Actress Sydney Sweeney hasn’t explicitly commented on the backlash she received for a nude photo campaign she did for sports betting app Novig, but she did make her opinion on it clear.
After being blasted by female athletes for the highly risqué ad, Sweeney posted photos from ESPN’s “Body Issue” on her social media. The annual ESPN special edition issue that ran until 2019 shows male and female athletes posing nude or semi-nude, yet it has never resulted in an outrage campaign from female athletes like the one currently being directed at Sweeney.
Sweeney’s apparent clapback comes after she was ripped by female athletes who disagree with the actress’s decision to pose nude with sports equipment.
“Just absolute utter disbelief, incredibly disappointing, like, how far you can put women’s sports backwards in the space of a 42-second commercial,” Australian surfer Felicity Palmateer told CNN in an interview Monday. She said the campaign is “very damaging, especially for young females getting into sport, for females in sport, for females in general, just hypersexualized content.”
“We want to be valued for what we can do, not what we look like,” she went on.
Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus also weighed in, writing in response to photos shared on Instagram, “I can’t describe how infuriated I feel when I watch this.”
“Not only is this a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft, but every woman who enjoys sports for what it really is — teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence, unity … the list goes on,” she said.
Retired U.S. gymnast Gracie Kramer called the ad campaign “infuriating.”
“I’ve spent my entire life competing in a sport where female athletes have been oversexualized, reduced to our bodies, and forced to fight to be taken seriously for what we can actually do,” the athlete shared on Instagram stories, saying the ad “feels like a massive step backward.”
Boxer Skye Nicolson agreed, saying the campaign made a “mockery” of female athletes.
“There’s a big difference between looking ‘sexy’ because you do sport compared to use sex to sell ‘sport’,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “There is nothing wrong with looking good and doing sport and there’s nothing wrong with embracing your femininity while also being a badass athlete.”
Some commentators and social media users blasted the female athletes who condemned Sweeney. The commentators highlighted how many female athletes have posed nude for the ESPN magazine and pointed out that Sweeney was posing for a sports betting app with a primarily male demographic. “Sex sells” was the prevailing sentiment from many people, who also argued that women should actually be furious over men trying to invade their sports, not sexy ad campaigns.
“Was it necessary? No,” Daily Wire opinion writer Chloe Trapanotto said in a video. “Should children see it? Definitely not. But you know, 30% of men under 30 are watching porn every single day, and a marketer is gonna market, and sex always sells, and it is a sport betting app, and they’re appealing to men.”
“Where have y’all been the last few months?” she added. “I’ve literally had to rename the WNBA to the question mark NBA because that national female sport league can’t define what a woman even is. I mean, to me, the biggest slap in the face is that that league is deriding female athletes for saying the entirely accurate thing that men do not belong in women’s sports.”
“The same Ariarne Titmus that danced around the issue of ‘Lia Thomas’ and doesn’t denounce trans men from swimming in women’s sports? Yeah, speaks volumes about her character and what actually sets women back,” another person agreed.
“She is choosing to do it so how is it objectifying women [any] more than those who flaunt their bodies on onlyfans or pornhub? Sounds like hypocrites to me,” echoed another person.
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