Sydney Sweeney’s Sports Illustrated Cover Sparks Photoshop Controversy

Five months after her American Eagle “Good Jeans” ad controversy, Sydney Sweeney has caused a stir again.

You may remember Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign in late July that resulted in plenty of backlash. In it, the actress, who donned a denim jacket and a pair of jeans by the brand, says: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring. Often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My ‘jeans’ are blue.” A voiceover then adds, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

The play-on-words ad kicked off comments about beauty standards, with some insisting that more diverse models should have been featured in the campaign.

Now, the “Euphoria” actress is being criticized for her photoshoot with legendary female boxer Christy Martin.

Following the release of the biopic Christy last month, Sweeney, who played Martin in the film, posed with the boxing icon on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s latest edition and the photo has garnered plenty of reactions.

In the cover image, Sweeney and Martin are both sporting white tank tops with white boxing shorts featuring the American flag. But some thought the image of Sweeney was Photoshopped to enhance her cleavage, as others were up in arms questioning why the picture was “sexualized.”

“SI photoshopped the cleavage obviously,” one commenter wrote, while more agreed, “The cleavage looks so out of place” and “This is probably one of the most photoshopped images I’ve ever seen in my life. Like it looks very bad, like 2009 bad.”

Others accused Sweeney of wearing a push-up bra for the shoot and therefore sexualizing it.

“Why is she wearing a push-up bra while dressed like she’s about to box?? Not everything needs to be made sexual/sexy,” one person posted. A second chimed in, “Pls the push-up bra, we cannot be [for real] right now.”

Others echoed that they felt bad for Martin having to be part of this, instead of the focus being on her boxing career, with one person writing, “This whole situation has been so embarrassing and sad for Christy.”

Not everyone was critical of the cover, though as one person opined, “Sydney Sweeney looks fierce; it’s a great tribute to the strength of female boxing,” calling it “A stunning and powerful cover, perfectly blending celebrity influence with boxing legend Christy Martin.”