Sydney Sweeney and the unsettling legacy of the blonde bombshell

How Marilyn Monroe and Jean Harlow explain the star’s bizarre jeans controversy.

Are you tired of hearing about the controversy over Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ad? A remarkable thing about this latest culture-war dust-up is just how much people seem to resent its sheer existence. The whole thing feels, on its face, ginned up and silly. A mall brand decided to advertise its jeans by showing them on a hot blonde starlet, and all of a sudden the outrage mill is generating takes about how the ads symbolize either the death of woke or eugenics dog whistles — really? That’s what we’re doing?

Yet there’s a surprising staying power to the story, in a way that suggests there’s more to it than meets the eye. Maybe it’s because of the ad’s surreal interplay with Sweeney’s blonde bombshell image, revealing how much weight that symbol still carries today and the ideas it puts forward about sexuality, race, and gender.

In case you missed it: Last week, American Eagle released a series of jeans ads with the tag line, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” The campaign centers on a pun, a play on genes/jeans. As Kyndall Cunningham put it for Vox, the big question was: “Are we supposed to want pants or Aryan features?”

In case you missed it: Last week, American Eagle released a series of jeans ads with the tag line, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” The campaign centers on a pun, a play on genes/jeans. As Kyndall Cunningham put it for Vox, the big question was: “Are we supposed to want pants or Aryan features?”

The outrage machine roared to life and has churned nonstop ever since then. Progressives denounced the ads as Nazi propaganda while anti-woke types mocked liberals for calling people Nazis if they think Sydney Sweeney is hot. By the end of the weekend, online sleuths had determined that Sweeney was a registered Republican as of 2024, and President Donald Trump reinvigorated the take cycle when he spoke out in support of the actress.

It’s all quite a lot to lay on a jeans ad built around a bad pun and a cute young actress. Yet it’s not even the first time that Sydney Sweeney and her body have become the center of a culture war. Last year, conservative commenters declared that Sweeney had “killed woke” when she hosted Saturday Night Live in a low-cut dress. In 2022, Sweeney was caught in a firestorm after she was photographed next to MAGA-hat-wearing family members at her mother’s birthday party.

Lots of celebrities have been dinged for their political opinions since Trump was first elected in 2016, but there’s something about Sweeney and the way we talk about her that seems to attract political scrutiny. That something might very well be the potent symbols embedded in her “great genes.” Her blonde hair, her blue eyes, her curves, the way she presents all of the above to the camera.

In case you missed it: Last week, American Eagle released a series of jeans ads with the tag line, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” The campaign centers on a pun, a play on genes/jeans. As Kyndall Cunningham put it for Vox, the big question was: “Are we supposed to want pants or Aryan features?”

The outrage machine roared to life and has churned nonstop ever since then. Progressives denounced the ads as Nazi propaganda while anti-woke types mocked liberals for calling people Nazis if they think Sydney Sweeney is hot. By the end of the weekend, online sleuths had determined that Sweeney was a registered Republican as of 2024, and President Donald Trump reinvigorated the take cycle when he spoke out in support of the actress.

It’s all quite a lot to lay on a jeans ad built around a bad pun and a cute young actress. Yet it’s not even the first time that Sydney Sweeney and her body have become the center of a culture war. Last year, conservative commenters declared that Sweeney had “killed woke” when she hosted Saturday Night Live in a low-cut dress. In 2022, Sweeney was caught in a firestorm after she was photographed next to MAGA-hat-wearing family members at her mother’s birthday party.

Lots of celebrities have been dinged for their political opinions since Trump was first elected in 2016, but there’s something about Sweeney and the way we talk about her that seems to attract political scrutiny. That something might very well be the potent symbols embedded in her “great genes.” Her blonde hair, her blue eyes, her curves, the way she presents all of the above to the camera.