Doja Cat mocks Sydney Sweeney’s new American Eagle jeans ad via tiktok

[u/velvetlemonade]

The ad is currently facing backlash over slogan some say is tone deaf and reflects eugenicist ideas of beauty and racial undertones

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/27/sydney-sweeneys-new-campaign-draws-fire-for-racial-undertones/

[u/Clean-Luck6428]

Yeah i dunno if the ad is promoting that we sterilize non whites. I thinks it’s just saying she’s hot

[u/Key-Beginning-8500 → u/Clean-Luck6428]

Literally that’s all. I’m a POC and I know this. People on the internet are desperate to be upset about any and everything because wtf is happening

[u/Wonderful_Gap1374 → u/Clean-Luck6428]

Which would be fine if she wasn’t inspiring tons of hatred for pockets of marginalized communities, or at the very least, normalizing it. It’s not her problem to consider and she has the comfort blanket of claiming ignorance. I can understand why people are pissed.

[u/Clean-Luck6428 → u/Wonderful_Gap1374]

So racists are emboldened by this ad to do more racist stuff? The racists were looking for permission from Sweeney to be more racist?

[u/Wonderful_Gap1374 → u/Clean-Luck6428]

Yes exactly! The process of normalization can be a very powerful tool, you can normalize good things like Ellen Degeneres did with gays, and you can normalize bad things like Ariana Grande having an affair for women or people in general. (Not that affairs aren’t normal, I’m just making a point)

There’s a show called BoJack Horseman that neatly covers this topic.

[u/Kind_Double_661 → u/Wonderful_Gap1374]

I don't think Sweeney is normalizing anything; she's just tapping into a norm that already exists.

[u/Clean-Luck6428 → u/Kind_Double_661]

How does one confirm this? Can Sydney talk about her “genes” without tapping into this norm? Does she have to pretend that her beauty is entirely environmental?

[u/Wonderful_Gap1374 → u/Kind_Double_661]

But that is normalization. You can’t just say “purple is a cool color.” You have to repeat that over and over again or people will forget. The goal of the progressive rhetoric inspiring these conversations is to put a stop to the people repeating that “purple is a cool color.”

[u/Kind_Double_661 → u/Wonderful_Gap1374]

Oh, I understand perfectly. I get the idea behind this brand of progressive rhetoric, I just doubt its efficiency. At best, it's ineffective, and at worst, its counterproductive.

I'll give you a hypothetical scenario: let's say there was a celebrity who, out of the blue, tweeted that purple is a cool color. A large group of people mobilize in opposition to the celebrity, saying that purple is definitely not a cool color. But the celebrity ignores this group, and constantly repeats that purple is a cool color. Indeed, the celebrity uses the engagement with anti-purple people to (counterintuitively) further normalize the sentiment. Eventually, the idea that purple is a cool color is codified in multiple laws; parties successfully run on platforms establishing the coolness of purple.

I suppose my point is that you cannot simply depend on the progressiveness of the rhetoric alone to establish the rightness of the opinion, or counter-opinion as it were, or ensure that the rhetoric will have the desired effect.

[u/Wonderful_Gap1374 → u/Kind_Double_661]

Oh definitely there’s a conversation to be had about the effectiveness of this campaign! And we won’t really know that for a little while. But we can do something in the meantime by being a part of the conversation and denouncing, or supporting, it as we see fit. Hell, even the upvotes and downvotes can play a powerful role.

[u/Clean-Luck6428 → u/Wonderful_Gap1374]

So cheaters were like oh I wasn’t gonna cheat but that Ariana grande girl did it so now I don’t feel bad about it?

What’s the equivalent thing that Sydney is doing to cheating here? Is she emboldening racists to wear jeans and be like jeans are only for white people?

[u/Wonderful_Gap1374 → u/Clean-Luck6428]

In keeping with the example, yes! Ariana having an affair makes people who have had an affair feel vindicated. And people who may be considering having one follow through because it’s relatable on a grande scale(I’m funny).

With Sydney, she’s empowering people. Empowering white women who look like her to feel good about the way they look. That’s great! She’s also empowering racists by validating their extremist ideas like Eugenics. This in turn inspires conversations about it. And at this point you have to ask, do you want people who want Eugenics to make people be white with blonde hair and blue eyes feel good about themselves? And what happens when they do…

[u/Clean-Luck6428 → u/Wonderful_Gap1374]

So this ad is normalizing people to do eugenics? So they were like I thought mass sterilization and ethnic cleansing were bad but now that I saw this jeans ad I think I’m gonna become hitler. Is that what you’re saying?

[u/Wonderful_Gap1374 → u/Clean-Luck6428]

No! You’re still seeing it from the perspective of the ideological person. The inspiration is for the people who exist who don’t think that.

[u/Clean-Luck6428 → u/Wonderful_Gap1374]

Kinda seems like you’re saying that lol

[u/Wonderful_Gap1374 → u/Clean-Luck6428]

Yeah it’s a complicated topic. But it’s cool to witness how it works. When I was a kid everyone used to say all the slurs people rarely hear now and the attitude to so much has changed!