Sydney Sweeney is treated as a symbol of the ‘unwokening.’
Since the dawn of the culture wars, the right has insisted ‘woke means broke,’ especially when it comes to Hollywood. If a film includes diversity, a social message, or simply an actor they dislike, any box-office wobble is instantly ridiculed as ‘woke drivel.’
In 2023, the Daily Mail shouted: “Woke Disney loses $900million in recent box office flops as liberal agenda being pushed in movies like ‘Lightyear’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ turn off movie-goers.”
Two years later… it declared: “Snow White suffers worst humiliation yet after woke Rachel Zegler remake tanked at box office.”
Yet funnily enough, no such triumphant headlines appear when a film flops without a supposedly woke agenda, say, when US actress Sydney Sweeney is involved. Why? Because Sweeney has been elevated into one of the right’s newest cultural darlings.
This summer, the Mail splashed: “Donald Trump sensationally anoints Sydney Sweeney his anti-woke queen as he hurls blistering insult at Taylor Swift.”
Since Taylor Swift announced her endorsement of Kamala Harris, Republicans have been circling. Trump even took to Truth Social, posting “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
Sweeney, by contrast, is treated as a symbol of the ‘unwokening.’ When clothing brand American Eagle came under fire for a “racially charged” ad featuring the blonde hair blue eyed Sweeney, complete with the tagline
“Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” which ‘critics’ likened to white-genetic-superiority aesthetics, while conservatives rushed to her defence.
“’Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the “HOTTEST” ad out there. It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are “flying off the shelves.” Go get ‘em Sydney!’” the president said.
When GQ asked Sweeney about the controversy, journalist Katherine Stoeffel noting that “in this political climate, white people shouldn’t joke about genetic superiority”, the actor shrugged: “I think that when I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear.”
To her right-wing admirers, this non-answer was an act of cultural bravery.
But the inconvenient part for those eager to weaponise the box office, the “go woke, go broke” rule doesn’t seem to apply to their own icons.
Sweeney’s latest film, Christy, in which she plays boxer Christy Martin, recorded one of the worst opening weekends in box-office history. It follows other recent Sweeney-led flops like Eden and Americana. Yet somehow, the failures don’t trigger the same avalanche of ‘going broke’ headlines.
As always, it’s one rule for them and another for the rest of us. Surely if the right’s self-anointed ‘anti-woke’ queen keeps stumbling at the box office, their culture war catchphrase will expose itself for what it has always been – a convenient fiction propped up by selective outrage.
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