My headlines have been too long lately, so I thought I would go with something pithy. I've enjoyed the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle jeans ad campaign for a variety of reasons. Speaking as a red-blooded American male with functioning eyesight, the biggest among them is the fact that, almost single-handedly, Ms. Sweeney has thrust a dagger through the diseased heart of the "body positivity movement."
Early last year, my good friend Stephen Green and I adopted Sydney Sweeney as the official celebrity girlfriend and mascot of our weekly bit of VIP Gold video fun, "Five O'Clock Somewhere." We did that because the permanently aggrieved Left loves to complain about her. She's young, pretty, talented, and not shy about flashing some décolletage for the photographers. They've been horrified by her mere existence since long before they discovered that she might be — QUELLE HORREUR! — a Republican.
I led off one Morning Briefing in April of 2024 praising Sweeney's ability to trigger the miserable leftist harridans. That featured the line, "Show me on the Gloria Steinem doll where Sydney Sweeney touched you."
Sweeney's looks have no doubt been the root cause of the leftists' anger over her from the beginning. In an era when they were trying to force obese body positivity on the culture as a beauty and health ideal, Sydney Sweeney stuck out like a sore thumb. A pretty, embodiment-of-classic-beauty sore thumb.
Making things worse for them, Sweeney always seems to be having a good time.
I had already decided to write this today, and then this perfect snapshot of the situation showed up on X:
The lack of self awareness is truly stunning. pic.twitter.com/AcIdnQsdX8
— Jon Justice (@JonJustice) August 6, 2025
Aesthetics have very little to do with my extreme dislike of the body positivity movement. Unlike the Left, I haven't abandoned biology, so I am aware of the extremely well-researched dangers of obesity. Spinning it as something to be embraced is no different than encouraging heroin addiction.
I've been open about the fact that I have been working hard to lose weight this year. I put on somewhere between 20 and 30 pounds, thanks to the COVID slog and my love of Zoom happy hours. I'm not sure of the exact amount because I don't hit the scale a lot.
What I am sure of is that I was miserable. Bending over to tie my shoes was annoying. Walking up and down stairs when I visited my sister was annoying. And, because aesthetics do still play into it, looking in a mirror was annoying. I'm an entertainer; I can fictionalize parts of my biography with the best of them. Even I am incapable of the level of self delusion that it takes to enjoy seeing oneself fat in a mirror. I saw a picture of myself from my high school reunion last year and honestly didn't know who it was for a second or two.
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People who are 50 or more pounds overweight and telling everyone that they are feeling great are lying to the world and to themselves. They won't be able to lie for long, however, because their hearts are going to tell them off sooner rather than later.
I doubt that Sydney Sweeney's popularity is going to motivate a lot of people to put the Doritos down and walk around the block, but I truly hope that it does. Even if it doesn't, her role in igniting a very public discussion about the utter madness of body positivity gets my eternal gratitude.
Make America Hot Again — the other MAHA.
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