Why Sydney Sweeney Has Two Big Targets On Her Chest - William Costello - #1152

Chris Williamson (0:00)

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Obviously, our third guest today, Sydney Sweeney, has a big natural pair of problems that she's embroiled herself in. Before we get into that, can you just make it known, what was that feminist award that your research team won a while ago?

William Costello (0:49)

A while ago, I myself won an award, the Feminist Evolutionary Psychology Society, FEPs award for a poster I did at a conference a couple of years ago. But it's nice to have that in the back pocket when I'm accused of sexism or whatever.

Chris Williamson (1:06)

I mean, it is me flagrantly putting your legitimate feminist bona fides out there ahead, just in case we get shouted at today. So look, for the people that didn't see it, Sydney Sweeney did an ad for a betting company called Novig Sports Betting Company. Prediction market, adjacent thing, but it's exclusively for sports.

She does an ad, and I guess we probably should start off by watching the ad.

William Costello (1:31)

Yeah.

Chris Williamson (1:34)

It's for research purposes.

SPEAKER_3 (1:36)

Yeah.

William Costello (1:36)

Think you know sports?

SPEAKER_3 (1:37)

Prove it. Novig is just sports.

William Costello (1:53)

How about this? This sport too.

Sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports, sports.

SPEAKER_3 (2:08)

You can't trade this. I just look at here.

Chris Williamson (2:11)

No betting on wars or deaths.

SPEAKER_3 (2:17)

Just you, your takes on sports.

Chris Williamson (2:23)

Yes. The Internet responded in the most predictable way, I think. Anyone that's surprised, you can call out that there seems to be some double standards going on here, that it's not reflective of what was actually meant, that they're pointing their eye in the wrong direction.

There is nothing surprising to me about that. Are you surprised at all?

William Costello (2:44)

No. I mean, she has a significant stake in this company, so she wants it to be a success. It's obviously geared towards young men. They're the target market for any sports betting company. So she understands the oldest maxim in advertisement or marketing that sex sells, and she backs herself on that front to be the face or body of her own brand.

You know, it makes sense. But hearing some of the backlash, I mean, I heard an Irish radio presenter, I can't think of his name, but he claimed that she in 40 seconds has set female sport back 40 years. I hear that and I think, what an incredibly sexist low view of female sports.

Chris Williamson (3:33)

Well, they're so tenuously held in popularity that a girl with big titties is able to undo it in an ad.

William Costello (3:39)

All undone with cleavage. That's ridiculous. That's absurd to suggest. Especially when there's other bigger issues threatening female sports, trans athletes.

Chris Williamson (3:49)

It's very interesting that nobody has an issue identifying who the women in sports are during this conversation.

William Costello (3:56)

Absolutely. These commentators were presumably silent about the trans women in sports issue as well.

Chris Williamson (4:04)

The New York Times had this piece, one of the quotes, The reason Sydney Sweeney's advertisement has infuriated so many women in sport is that if there is a group that has managed to genuinely force change in the perception of what women are capable of since the turn of the century, of what it means to be a strong and powerful woman, to be a girl without prostrating to the male gaze, it is women in sport. Pretty good reply to that. It's pretty amazing to watch them suddenly pretend to be offended by risk-a images. These people have insisted for years that the full-blown prostitution of women is legitimate and empowering. They've adopted countless graphical, sexual, female, rap, and pop songs as anthems for their movement. Now, a naked woman in advertisement is setting women back, not even the slightest attempt to be consistent. I do think that one of the first things people saw was, hang on a second, I thought it was my body, my choice. I thought empowerment and the sexual revolution was something that was giving women freedom, as opposed to taking it away.