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Sydney Sweeney has become an unusually frequent subject of culture-war debate, but the criticism directed at her has come from several different places. Some has come from progressive or left-leaning commentators, some from feminist writers and female athletes, and some simply from social-media users whose politics are unclear. It would therefore be misleading to describe every critic as liberal, even though several of the biggest controversies have been framed through debates over race, gender, beauty standards and conservative politics.

One early flashpoint came in 2022, when Sweeney posted photos from her mother’s 60th birthday celebration. Some guests were photographed wearing shirts associated with the “Blue Lives Matter” movement, while others wore red hats reading “Make Sixty Great Again,” a play on Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. The images quickly generated political speculation online.

Critics interpreted the clothing as evidence that Sweeney or her family sympathized with conservative politics. Sweeney pushed back, describing the gathering as an “innocent celebration” that had been turned into an “absurd political statement.” She later said people had made assumptions without knowing who the people in the photographs were or what they believed.

That episode established a pattern that has followed Sweeney: seemingly nonpolitical moments involving her appearance or personal life are frequently pulled into larger ideological fights. Because she is a highly visible blonde, conventionally attractive Hollywood star, different political camps have increasingly used her as a symbol for broader arguments about feminism, beauty and cultural values.

That dynamic became especially visible after Sweeney hosted “Saturday Night Live” in March 2024. Several sketches and promotional appearances emphasized her looks, and some right-leaning commentators declared that her popularity represented a rejection of supposedly “woke” standards surrounding attractiveness and femininity. A Guardian opinion column criticized that conservative reaction, arguing that Sweeney had been turned into evidence for an ideological argument she had not actually made herself.

The result was somewhat paradoxical. Some criticism surrounding Sweeney was not really aimed at anything she had said. Instead, writers objected to conservative commentators portraying her body and conventional attractiveness as proof that progressive cultural norms were supposedly collapsing.