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True Beauty Is Conduct: Why the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle Ad Debate Matters | YBT021 CWP107
The recent American Eagle advertisements featuring Sydney Sweeney have sparked intense public reaction, but amidst the noise, a deeper conversation is being overlooked—one that speaks to the heart of Christian discipleship in our image-driven culture. Join Jeremy Jeremiah and James St. Simon as we discuss this cultural issue head on.
Rather than getting swept up in ideological debates or surface-level controversies, we invite believers to reflect on what Scripture teaches about beauty, modesty, and the dignity of the human person. The human body is a gift from God—fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)—but how we present that gift reveals whom we serve.
In today’s culture, where marketing often trades in provocation and the reduction of persons to visual consumption, Christians are called to something higher. The lives of women like Sarah, Hannah, Ruth, and above all, the Theotokos—the Virgin Mary—remind us that true beauty is inseparable from virtue. Their strength, humility, and faithfulness reveal a radiance that no advertisement can replicate.
Modesty, in the Christian tradition, is not about shame or repression. It is about reverence—for oneself, for others, and for the God who made us. As St. Paul writes, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Our bodies are not commodities to be marketed, but sacred vessels meant for glory, love, and service.
Marriage itself, the first covenant established by God, points us beyond mere physical attraction toward a deeper union of souls, grounded in sacrificial love and spiritual communion.
As followers of Christ, we are called to rise above the culture wars and bear witness to a Kingdom where beauty is not exploited but honored, not flaunted but cherished. Let us strive for a vision of womanhood and manhood rooted in holiness—not in trends, but in timeless truth.
Join us for a thoughtful conversation on how we, as Christians, can respond with grace, clarity, and conviction in a world that often forgets the sacredness of the human form.
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Thank you for journeying w/ the Saints with us!
But just so we're clear, this is not me telling you to buy American Eagle jeans.
Speaker 2:Sidney Sweeney has very keen.
Speaker 1:James, I'm going to say it. We're two married men, we're Christians. We're in dangerous territory right now.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:But we are going to dare to talk about the new Sidney Sweeney advertisements that she's done for American Eagle.
Speaker 2:But if you said that you want to buy the jeans, I'm not going to stop you.
Speaker 1:Denim, you know, jeans and whatnot. A lot of people are talking about it, maybe for some right reasons, maybe for some wrong reasons. You know, in God's grace, we believe that Orthodox Christianity encompasses all things and can have an insight and perspective on all things. So may this conversation be blessed. What were your initial thoughts?
Speaker 2:I think the big focal point to me is the conversation around it, more so than the actual content itself is. The left is using this as some subliminal nazi propaganda. Uh, this language of nazism and fascism that's being thrown, and at the conservative um sentiment, uh, or persuasion, you could say um is really polarizing and they they use it to make the, the right, seem like a violent, aggressive, authoritarian party. But that's not the case, however. On the contrast, the right, in their attempt to oppose what the left is trying to call out, is focusing on defending this type of perversion really is what it is um. It's uh, it's explicit, it's suggestive, it's really inappropriate, yeah, but they're ignoring that. They're focusing more on the racial issue that the, the left is bringing up, that this it's not racist.
Speaker 1:It's not racist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the left is offended by female beauty. It's. How is no one talking about how this? This is going back to the days of Carl's Jr, when they were over sexualizing, marketing and advertising. I think that's what's more baffling to me that that's not even a part of the conversation, right?
Speaker 1:Well, you said a very important word.
Speaker 1:You said polarizing, and I think that, literally, that's maybe part of the point when it comes to these types of debates, the devil loves to divide and I think that any opportunity and I'll just say it, I think the right does it as much as the left does this happens to be a case where I think, yeah, I think the left trying to bring this out as a race issue, I just find absurd, sure, and we could give so many counter examples of where beautiful women of color have been used in advertising to no negative or racial effect.
Speaker 1:It's just, it is what they are, they're beautiful women, they're, you know, they're models or whatnot of various ethnicities and and and skins of color and lineages, etc. But because sydney, sween, has been, for kind of odd reasons, associated, as you were pointing out, with the political right, she has to be castigated, right, she has to be attacked. And I think you've said it well, james, the left hates femininity, true femininity. The left hates, I think, beauty in a sad way. And so this attack, I agree, it kind of misses the point, so much so that it's causing the response to be equally as blind to what the real issue is, which we, as Christians, is.
Speaker 2:This is just another example of a hedonistic over-sexualization of media put into the face of men, women and children, and it's not okay whether she's a conservative or not the more we move away from our god-given um instincts and and um, our, our roles and our um, just the way that we are, the extreme reaction that happens to to counter that usually goes too far. And so when, when they say, you know, it's an attack on beauty, they pervert beauty in a sense that distorts actually what real beauty is and and um. You know, a relationship is so much more than just the sexual component to it. There's a deeper intimacy, right, it's the marriage relationship, which is really the foundation of the Christian faith. It's the first relationship that we're introduced to in Scripture. Is the marriage relationship that we're introduced to in scripture is the marriage relationship, and it's highly valued. Even the church itself is an image of the marriage relationship. It goes deeper than that form of intimacy. There's this intimacy that is more deeper than platonic, but it's also that's not it, you know. It's. It's two people becoming one, right, and it's two people who are different in many ways, but they're complementary to one another. They uh, support one another, they go, they fit well together and they maintain the stability of society, they maintain the stability of the home, and that's beautiful.
Speaker 2:What's beautiful is not necessarily what's on the outside. What's beautiful is? Well, I guess it's still the outside, because it's the conduct. That's what Proverbs talks about. The conduct of a woman is what is beautiful. It's not the gold, it's not the silver, it's how they're arraigned in class and beauty and dignity and respect. And I think that these kinds of things are just tasteless and it's not the best representation of of beauty amen.
Speaker 1:I, I, you were, I think, gonna mention a word that we haven't said yet, and that's modesty, absolutely. And I think it's very easy in modern culture for the world to look at the church, to look at Christianity, and just be like, oh, they're a bunch of prudes, you know, they're stuck, you know in the old times and you know they can't appreciate that God created women that way. These types of you know ad hominem attacks, et cetera. There's a brilliant, brilliant book that's written the author is going to escape me right now but the title is Woman and Salvation. Not women and salvation, but woman and salvation, and it is a masterful book. That gets into.
Speaker 1:Why does modesty matter? Why are women to cover themselves in a modest way? And ultimately you're going to love this, james. It goes back to the Theotokos. It goes back to, you can say, in many ways Christians exalt women. Why, not just to put them on a pedestal, but because God himself chose the Virgin Mary right and she accepted that call right. She humbled herself to God and in that act, the veiling, the modesty, the covering is showing how important and noble and full of dignity she really is, and so I loved how you were putting that, James, if you get away from that, if you move away from the modesty, there is no dignity in it, there's no appreciation for how special a woman is, and that's the true view of Christianity. It's not that we don't appreciate beauty.
Speaker 2:God never left out women as part of the story. When we look at the story of, I think of Abraham, you don't separate Abraham from Sarah, who played a critical role, and God didn't just ignore her, but even called her by name and she's included in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. I think of Hannah, the mother of Samuel. Her faith was recognized and included in sacred scripture. I think of Ruth right, who won a man over Boaz, a kinsman, redeemer right over, by her conduct, her love, her compassion, her service.
Speaker 2:God has not left women out of the story because he values what they bring to the table, what he created them for. It's important that we don't lose that sense of value in people, that we are more than just our bodies, we are more than just what's on the outside. There's so much to appreciate about us, who we are, but I think more so it's the conduct. What would make someone immoral or immodest would be the way that they conduct ourselves, and that's what I think is failing. When you play this identity politics, you lose the sense of virtue and morality. The morals are completely lost. Because they made this issue about race, but I don't think they see and recognize the degradation of society, where, when we see something like this, that is, um you know, suggestive and and purposefully meant to be filled with innuendo and it's a clever play on words.
Speaker 2:It's meant to seduce and I think it was. It accomplished what it was meant to do it, and that was to be evocative and provocative, you know, uh, it got a response here.
Speaker 1:We are talking about it, but I think most of the conversation again is focusing on the wrong thing right, amen, um, and that's, you know, it's why we do these podcasts, james, to be frank, right, because we want to bring a Christian perspective to these issues. Because there is a Christian perspective, there's a way to look at this that you know, god willing, you're not going to be far off the track, right, you're not going to be too far to the right, too far to the left or miss the point completely. But when you can dress like a professor, right, when I can come in here and wear a white shirt or, you know, mario's got a hat on, these are these things that make us who we are. It's part of our personality, it's part of the reflection of God, right, how we dress, and I think that's important.
Speaker 1:And it's partly what's going on here with this Sidney Sweeney, you know, commercial, this ad campaign One. It's sad that she's kind of given in to, you know, using her looks, her good genes, you know, to make a lot of money, right, and to put herself into the public eye. It is a shame, right, but at the same time I want to say, ultimately, it seems that it's the people that are enjoying this or indulging in it, or supporting it.
Speaker 1:Supporting it that maybe is the real problem.
Speaker 2:As if she's some champion for the conservative cause, and I don't think that that's the case. And I think it's very important that we hold to our values and, you know, preserve the integrity of, you know dignity, and I'm just weary of the identity politics, especially in the church. You know each party is guilty of missing the mark. Our only savior is Christ, not any political figure.
Speaker 1:I do want to say you know to those listening we don't recommend that you go watch this commercial. Yeah, we don't recommend that you go watch this commercial.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's, this has been talked about, it's in the, it's in the kind of the cultural discussion right now. So, which is why we wanted to bring it up, but please, anyone listening to this or watching this, you're better off, not. Hopefully, our conversation alone is enough to talk you out of wanting to see it. It is 2025. It is the world, know the, the prince of this world is still, you know, doing his thing to try to divide and try to distort, to pervert and to distract from that goal, which is, and ought to be, starting right here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if I may say, the body is nothing to be ashamed of. Right, the body in of itself is not evil. We're not Gnostics. The body was created by God. It's a beautiful thing, it's a marvel of science, it's incredible and it should be celebrated and it should be exalted and whatnot. But again, it's just like with everything, it's how you use it. You know, the body in of itself is not immodest, it's not inappropriate. When we talk to our children, we teach them the proper terminology of the body parts and the anatomy. There's nothing innately evil about it or wrong or distasteful about the body itself. It's all about how you use what has been given, the intention behind how you use it, and it can be either used for edification or it can be used for and we always need to make it our goal to use our bodies as vessels of honor, not vessels of dishonor.