This past weekend, Sydney Sweeney hosted SNL for the first time with musical guest Kacey Musgraves. It was a perfectly fine episode. Not one of the show’s best; not one of its worst. But you wouldn’t know it from the response to the episode: people are using Sweeney — or more specifically, her breasts — as an avatar for the death of wokeness… or something.
This is a real headline on The New Republic: “Wokeness is no match for Sydney Sweeney’s undeniable beauty.” I don’t know what “And while her breasts have caused a furore, I don’t see this as the sudden death knell of wokeness” and “If [Dave] Chappelle had Sweeney’s buxom bust, we could have easily been having this same cultural conversation more than a year ago” mean, but one thing’s for sure: they are undeniably sentences that exist on the internet.
People on X are — would you believe it? — acting even weirder. Especially conservatives. “HOT TAKE: Sydney Sweeney would be much more attractive if she covered up,” @JonnyRoot_ (who has “FAITH,” “SPORTZ,” and “CULTURE” in his bio) wrote. “Men embracing her & defending her immodesty as ‘feminine’ and ‘genuine’ are just showing how they can’t control their eyes and hearts of lust. Sydney Sweeney flaunting her body like this is not a good example for young women. It’s not a net positive. It’s not something to admire.”
No wonder Sweeney barely tweets. Would you want to deal with all that?
Now more than ever: sometimes it’s good to log off.