The Daily Signal VDH: The Left Doesn’t Hate Sydney Sweeney’s Jeans. They Hate Beauty.
Aug 4, 2025
Victor Davis Hanson dives into the controversy surrounding beauty standards in advertising, challenging the outrage over a jeans commercial. He highlights the hypocrisy of modern critiques compared to past ads featuring diverse representations, like Beyoncé. Hanson advocates for a return to classical ideals of beauty rooted in symmetry, transcending racial identities. Through his lens, the discussion becomes not just about jeans, but a reflection on societal perceptions of beauty and the biases embedded in contemporary discourse.
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Sydney Sweeney Jeans Ad Controversy
- The American Eagle jeans ad features Sydney Sweeney with "genes" replaced by "jeans" to highlight natural beauty.
- The ad caused left-wing outrage claiming it was racial and eugenicist, unlike diverse adverts like Beyoncé's Levi's ad.
Advertising and Classical Beauty
- Advertising aims to make consumers feel they can be more attractive by using the product.
- Sydney Sweeney's ad appeals to classical ideals of beauty based on proportion and symmetry.
Historical Context of Eugenics
- Eugenics was a progressive-era movement rooted in science to control gene pools.
- Left-wing figures like Woodrow Wilson and Margaret Sanger were key proponents, making accusations of eugenics irony coming from the left.