Sydney Sweeney sends the wrong message to our girls

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Last week, Sydney Sweeney sparked criticism when she appeared in an advertisement for Novig – a sports-betting platform in which she is an equity partner – clothed in little more than the sports equipment she was using.

Forty years ago, using oversexualised content to sell products or services might have been commonplace. But have we really made so little progress as women that this is where we are in 2026?

“Setting women back”

My eldest daughter is 16 years old. She didn’t live through the 1980s, when misogynistic behaviour and the degradation of women were more openly accepted, but when I asked her what she made of the Novig ad, she said she felt Sydney Sweeney was “setting women back”, a sentiment apparently shared by most of her girlfriends.

For Christian parents, though, the question is bigger than whether we approve of Sweeney’s choices. It is about what our daughters are learning about where a woman’s value lies.

We spend years trying to teach our girls that their worth is not determined by their appearance, their body or the attention they receive from men. We tell them that they are made in the image of God, fearfully and wonderfully made, and that their character, gifts and abilities matter. Yet they are growing up in a culture that repeatedly tells them something very different.

Images such as these run the risk of reducing women to little more than sex symbols. But there is another issue here, too; they can overshadow the sporting prowess of women who have spent years training their bodies and minds to compete at the highest level.

They are growing up in a culture that repeatedly tells them something very different.

British sprinter Amy Hunt was among those who responded. After finishing fourth in the 200m final at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship just days after the advert was released, she shared this message: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like: 21.4. Muscles. Hard work, blood, sweat, tears.”

Olympic swimmers Ariarne Titmus and Lani Pallister, along with American gymnast Gracie Kramer and countless other women in sport, also responded online. Alexis Ohanian – Reddit co-founder, investor in women’s sport, husband of Serena Williams and father of two daughters – added his voice to the criticism, too.

Choice verses empowerment

Women’s sport has made significant progress in recent years. Female athletes are increasingly being recognised for their talent, discipline, strength and achievement.

Sydney Sweeney is not a professional athlete. She has not spent years training to reach the peak of her sport. But sex still sells and, whether we like it or not, for Novig this is likely to prove another case of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”. They have certainly succeeded in getting people’s attention. I, for one, had never heard of the company before this controversy. Had you?

Sweeney appeared to respond to some of the criticism by sharing images on Instagram stories of athletes who had previously posed nude, including Serena Williams.

But that raises an important question: if a woman chooses to sexualise herself, does that automatically make it empowering?

Choice matters. Women should have agency over their own bodies. But choice alone does not make every choice empowering, nor does one woman’s decision have to become the standard by which other women are judged.

There is a difference between saying, “A woman is free to make this choice” and saying, “This is the image of womanhood we should celebrate.”

Choice alone does not make every choice empowering.

Sweeney has found herself at the centre of similar conversations before. Last year, an American Eagle campaign featuring the line “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” deliberately played on the word “genes”, prompting debate about beauty, body image and the characteristics society chooses to celebrate.

But as a parent, I am less interested in winning an argument about Sydney Sweeney than I am in what my daughters absorb when they see images like these.

I have three daughters. I don’t want them to place their value in their looks. Proverbs 31:30 reminds us: “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” And when Samuel was tempted to judge by outward appearance, God reminded him that while people look at the outside, the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)

That is what I long for most for my girls, not simply that they grow up confident in how they look, but that they develop beautiful hearts; that they become women who know who they are and whose confidence comes from something deeper than approval, attention or appearance.

Because while my eldest can look at an advert and immediately say that it feels like a step backwards for women, the messages our daughters receive are not always quite so obvious.

They seep in quietly.

You need to be beautiful. You need to be desirable. You need the right body. You need people to notice you.

Repeated often enough, those messages can begin to shape how a girl sees herself.

Conversation and celebration

So how do we guard our daughters’ hearts without simply trying to shield them from the culture around them?

We talk to them.

Rather than immediately condemning what they see, we can ask questions: What do you think this advert is really trying to sell? Why do you think they chose this image? What does it suggest makes a woman valuable? Do you think that is true?

Those conversations help our daughters learn to recognise the messages behind the images for themselves.

We can also be careful about the messages we reinforce at home. Of course, tell your daughter she looks beautiful. But tell her plenty of other things, too.

Tell her she is kind. Tell her you noticed her courage. Praise her perseverance, generosity, humour, wisdom and faith. Celebrate the things she works hard at, not only the things she was born with.

And above all, keep reminding her where her identity is ultimately found.

Our daughters will grow up in a world that has plenty to say about what makes a woman valuable. We cannot silence every one of those voices.

But we can make sure they hear another voice more often, the one that tells them they are known, loved and made in the image of God long before anyone decides whether they are beautiful.