There’s a lot to expect when you open your social media feed: updates from friends, dance videos, recipes, fitness content or even news. But lately, both my feed and actual news outlets have been filled with commentary about how Sydney Sweeney is maintaining her reputation as the embodiment of the male gaze.

Last year, we got the “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” American Eagle campaign. Now she’s back, surrounded by footballs, basketballs, hockey sticks and as little clothing as possible.

And honestly, my first thought wasn’t wow, how empowering.

It was:

“What is even the purpose of this ad?”

I kept hearing “Just Sports,” but I was more interested in why she was the face of it and what this company was actually trying to convey.

So, what even is Novig?

If I wasn’t the only one wondering, let me save you the Google search.

Novig is a sports prediction market where users buy and sell contracts based on what they think will happen in sporting events. The company describes itself as a sports-only prediction platform, with users required to be over 21. Sweeney isn’t simply a celebrity they hired for the campaign either. She is a strategic partner and equity holder in the company.

And that makes the campaign a little more interesting.

The “Just Sports” concept is essentially Sweeney moving through different sports scenarios while wearing very little and using sporting equipment to cover herself.

But is the advertisement actually about sports?

That’s where things get complicated.

But female athletes have done this before.

As I scrolled through X, I wanted to understand all sides of the argument. One of the biggest responses I saw (particularly from male users), was that female athletes have posed nude or semi-nude before, so what exactly is the problem?

ESPN’s Body Issue has famously featured professional athletes including Serena Williams and Ronda Rousey, while Sports Illustrated Swimsuit has also featured female athletes in highly sexualized shoots.

So the question becomes: why can those images be celebrated as representations of athletic bodies, while Sweeney’s campaign is being criticized?

It’s a fair question.

Women are allowed to be sexy. We’re allowed to take our clothes off, be comfortable with our bodies and even make money from our appearance if that’s what we want.

But context matters.

Charlene Weaving’s research into nude representations of women Olympians makes this distinction particularly well. Her study acknowledges that some female athletes have viewed nude photography as empowering, financially beneficial and even as a celebration of their bodies. The concern isn’t simply that women are naked — it’s how those bodies are framed and what the viewer is being encouraged to see.

And that’s why Sydney Sweeney is such an interesting choice.

The problem isn’t that Sydney Sweeney is sexy.

It’s that sexuality is already a major part of how we see her.

Sweeney’s public image has been shaped by years of roles and projects where sexuality is part of the conversation: Cassie Howard in Euphoria, The Voyeurs, The Housemaid, fashion campaigns and red-carpet appearances.

That doesn’t mean Sweeney created this image entirely herself, or that playing sexualized characters makes her responsible for how audiences perceive her.

In fact, she has spoken about how strange it is that audiences can recognize the way Cassie is sexualized in Euphoria while simultaneously participating in the sexualization of Sweeney herself. (Variety Australia)

So when Novig takes this already-sexualized version of Sweeney and places her in a sports advertisement, the campaign doesn’t exist in isolation.

“We bring that context with us.”

Novig could have hired a professional female athlete. There are obviously plenty of them.

Instead, they chose someone primarily known to the public as a Hollywood actress and sex symbol.

If the goal was to celebrate sports, why not put an athlete at the centre of the campaign? Why not a woman who has spent years training, competing, losing, winning, getting injured and doing all of the incredibly unglamorous things that come with being an athlete?

Instead, sports become the backdrop, while Sweeney’s body becomes the visual focus.

That’s a very different message from an athlete choosing to pose nude while still being presented primarily as an athlete.

So, yes. The male gaze is relevant.

Research has repeatedly examined how female athletes are sexualized and stereotyped in media in ways that can distract from their athletic performance.

One study by Lapeyroux, which examined 105 televised sports competitions across six disciplines, found that representations of women athletes have often been shaped by sexualization and expectations of femininity. The study argues that media coverage should place greater emphasis on athletic performance rather than a woman’s “performance of gender.”

That’s why the reactions from female athletes matter here.

After the Novig advertisement went viral, athletes including Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus, sprinter Amy Hunt and gymnast Gracie Kramer criticized the campaign, while others posted videos of themselves training and competing alongside variations of the message “this is what women in sport look like.” (The Guardian)

And honestly, those videos make the contrast pretty obvious.

The sport. The training. The competition. The actual athleticism.

There’s a difference between being sexy while doing sport and using sex appeal to sell sport.

And then there’s the advertising problem.

Sweeney already knows how to generate attention.

After the American Eagle campaign created controversy last year, she is now at the centre of another campaign that has people arguing across social media. The difference is that this time, everyone who had never heard of Novig is now Googling it.

Including me.

Maybe even you.

The Novig advertisement reportedly generated more than 22 million views within its first two days, while the controversy surrounding it has spread across sports, entertainment and mainstream news outlets. (The Guardian)

So whether controversy was the intention or simply the result, the advertisement has accomplished one very important thing:

We’re talking about Novig.

Advertising doesn’t necessarily require everyone to love the product. Sometimes it just needs people to remember it.

And there’s something pretty ironic about a campaign called “Just Sports” creating a conversation about almost everything except the actual sports.

But I don’t think it’s entirely fair to pretend that Sweeney has nothing to do with sports either.

Most notably, she portrayed professional boxer Christy Martin in the 2025 biopic Christy, which she also produced. For the role, Sweeney underwent months of intense boxing and strength training and a major physical transformation.

So there’s Sydney Sweeney the actress.

Sweeney the woman whose sexuality has become a major part of her public image.

And Sweeney the performer who physically transformed herself to portray a real female athlete.

All of those things can be true at once.

But Novig didn’t choose the boxer.

“They chose the blonde bombshell.”

And that’s why I don’t think this conversation is really about Sydney Sweeney being naked.

It’s about why she was chosen to be naked in a sports advertisement in the first place.

Because the sports equipment isn’t carrying this advertisement.

Sydney is. Her body is. Her celebrity is. And the conversation surrounding her is.

And perhaps that’s the most interesting thing about “Just Sports”:

The campaign asks us to look at a woman in a sports setting, but the reason we’re still looking has very little to do with the sport.