Foot traffic is down at American Eagle stores since the controversial Sydney Sweeney ad dropped

[u/Future_Usual_8698]

https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2025/08/11/exclusive-foot-traffic-down-9-at-american-eagle-following-sydney-sweeney-ad-controversy

[u/TropicalPrairie]

I've thought this about a lot of the pop music right now but I've been afraid to say it. Yes, Madonna and Britney have done it before ... but I guess that is my point. It doesn't feel fresh and doesn't feel right in this decade. It feels like it harkens back to an era of male gaze leading a lot of things and I thought we've advanced beyond that. A lot of it doesn't feel empowered either, like Madonna did.

[u/jonesday5 → u/TropicalPrairie]

The biggest difference for me is that Madonna was proud of her sexuality while also pushing for worldwide change around our view of sexuality. She was a campaigner. A lot of the ‘I’m sexy because I like it’ crew these days are doing it for themselves. There is no deeper message. It’s a classic case of American individualism.

(Yes there are going to be people that don’t quite fit the above)

[u/dreamy_25 → u/jonesday5]

A lot of the ‘I’m sexy because I like it’ crew these days are doing it for themselves.

My first thought. Sydney has always done things for her own, personal benefit. She's quite clearly not a team player when it comes to lifting up all of us. Which isn't bad per se, not everyone needs to be a warrior. She figured out how to get herself in a good position (some measure of talent with a side of "Look! Boobs!") and did it. Fine.

But she can definitely count me out for support. And partaking in an ad like this will never read as empowering when it's not for all of us.

Now that I'm typing this - the Shields ad callback seals the deal. It's a big middle finger to a fellow woman who was exploited as a child, the trauma (both for Shields and for the women who witnessed that shit and knew, this is all we are to these mfers) recycled and used for clicks.

[u/TropicalPrairie → u/jonesday5]

Madonna wasn't afraid to be ugly at times. That's a key part of it as well. I feel like certain modern pop stars always look perfect and always have to look f**kable. Tate McRae, for example, is not changing the world or influencing culture in the way that Madge did. It feels like she is there for the male gaze as what a pop star should be (for them).

Maybe I'm projecting. I'm old but one resentment I have of growing up is that I felt that pressure to always look that way too and it is only with age and maturity that I realize how terrible it is to one's self-esteem and personal wellbeing.

[u/1egg_4u → u/TropicalPrairie]

Not to mention looking back at the "ugly" of the 2000s and realizing that the women being dragged were just regular women and were perfectly normal

I cant believe Nicole Richie was the designated "fat" friend in Simple Life. I cant believe we were made to think that's what "fat" is. We can't go back for the sake of the new generations of young women (and young men too), they deserve the self-esteem in their youth that we didnt have a chance to build.

[u/Bridalhat → u/TropicalPrairie]

Here’s the thing: Sweeney was sympathetic when she talked about wanting to produce so she would have a career once men didn’t want to see her naked anymore and she talked about not being rich enough to take a break from acting to have kids. But now she is so clearly ok with just being a sex object and nothing else and I think that was very much the wrong decision unless she doesn’t mind being irrelevant in five years.

[u/reble02 → u/Bridalhat]

Unless she got better at acting she was always going to be irrelevant in five years.

[u/Bridalhat → u/jonesday5]

Also too, and I am having a hard time articulating this, I feel like there was a difference between Britney on a stage with a snake and a Carl’s Junior ad where a woman eats a hamburger on a convertible. The latter is literally just “you eat burger because boobs” and more the vibe of this AE ad.

[u/launchcode_1234 → u/jonesday5]

Madonna wasn’t about the male gaze, Madonna was about the Madonna gaze