of the Washington Times, a staunch anti-gambling activist, practically invented a gambling related, mob-fueled crime wave (that didn't exist) to push public opinion toward his hearings. That they backfired spectacularly, and basically were responsible for driving the Mob to Las Vegas in droves, creating the town and ushering in it's golden age, is irrelevant. What's important is the media manufactured an outrage that really shouldn't exist.
But, is anyone REALLY mad about Sidney prancing around mostly naked in an ad?
No, they're not. Most people probably don't even know the ad itself exists. If they do know they probably spend just about as much time thinking about it as you do thinking about the OpenAI breakthrough that's creating an 'existential crisis' in the field of mathematics.
In other words, no time at all.
I do have serious questions regarding the sustainability of the sports betting market in it's current form and the health of young men in the face of what is, at heart, a predatory market. And, make no mistake, sports betting in its current form is very predatory, especially toward young men.
The point here being that there is no great, societal outrage over Sweeney's commercials. There's just not. The media is trying to desperately work one up because a) They suspect Sweeney might be more right leaning politically than they want her to be and b) they still are very anti-gambling. The easiest, and currently they believe the most effective, cudgel to use against them is feminine empowerment.
So they're running with it. And they're going to keep on running with it until they're ratings or page views or numbers continue their slide down the cliff until they are irrelevant. (which, some might say, they already are).
