Perhaps Christopher Nolan should have cast Sydney Sweeney as Helen of Troy in his latest film, The Odyssey. Hers is the face that launched a thousand ships, or, in today's parlance, Sweeney's body has launched thousands of bad takes on the seas of social media.
So what's one or two more, eh?
That must have been what Jen Psaki thought yesterday. In her "Psaki Bombs" segment – no small irony there – the former White House press secretary accused Sweeney of "misogynistic sexualization of women's sports." She claimed that Sweeney's provocative ad for the gambling platform Novig stole attention from "female athletes who are insanely strong, insanely talented," and who – as a result of Sweeney's campaign – are "being judged by their looks" instead.
It's a great take ... from someone born yesterday, and from someone who didn't pay attention to the ad itself:
Jen Psaki has jumped on the bandwagon to trash the Sydney Sweeney ad.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 17, 2026
"Female athletes have been fighting this relentless and usually completely misogynistic sexualization of women's sports."
"That is what this ad reinforces."
Perhaps Jen didn't do her homework here and see… pic.twitter.com/EHx7FTW2pk
Perhaps Jen didn't do her homework here and see all of the various images of female athletes in suggestive, bare it all poses from various cover shots over the years.
Or, she doesn't care and wants to manufacture more outrage because the lefty media doesn't like Sweeney.
Betting on the latter.
Let's address the issue of sexualization in women's athletics first. Did Sweeney start that, or did female athletes and the sports industry? We've seen these before, but apparently Psaki hasn't:
They are all frauds. Here are actual athletes posing just like Sweeney pic.twitter.com/jXT0FwpO8g
— Eric Pistey (@shawnpisteySC) September 17, 2026
Just a few of the women athletes that have posed for the ESPN body issue. Are they also just decoration for the male gaze? pic.twitter.com/2511rzcj4q
— welshwitch78 (@welshwitch78) September 15, 2026
ESPN actually ran "Body Issue" editions for nearly a decade before ending the series after 2019. But that's hardly the only way that female athletes used their sexuality to market their sports:
I'm looking forward to her shaming these Olympic athletes next
— MiddleIsntBad (@MiddleIsntBad) Sep 17, 2026
Perhaps Psaki should "circle back" to ESPN's Body Issue and the Rio Olympics, eh?
Female athletes have used their sexuality to market women’s sports for years, if not decades. And there’s nothing wrong with that, although one can note that the strategy hasn’t met with much success. With the exception of tennis, where the women’s league competes on a roughly equal basis with the men’s league, women’s sports have failed to penetrate the spectator markets, even with this sexualized marketing. For example, players in the WNBA and in women’s soccer have demanded equal pay with men even though they generate far less interest and income, which was almost assuredly what these female athletes wanted to rectify with ESPN’s Body issue, the Rio ad campaign, and so on.
The furious reaction to Sweeney’s Novig ad has nothing to do with “objectification” or “misogyny”; it has everything to do with Sweeney’s success and impact. And it overlooks or deliberately ignores a key difference: Sweeney’s ad sexualizes men's sports, not women’s, or more accurately, it sexualizes gambling on men’s sports. And that’s because the target demo for Sweeney’s ad is young men who gamble on sports, a demo that’s not terribly engaged with women’s sports.
Take another look at the Novig ads, which I have watched several times for this specific issue. (It’s called research, dear readers.) What sports equipment does Sweeney use to make her pitch for the gambling platform? In order: Football, basketball, football again, tennis, hockey, football again, soccer, baseball, golf, football again, baseball, and then a quick cycle through the same list. A few of these sports have professional leagues for women, but the overall references make it clear that Novig wants to target people who bet on all of these sports, and that makes clear that this is referencing the dominant male leagues and the men who bet on them.
The message is so clear that it’s impossible to miss it. Sweeney isn’t objectifying female athletes; she’s sexualizing male spectatorship for men’s sports, largely by making males spectators to her sexuality. In one clip, Sweeney even asks whether the people watching the ad have the “balls” to engage on the Novig platform. Now, it’s been a while since my courses on human biology, but I’d assume that is a reference to male biology rather than female athleticism.
One has to wonder whether those performing outrage over these ads have even bothered to watch them.
As I’ve mentioned before, this doesn’t absolve all criticism of these ads. Raymond Arroyo made a good case on Fox News this week that the ads exploit young males into potentially degenerate gambling addictions. He also notes the hypocrisy behind the outrage:
Raymond Arroyo exposes the Sydney Sweeney Hypocrisy pic.twitter.com/UyaXnlCKgs
— GSJ Media Group 🏴☠️ (@gsjmediagroup1) September 15, 2026
The point about the expansion of gambling, and its corrosive effects on both sports and their fans, is an issue worth discussing. The Psakis of the world are missing the forest for the trees – or in this case, one forest nymph, whose only true sin is her attractiveness.
Note: Nolan really should have cast Sweeney in the role. It would have set hair on fire on both sides after the casting of Eliot Page as a warrior in Odysseus' command.
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