The last week or so online has been particularly joyless, especially for minorities. Beyond Elon Musk reposting a tweet claiming women were “built to be traded to another tribe,” President Donald Trump saying he never had the “privilege” of going to Jeffrey Epstein’s island, and Bonnie Blue going on a press tour clearly designed to drum up controversy – while the world watches Gaza be starved from the safety of our screens – we also had to endure discourse about Kim Kardashian’s new shapewear…for the face. And another Sydney Sweeney advert.
Kim Kardashian’s newest product is marketed to women to give us more defined jawlines. For $48, it’s a glorified piece of Velcro you strap around your head while you sleep, promising “targeted compression for shaping & sculpting” via “collagen yarn.”
Meanwhile, an American Eagle advert starring Sydney Sweeney featured the actor saying:
“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour.” After the camera zooms across her body, she concludes:
“My jeans are blue.”
Both campaigns caused uproar, understandably so. Kim Kardashian’s latest Skims product is the pinnacle of her brand’s contribution to relentless, ridiculous beauty standards aimed exclusively at women. Many were rightly angered by it, myself included.
The backlash against Sydney Sweeney, however, has been louder and more complex. The campaign sparked debate around eugenics, race, beauty standards, and white supremacy. Many pointed out that using the phrase “great genes” – alongside references to her hair and eye colour – evokes sinister undertones of eugenics, a thoroughly discredited racist, fascist ideology. In America’s current political climate, with the resurgence of fascism and white nationalism, these inferences can’t just be brushed off as unintentional or naive.
Dr. Anastasija Kārkliņa Gabriel, author of Cultural Intelligence for Marketers, wrote on LinkedIn: “Think a little about the ideological assumptions encoded in the media you consume and what’s actually being sold here. It’s not just denim. It’s an ad campaign firmly rooted in the ideology of American whiteness.”
Then came the political co-signs. After The Guardian revealed that public voting records showed Sweeney has been registered with the Republican Party in Florida since June 2024, America’s Right claimed her as their darling. Her face has since been plastered across MAGA-themed memes online. Even the White House waded in. When asked about the ad, Trump responded: “She’s a registered Republican? Now I love her ad.” Vice President JD Vance added that Sweeney is an “all-American beautiful woman.”
On social media, the discourse has been exhausting, and predictable. Right-wing men accuse anyone criticising the advert of being ugly, jealous, bitter women. Those attempting more nuanced discussions about the ad’s messaging are drowned out by thousands of ragebaiting slop posts. Watching everything unfold, I kept returning to the same thought: Is everything rage bait now?
For those unfamiliar, rage bait is online content designed to intentionally provoke anger or outrage, in order to increase engagement (likes, shares, comments, and views). There are creators whose entire careers rely on it. But it’s not just influencers anymore; brands and politicians now use rage baiting as a deliberate strategy.