The Sydney Sweeney ‘Scandal’ Is a Classic Case of Hollywood Slut-Shaming

It’s a pattern we’ve seen over and over again. Take Elizabeth Taylor, a pioneering woman in the film industry, who, in addition to winning two best-actress Oscars, was a revered philanthropist and AIDS activist. And yet we are mainly reminded about how many husbands she had and her 1963 affair with Richard Burton, for which she undoubtedly bore the brunt of the public’s rage. As news of their romance leaked from the Cleopatra set, Taylor was painted as a nymphomaniac, rejected by Hollywood, and even accused of “erotic vagrancy” by the Vatican, which suggested that her children should be removed from her care.

Sixty years later, have attitudes changed that much? Sweeney might not think so, having been called in recent weeks a home-wrecker and all manner of things I’d rather not repeat here. A viral video that shows her performing a backbend while on a sofa with Powell has been produced as evidence of her loose morals. As for what’s being said about Powell? Not a lot and the whole (unsubstantiated) thing is already being referred to as “the Sydney Sweeney scandal”—shorthand for “It’s all her fault.”

It’s almost as if we want an excuse to chastise women. I’m sure Olivia Wilde would agree, having been derided after getting together with Harry Styles, who starred in her film Don’t Worry Darling. The director was forced to block the comments on her Instagram profile following a deluge of insults and accusations that she neglected her children in favor of Styles. People called her a “leech” and declared that she should be ashamed of herself. Nude pictures, purportedly of Wilde (though never confirmed), were posted online as proof that she was a “whore.”

Lily James, too, was the subject of a torrent of abuse in 2020 after photographs emerged of her seemingly kissing her Pursuit of Love costar Dominic West. Of course, infidelity isn’t great behavior. But it speaks volumes that an on-set romance can derail everything for an actress—even if she’s single and it’s her male lover who’s married—while he emerges largely unscathed. “This is a straightforward case of double standards: a woman getting the backlash, while the man, despite being married, isn’t under anywhere near the same amount of scrutiny,” one of her friends told a tabloid.

The examples go on and on. Kristen Stewart cited slut-shaming as the reason she was dropped from the Snow White franchise after being pictured kissing its director, Rupert Sanders, in 2012. Yes, she was in a high-profile relationship with Twilight costar Robert Pattinson, but she was also just 22, while Sanders was 41, married with two children, and in a position of authority on set. “Can you believe that Kristen Stewart cheated? Let us know what you think,” asked one magazine at the time, with Fox News calling her a “home-wrecker.” On the 10th anniversary of the photographs emerging, they went viral again—and saw Stewart rebranded as a villain once more.