Respectfully, Michael

I opened Instagram a few weeks ago to a barrage of reels showing clips of female athletes training and competing in their various sports. These posts were responses to the now viral Sydney Sweeney sports betting ad; all were accompanied by captions along the lines of, “Respectfully, Sydney, this is what women in sports looks like.” In a wave of negative backlash sweeping the internet, Sweeny’s borderline pornographic gambling ad is being accused of hurting women’s sports by encouraging a sexualization of female athletics.

Sports aside, the public sexual objectification of the human person is never a positive cultural phenomenon no matter what the circumstances. While the frustration expressed online misidentifies the primary problem with this advertisement, the irate intuition of these athletes is justified. The recent defense of the ad by right wing figures, however, is not.

Within the past year, Sydney Sweeney has been adopted as a right-wing cultural icon, and now many figures on the Right are celebrating her new ad as a conservative victory. According to Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, “the craziest part is, they’re right.”