Sharon Stone believes Sydney Sweeney should “take responsibility” for her controversial Novig advert.
Sharon Stone wants Sydney Sweeney to take responsibility
The 29-year-old actress has faced a huge backlash from female athletes over the campaign – in which she posed in a number of provocative positions with sports equipment – and while her Euphoria co-star insisted she wouldn’t “judge” her over the campaign, her focus is on being a “cheerleader” for other women.
Sharon told People magazine: “I think that it’s up to her to take responsibility for her actions, not up to me to judge her for her actions. It is up to me to be a cheerleader for the women who have made it through and become champions in women’s sports.
“We can’t denigrate women’s sports to get men’s attention so they can gamble.”
The 68-year-old star also revealed she threatened to sue her high school if she wasn’t allowed to try out for the boys’ golf team because there were no female sports teams at the time.
She said: “I had something to prove. [I] made the boys’ team.”
This isn’t the first time the Basic Instinct actress has spoken about Sydney’s controversial advertising campaigns.
She was previously asked about the White Lotus star’s controversial “good jeans” commercials for American Eagle.
Sharon said at the time: “It’s okay to use what mama gave you. It’s really fine.
“It’s hard to be hot, and I think we all know that. It’s really okay to use every bit of hotness you have – right here, right now – and go for whatever that is, because everybody has their own certain kind of hotness, their own certain thing, and you’re supposed to go for that. Because who are you not to be beautiful? You know, who you are isn’t an accident.”
Gymnast Gracie Kramer recently slammed Sydney’s Novig ad as a “massive step backward” for female athletes.
She wrote on Instagram: “This ad is honestly infuriating. I’ve spent my entire life competing in a sport where female athletes have been oversexualized, reduced to our bodies, and forced to fight to be taken seriously for what we can actually do.
“So to see women’s sports once again being marketed through the male gaze feels like a massive step backward. We should not have to take our clothes off to convince men that women belong in sports, or that we’re only worth watching if we’re showing enough skin.
“And if you still don’t think it’s that deep, I invite you to do your best to empathize with every female athlete who has had to compete while simultaneously being objectified on the court, disrespected on the field, and oversexualized in the media.
“I don’t typically speak out on controversial topics, but to me, this isn’t controversial. This is about demanding respect for female athletes and protecting the future of women in sports. We have worked far too hard to be taken seriously to keep reinforcing the idea that our bodies are more valuable than our abilities. (sic)”
British Olympian Amy Hunt also took aim at the actress earlier this month.
Speaking to the BBC at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, she said: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like.
“21.4 [seconds, the winning time of Melissa Jefferson-Wooden], muscles, hard work, sweat, blood, tears. This is a beautiful evening.
“Obviously we’ve seen in the last 24 hours everything about the Sydney Sweeney ad, you know, and when you’re a woman in sport, it’s not pretty. It’s not glamorous. It’s not sexy all the time, definitely.
“There’s some low moments. Even turning up to this championship, my period started yesterday, so that’s not really ideal, and that’s not ever what you try to really plan for.”
