Sydney Sweeney Bikini Pics: The Internet’s Reaction, Explained

Sydney Sweeney is one of the biggest celebrities of our time. The film and TV actor has participated in huge projects, such as Euphoria and The white lotusand was even named IMDB’s most popular character in 2024.

Yet, as seemingly beloved as she is, almost everyone in the public eye has to deal with vicious online comments. This hit a fever pitch over the past few days as the actress was flooded with negative comments after pictures of her in a bikini spread across the internet.

I will not share the Sydney Sweeney photos in this piece as it appears they were taken from afar and without her consent. What I want to share though is a post the actor made on her Instagram documents some of the cruel comments she received:

The online backlash surrounding Sydney Sweeney’s bikini photos is a prime example of how the internet enables offensive behavior and has standardized public shaming, especially for famous figures.

Before we get to that point, though, let’s take a closer look at what happened.

How the internet reacted to the Sydney Sweeney photos

We won’t share any more of the negative comments, beyond what the actress herself shared, or the bikini photos that started it all.

A quick look at the responses under the earliest accounts posting the Sydney Sweeney bikini photos reveals a deluge of people criticizing her appearance.

On a more positive note, when other people online were made aware of this reaction, they started posting in defense of the actor. Sometimes that involved using famous meme formats, such as this screencap from South Park:

Or make deep comments highlighting the reality of women wearing makeup and dressing up:

Or even just outright anger at what happened:

Just these three posts responding to the shaming of Sydney Sweeney’s bikini photos have received millions of views – and there are many more.

The question is, what has fueled this Internet storm? Why was there such a negative reaction?

Why Have The Sydney Sweeney Bikini Photos Been So Controversial?

Sydney Sweeney is far from the only person to be body shamed online. This is something a myriad of celebrities must deal with — and is a real disease in the digital age.

In a paper entitled “The portrayal of online shaming in contemporary online news media: A media framing analysis” by Shannon Muir, Lynne Roberts and Lorraine Sheridan, the authors explain why this kind of public shaming happens.

This “rapidly growing” global phenomenon is described as a form of social policing driven by what people online see as “suspected wrongdoing.”

Like, for example, Sydney Sweeney, who appears in unedited photos, in an uncontrolled environment wearing a bikini. As studies showAmerican women spend an average of 45 minutes “grooming” to try to meet beauty standards. When these are not met, they are hit with what is known as “a beauty tax”, which is a local backlash against them.

Research shows that that beauty can provide moral value, so for some the change in Sydney Sweeney’s aesthetic is akin to a failure. People can see her unedited photos as a moral breakdown.

The Internet can intensify this. The authors of the shaming study suggest that the rise of the online world and the ease of uploading content has resulted in “countless individuals engaging in social or peer monitoring as a means of social control.”

In other words, the online world made it easy to get involved in shaming. What was once local can now be global.

Although this practice has existed for as long as humanity has, it is different with the Internet, the authors of the paper believe that “a real crime no longer needs to be committed” by the person being shamed. The only thing that needs to happen is people perceives moral transgressions.

If groups believe that someone is doing something “wrong”, they feel authorized to attack and shame them.

In the case of the Sydney Sweeney bikini photos, they viewed the unposed, unedited photos negatively and then tried to shame her for what they see as a misdemeanor.

But why? Well, the demographics of these abusive posters are interesting as there were a large number of men commenting on Sydney Sweeney’s body.

A big reason behind could be the increase in groups of lonely men on the Internet. In a paper by Ruth Rebecca Tietjen and Sanna Tirkkonen called “The Rage of Lonely Men: Loneliness and Misogyny in the Online Movement of ‘Involuntary Celibates’ (Incels),” the authors discuss this, as well as the idea of ​​“resentment.”

Effectively, anger is a feeling of hostility that someone directs at what they perceive to be the cause of their frustration.

The researchers state that this “anger mechanism transforms loneliness into misogynistic feelings.”

These groups of lonely men form online communities, but instead of helping their situation, they do the opposite and make many members feel worse about their predicament. Men in these loose organizations blame women as a whole for their lack of success in life, both in general and romantically.

This leads to increased misogyny, which in turn can manifest itself in situations such as the vicious reaction to the Sydney Sweeney bikini photos.

What may have happened, then, is that niche online groups, fueled by their own rage and loneliness, feel they have both the right and the responsibility to attack someone like Sydney Sweeney for what they perceive to be her moral failure.

Placing the blame solely on incel groups would also not be correct. Yes, when others see their actions, they may be inspired and validated to comment negatively, but the fall of Sydney Sweeney’s polished image and her perceived moral value could have disturbed others.

People came to Sydney Sweeney’s defense in large numbers, showing that this connection between traditional beauty standards and moral worth is not ingrained in everyone.

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to this problem of online misogyny and public shaming. But things can change. It will require people to reckon with implications of morality, beauty and public shaming, but it is far from impossible.