Women's sports lash out at Sydney Sweeney: "It is disrespectful to sexualize bodies for an advertisement"

Sydney Sweeney , the actress who rose to fame after her role in the series "Euphoria" and who recently has starred in the film adaptation of the best seller "The Housemaid" , has become the target of numerous female athletes who have criticized her advertising campaign for a betting company. In it, Sweeney appears naked with very little clothing while pretending to practice various sports. '

'Former Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus was blunt on her social media about the sexualization of women's sport: "I can't describe the anger I feel seeing this. It is not only a slap in the face to all the women who have dedicated their lives to perfecting their craft, but to all the women who enjoy sport for what it really is : teamwork, friendship, dedication, excellence… I thought this kind of "absurd" marketing was a thing of the past". '

American gymnast Gracie Kramer went a step further and posted a video on her social media in which she sent a message to Sydney Sweeney : This is what a woman in sports looks like." The video was quickly met with a response from other female athletes who included their own videos training or competing with other messages. This was the case of triathlete Jenna Gwinn: "A woman's place in the sports industry is as an athlete, reporter, coach.... Not sexualizing bodies for a sports betting ad aimed at men . Women belong in the sports industry without being sexualized".

Australian Olympic swimmer Lani Pallister, Olympic gold medalist at Paris 2024 in the 4x200 relay, shared another video with her training, races, and medals with the message: "I don't know what Sydney thinks about sport, but this is what sport looks like."

The Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns, an Olympic silver medalist in Paris 2024, went further . She wrote "I absolutely hate the new Sydney Sweeney sports ad" over a video showing footage from her matches.

There is a big difference between looking ‘sexy’ because you play sports and using sex to sell ‘sports

World boxing champion Skye Nicolson pointed out that "giving the advertising campaign exactly what they wanted, but honestly these companies need to do better. Stop sexualizing women in sport". Her message echoed one she had posted earlier: "There is a big difference between looking ‘sexy’ because you play sports and using sex to sell ‘sport’. [...] It is disrespectful to female athletes who dedicate their lives to sport and to the women who have broken barriers for generations, only to then mock it by using a sex symbol with suggestive language and imagery in an ad about sport".

This ad is honestly infuriating. Seeing women’s sports once again being commercialized through the male gaze feels like a huge step backward. We shouldn’t have to take our clothes off to convince men that women belong in sports or that we’re only worth watching if we show enough skin , commented Mexican gymnast Natalia Escalera.

Sydney Sweeney's response to the criticism

Sydney Sweeney also used her social media to respond to these comments. The actress filled her Instagram stories with photos of covers featuring renowned athletes who posed nude for various reports. Among those images were Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey, Megan Rapinoe, Myles Garrett...