sydney sweeney is mid
trigger warning: men
as i was scrolling through instagram a few days ago, a video sydney sweeney uploaded popped up on my feed:
naturally curious, i clicked on it, only to find myself going on a deep, deep reddit and tiktok dive shortly after. you know how these things go—one moment you’re scrolling mindlessly, the next you’re lost in a sea of anonymous comments.
the first time i saw her video, i didn’t even finish watching it. i missed the part where, at the end, she uploaded clips of herself working out. and i mean working out. lifting weights—the big ones—heavier than some men could probably manage. (am i guessing here? sure. but still, the point stands.)
initially, my reaction was,
"what the hell is wrong with people that they’re insulting sydney sweeney’s body?"
and, oh my god, if they’re saying that about her, what would they say about me? but, let’s be clear—this isn’t about me. oh, it could be if i wanted it to. believe me, the tangent’s right there for the taking. but no, this is about women. again.
i swear i’m not a radical feminist, but it’s impossible to ignore the common denominator here: men. men critiquing women’s bodies online. and, of course, there’s the sidekick to this dynamic—jealous women who are secretly thrilled that men are saying sydney "gained weight." (she didn’t, by the way. but if she had? still fine. bodies change. especially throughout the month because, you know, cycles. but let’s skip that—it’s a concept far too advanced for certain commenters to grasp. and honestly I’ve done enough therapy to know that I am in fact fucked in the head when it comes to gaining weight and bodies changing and all that.) truly I do not like to think about it. but it really gets me going when people who dont have what’s supposedly is “the right type of body” or a “bombshell body” go ahead an criticize the people who do.
did you know you can never be to fat and you can never be to thin on the internet? they will criticize you either way. and yes I do criticize people from time to time. I do automatically go to the comment section after seeing a suspicious video or post. sue me.
but. as I said, this is not about me.
back to the video. as i dug through reddit, trying to decode the drama, i found what people were actually talking about. there were several images, sure, but what really caught my attention was this: a carousel of photos documenting sweeney’s physical transformation as she prepared to play christy martin in an upcoming biopic.
for those unfamiliar (me, I was unfamiliar), christy martin is a boxing legend. a coal miner’s daughter from west virginia, she began competing in tough-woman contests in the ’80s before going on to dominate female boxing. she became the first woman to sign with don king (yes, that don king) and famously fought deirdre gogarty in a pay-per-view match that actually overshadowed mike tyson vs. bruno ii. she even graced the cover of sports illustrated in 1996 with the headline, "the lady is a champ." the issue sold out worldwide.
so, let’s get this straight: sweeney isn’t just sweating it out in the gym for vanity or some unattainable beauty standard. this isn’t performative masochism for instagram clout. it’s method acting, people. she’s transforming herself to embody a real, groundbreaking athlete. and yet, the conversation still boils down to… her body? really?
here’s the thing: men critiquing women’s bodies is not new. it’s practically a pastime at this point. but what’s insidious about this is how those critiques are often rooted in control. they set standards so narrow that even a body like sydney sweeney’s—strong, capable, and enviably fit—becomes a target. and when women join in on these critiques, it only perpetuates the same toxic cycle.
and i should probably admit that i have been caught critiquing (in my mind and fine sometimes out loud) some women’s bodies. but just of those who don’t work out because they don’t want to (reads, are lazy) and eat only shit and post on tiktok about ‘what they ate in a day as an obese person.’ like that’s just wrong and i won’t condone it. i also won’t condone little idiots with the brain of a pea insulting women’s bodies and not even showing their faces. show us your face, michael. better yet, let’s see your abs—or lack thereof—and that receding hairline you’re trying to hide.
what kind of men are calling her that kind of comments we’re seeing in the first video? let me add some screenshots in case you were to lazy to click on it:
the ugliest men in the world.
so you see, not one woman in the world is exempt from body shaming. here are just a few examples:
back to sweeney, i do think this is all symptomatic of a life changing career move for her. i’d say she is freeing herself from the shackles of the male gaze and these are just the consequences that would've happened either way.
so, here we are again: men and their unsolicited opinions on women’s bodies. and also women, and their unsolicited opinions of other women’s bodies. at the end of the day, sydney sweeney lifting heavier weights than most of these guys can probably carry is not the real problem—it’s their fragile egos. the ugliest part of this story isn’t sweeney’s body (duh); it’s the collective audacity of people who think their opinions on it matter.
anyway, nobody gave me a penny for my thoughts but I decided to write them anyway.
praying soooo hard for sydney sweeney to win awards for this role!!!! also, i think there was an article about how she used to do mma or boxing in school !
It’s also crazy because did she put on weight… yes. But it’s MUSCLE. You can see an outline of abs and having visible abs AS A WOMAN not less than 100 pounds is so impressive. Having abs in general is, but especially when the emphasis is on being strong and not being “skinny”