A lot of boomers, zoomers, and indifferent internet users have been unable to avoid the Sydney Sweeney drama. Over the course of the last week, Sweeney has been hailed as a patriot and pigeonholed into a symbol of white supremacy. A series of ads featuring her in American Eagle clothes with the phrase “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” has sent liberals spiraling as they pretend that this is a thinly veiled ploy for eugenics.
Vice President J.D. Vance did a great job summing up the absurdity around the ad campaign, stating:
“So much of the Democrats is oriented around hostility to basic American life. So you have a pretty girl doing a jeans ad, and they can’t help but freak out. It reveals a lot more about them than it does us.”
Vance, of course, is correct. However, conservatives have to be careful not to fall into a moral trap. Sweeney is not a Nazi, buying American Eagle jeans doesn’t make you a fascist, and pretty girls are good salespeople. Yet, these truths don’t mean that conservatives should defend hypersexualization of young women.
The porn industry has been destroying the minds of young people. Seventy-three percent of teenagers in America watch porn. This trend leads to physical dysfunction, desensitization to violence, and addictions that are as neurologically severe as found in those with alcoholism. Over 95% of young people have access to pornography through their smartphones, which means that there is a constant temptation sitting in their back pocket. This is a billion dollar industry that relies on humanity’s sinful nature, preying on young people with unchecked internet access and a little bit of naivete.
Sweeney’s ads are, perhaps unconsciously, feeding into this. It’s no secret that the feminist movement of the 1960s destroyed our perceptions of modesty. Women were told that the highest form of self-expression was to lower their necklines and shorten their skirts.
In the following decades, the line between public and intimate clothing has been completely erased. At music festivals and bars, it isn’t uncommon to see young women in uncomfortably revealing clothes. Feminism has sold them the lie that exposing themselves is an act of empowerment. The sad truth is that it’s actually another way that the increase in porn use has desensitized and prepared young people for constant sexualization.
Our culture has dramatically changed due to the feminist movement. It would be silly to think that young girls will reject feminism and hypersexualization en masse. As much as I would love to see women return to more modest styles, we have to be realistic. The problem of mainstream immodesty is only made worse when mega stars like Sweeney make it seem trendy. Young women want to be Sweeney. Young men want to date Sweeney. When she is depicted as a tempting sex symbol defined by her chest, we are putting both of those groups in jeopardy. Young women think they should dress unvirtuously, and young men expect their girlfriends to.
There is a growing hope for Gen Z, as many are turning back to Christianity and its divine morality. Traditional denominations, such as Catholicism, have particularly seen growing numbers of identification among zoomers. Young people are hungry for Christianity and its call to virtue. For those who have grown up in a culture where so-called “sexual freedom” has been pushed to its extremes, there is respite in orthodoxy.
If conservatives truly want to draw a line between themselves and their liberal counterparts, they can’t make the Sydney Sweeney issue black and white. Sweeney’s ad campaign isn’t pro-Nazi, but it also isn’t Christian. We need to be able to call out the left for their insanity, but we also need to be careful that we don’t defend improper behavior. If young people are searching for a solution to the emptiness of a post-feminist world, we have to give them the tools to do so.
To call the American Eagle campaign an inherently good thing for American culture would be erroneous. It reduces the humanity of a beautiful young woman, in a way that closely resembles what the porn industry is trying to do. With grace and compassion, we need to start demanding female role models who are proudly feminine without giving into cheap sexualization.
In 1 Timothy 2:9-10, Paul writes:
“I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves not, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.”
Even when liberals deceive us with inane arguments, conservatives must remember that they have a higher calling than skinny jeans.
