The Daily Signal - VDH: The Left Doesn’t Hate Sydney Sweeney’s Jeans. They Hate Beauty.

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

On today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson breaks down the absurdity of the outrage and exposes the real history of eugenics—hint: it doesn’t come from the Right. “ We have all sorts of models that pose for jean commercials. American Eagle have had black women, people, Hispanics, everybody. And do you remember the ad by Levi's for Beyonce? Levi's has her portrayed with a cowboy hat, a yellow wig, and in a country-western setting with Levi jeans. … Nobody objected, nobody said, ‘Beyonce is objectifying whiteness because, as an African American, she's got a blond wig on.’”  “ A final warning or a piece of advice from Aristotle: We act to beauty by proportion and mathematics. As I said, Beyonce is beautiful, not because she's black or not because she's not white, or Sydney Sweeney is beautiful, not because of her skin color, but because she has, as Aristotle would say, perfect symmetry. And that's a universal idea.” 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1    👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273    👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  (0:00) Sydney Sweeney’s Good Jeans/Genes Ad (0:27) Left's Outrage (0:33) Other Examples of Jean Commercials (3:05) The Essence of Advertising and Classical Beauty (4:28) Historical Context of Eugenics (5:53) Final Thoughts on Beauty and Proportion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. There's been a recent hysteria over a provocative jeans commercial by American Eagle. It portrays Sidney Sweeney, and the background messaging is Sidney Sweeney has great genes, and the gene, as in chromosomes, is crossed out replaced by J-E-A-N-S. And the message is that she's a natural beauty, but that she's a natural beauty in part because she has on American Eagle jeans. End of story, not quite. The left went hysterical. They were off to the the races to the Hitler, Third Reich comparisons. We have all sorts of models that pose for gene commercials. Do you remember the ad by Levi's for Beyonce? I thought it was wonderful. She's beautiful.

She has the same type of figure as Sidney's winning. Nobody objected. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. There's been a recent hysteria over a provocative commercial, a jeans commercial by American Eagle. It portrays, the young blonde model, Sidney Sweeney, she's also an actress, putting on or taking off a pair of tight tight jeans. And the background lettering or messaging is Sidney Sweeney has great genes and the gene G as in chromosomes is crossed out, replaced by J-E-A-N-S. And the message is that she's a natural beauty, but that she's a natural beauty in part because she has on American Eagle jeans.

End of story, not quite. The left went hysterical and they said this was objectifying whiteness that we were privileging white people over people of color. We were talking about eugenics because of the word genes and they just thought this was intolerable and they even compared it to Hitler and they were off to the races to the Hitler Third Reich comparisons. But this is what's odd about it. We have all sorts of models that pose for gene commercials. American Eagle have had black women, people, Hispanics, everybody. And do you remember the ad by Levi's for Beyonce? Levi's isn't, has her portrayed with a cowboy hat, a yellow wig, and

in a country western setting with Levi jeans. I thought it was wonderful. She's beautiful. She has the same type of figure as Sidney Swinney. Nobody objected. Nobody said, Beyonce is objectifying whiteness because as an African American, she's got a blonde wig on.

She's emulating the white cowboy country western modern culture, and she's got these tight jeans, and it's then appealing to a particular audience. No one said that, of course, because that's not what Sidney Sweeney was doing. So what was she's doing? Number one, she was telling people that she's attractive and that you can be attractive, maybe not to the same degree as Sidney-Sweeney if you put on American Eagle jeans, but will help you to be more attractive.

And indeed, people are going out and buying more American Eagle genes on the theory of the advertisers that you too can be Sidney-Sweeney. And that's the essence, isn't it, of all advertising. The second thing that was going on, she's also sending a message to the younger generation. We've got to get back to classical beauty. Aristotle said beauty is based on proportion, mathematics, and it's imprinted on our brains.

He's talking about architecture, landscape, why is a tree beautiful? And in terms of women, it's imprinted on our brains that women are thinner than heavier, more washbees figure than not, more buxom than not. And we have tried to say that that's not fair, that everybody can't be like that, therefore we're not going to do that, we're not going to portray it, we're not going to emphasize that. She's saying to the younger generation, you react to me because it's imprinted on your

brains, and I have a thin waist, an ample posterior, and I'm well-endowed, I have a big bosom. and that appeals to you and I'm going to show you. That's all it was. The other ironies about it, when you want to go down the everything is race category, you have to be very careful to know your history. They kept saying this is eugenics. You mentioned genes. What was the eugenics movement?

It was a late 19th century, early 20th century, progressive movement. It wasn't Democrat or Republican. It was progressive. The idea that we're going to use science to determine gene pools and then breed people accordingly, supposedly. And who were the great practitioners? Well, there were progressive Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt, but Woodrow Wilson was a stalwart. Helen Keller, but most famously Margaret Singer, the creator of Planned Parenthood. Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late Supreme Court Justice, remember she in a New Yorker interview,

remark that she didn't understand the objections to abortion because she said, aren't we aborting basically the right people? Right, meaning, I don't know what she quite meant, but selectively. So eugenics is a left-wing historical phenomenon, and it's very ironic for the leftist, accuse someone who's not a eugenicist, the makers of this ad, with eugenics when they could look to themselves, and maybe in the age of erasure, get rid of Margaret's. Sanger's Association with Planned Parenthood. And so finally, a final warning or a piece of advice from Aristotle. We act to beauty by proportion and mathematics, as I said.

Beyonce is beautiful, not because she's black or not because she's not white. Sidney Sweeney is beautiful, not because of her skin color, but because she has, as Aristotle would say, perfect symmetry. And that's a universal idea that translates into appreciation of young women with figures like that, and it transcends the hysteria and the madness of our contemporary racially fixed culture. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal.

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