By Jacqueline Zuniga

If you’re on social media, you’ve probably seen a lot of controversy surrounding Sydney Sweeney. Once again, it’s an ad. This time it’s not about what jeans she’s wearing but what she’s not wearing. With football season nearing, the ad features a nude Sweeney using sports equipment to cover herself and pretending to play for the purpose of promoting the sports betting app Novig.

What does nudity have to do with sports? Novig used Sweeney’s sex appeal to grab the audience’s attention, but at what cost? Whatever the reason is, it was exploitative and a slap in the face for women athletes and women at large. 

“The highlight of my dislike was not towards Sydney Sweeney, but actually, the company and the companies that make this ad, or that made this ad, and the editors — the amount of people that had to approve this for this to be posted on such a wide scale,” said Vice President of the rugby club Rio Ross-Hirsh, a junior journalism major. 

According to the Northeastern Global News, Sweeney gained an equity stake and a role as a strategic partner for Novig. Women athletes work hard every day to prove themselves in ways male athletes don’t, and to advertise betting on sports in such a promiscuous way is stupid and disrespectful.

“It takes about double — if not triple — the amount of time and effort for a female to get that attention and recognition for their hard work and the amount of effort that is being put in because it’s not seen as the same,” said safety officer of the rugby club Acacia Crouch, a senior zoology major.

If they wanted to gain attention from the mainstream media, they could have gotten an athlete or someone who isn’t controversial to promote their app. Like, go ahead and hit up LeBron James; he’d probably do it. I found it unnecessary to display a nude woman covering herself in basketballs to promote a sports betting app. 

Throughout social media, I have seen people responding to the ad with montages of women athletes and their hard work. There is so much blood, sweat and tears being shed behind the scenes.

“This is completely an overly optimistic silver lining, that most of the content I have seen on my Instagram and other social media has been super empowering and majorly pushing back against the narrative that Sydney Sweeney has created,” said triathlon athlete Averill Payne, an environmental science major and junior.

Women for centuries have been trying to get taken seriously and not be sexualised, but this feels like a big setback. Sports are supposed to be a space for empowerment and hard work — not nudity. 

“Kind of bringing that idea, that women are kind of only worth their body, and I think that [they’re] in a place that they could have put a female athlete or highlight a female sport, and especially the growth of women’s sports,” said Ross-Hirsh. 

Women will continue to prevail and show off all of their hard work. After many years of hard work, they have a lot of support from people all around the world. A lot of little girls might aspire to be like them, just like I did growing up watching Alex Morgan and Amy Wambach play soccer. 

Jacqueline is the super duper cool sports editor, social media manager for LJ and news manager for KRFH.