The latest internet meltdown is over Sydney Sweeney’s salacious ad for gambling. But while pundits rightfully criticize the ad’s objectification of female sexuality, they ignore that it also preys on an already struggling generation of young men.
Sydney Sweeney’s ad, like all good ads, was designed to get attention. Sweeney, posing nude, with a variety of sports paraphernalia to cover as little as possible is merely the latest iteration of the advertising world’s most basic maxim – sex sells. It is inappropriate, to be sure, but there’s nothing particularly new or creative about that aspect of it. Just in the world of sports alone, we have seen ESPN put out an annual “Body Issue” featuring similar nude poses by hundreds of athletes, to near universal praise in the media. But shortly after the Sweeney ad went live, women on TikTok rushed to claim that the ad is an insult to female athletes who use their bodies to accomplish feats in sports, not as a marketing tool. A trend featuring women in various sports with the text “Hey Sydney, this is what women in sports looks like,” has gone viral.
The outrage did not stop at the current state of women’s sports. Some have gone as far to say that Sydney Sweeney is worse than Lindsay Clancy, the mother accused of strangling her three young children, because apparently, they feel this is worse for women’s rights than the murder of your own kids.
Unfortunately, many of the women pushing back against the ad lack the moral consistency to be effective. Where have these women been when actual men were stealing medals from women and invading their locker rooms? Many of these purported feminists have claimed for years that prostitution, “sex work,” is a dignified profession that should be fully legalized. Is that not the objectification of women? When it comes to issues that truly devalue women, these women have been silent.
Is it a societal good that Sweeney’s nude body is plastered all over social media feeds? No. But instead of effectively arguing against the sexualization and objectification of women, the ad’s feminist critics have failed to land a punch because of their selective outrage.
These critics have also, in focusing solely on defending women, entirely ignored another problem with the ad. The truth is that the ad sets up on a pedestal the two most insidious habits that are ensnaring young men in today’s society – porn and gambling.
As women fight to define who they are, as trans-identifying men wear womanhood as a costume and invade their sports teams and private spaces, men too are fighting. Young men are struggling to find purpose in a society that increasingly says that men and women have no meaningful differences. Instead of turning to higher callings, far too many are distracted by vices that provide instant gratification but long-term destructive consequences.
In the internet age, porn has become increasingly easy to access. Many minors are first exposed by complete accident. The average age of first exposure to porn is 12 years old, a time when pornography’s ability to rewire the brain has the strongest effect on young, developing minds. Because of the ubiquity of porn, viewership is at an all-time high. Of young adults between the ages of 18-25, 57% report having viewed porn in the past month.
Gambling in America exploded to new heights when, in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that online sports betting is legal. Now, among adults, nearly 50% of men ages 18-49 have a sportsbook account. A recent Institute for Family Studies (IFS) report found that 23% of young men gamble daily, an additional 12% do so several times a week, and another 21% gamble weekly or less. And those are just the adults.
What’s worse is the number of adolescent boys trapped in a gambling addiction. A recent study revealed that, despite age restrictions on sports betting apps, thousands of minors are still accessing them. According to the report, 36% of boys across the nation gambled in the last year, including nearly a third of 11-year-old boys and almost half of 17-year-olds. Not only has the number of kids gambling increased, but the number who are enslaved by the habit has skyrocketed. It’s been reported that 5% of kids ages 12-17 have gambling problems, which is quadruple what it was two years ago.
Neither porn nor gambling, despite their prevalence, are harmless activities. The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-V considers commercialized gambling to be as addictive as cocaine, opioids, and heroin. Gambling addiction carries the highest suicide rate of any addiction, with as many as 30% of addicted gamblers experiencing suicidal ideation. Pornography use is also linked to poor mental health. A 2024 study found that 68% of regular porn users reported feeling “down and depressed” or lonely. Another devastating IFS study found that 66% of men who gamble daily and 63% of daily porn users report feeling like a failure.
Women are arguing that this ad harms women. They are right, but not only because of Sweeney’s particular sales tactic. Lest anyone think that the issue of struggling men is only a problem for men, it is hurting women too. Many successful, educated women who have benefited from the many opportunities available to them in the modern age would like to find a man to marry, to partner with in the work to which God has called them. Married women with children repeatedly report being happier and more satisfied with their life than any other demographic of women, yet many young women are finding this life milestone more difficult to obtain.
Men addicted to porn and gambling are a concern. Will they be able to lead a family as they struggle to maintain relationships and understand that porn is not reality? In many, porn hampers their ability to contribute to society. So not only is there an epidemic of lonely men, but also of women, while they both long to have a family and deep connections. The “addiction economy” that the Sweeney ad capitalizes on is destructive to both men and women and, ultimately, the family, the political building block upon which our nation is built.
So yes, the Sweeney ad is bad, but not just for women. It exemplifies the embrace of vices devastating and dividing both sexes.
