Sydney Sweeney candidly shared her belief that women’s empowerment often feels more like an idea than a reality in practice. In Vanity Fair’s 2024 Hollywood issue published on Wednesday (November 13), the 27-year-old actress addressed how her talent had been put into question, especially by other women in the industry.

Sydney told Vanity Fair: “It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down, especially when women who are successful in other avenues of their industry see younger talent working really hard—hoping to achieve whatever dreams that they may have—and then trying to bash and discredit any work that they’ve done. 

“This entire industry, all people say is ‘Women empowering other women.’ None of it’s happening. 

“All of it is fake and a front for all the other s**t that they say behind everyone’s back. I mean, there’s so many studies and different opinions on the reasoning behind it.” 

Sydney Sweeney candidly shared her belief that women’s empowerment often feels more like an idea than a reality in practice

Image credits: Jaime Nogales/Medios y Media/Getty Images

“I’ve read that our entire lives, we were raised—and it’s a generational problem—to believe only one woman can be at the top. 

“There’s one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything. 

“So then all the others feel like they have to fight each other or take that one woman down instead of being like, ‘Let’s all lift each other up.’

“I’m still trying to figure it out. I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?”

The Euphoria star was addressing an incident from earlier this year, when movie producer Carol Baum criticized her acting abilities and appearance, questioning a class of film students on why she was considered “hot.”

Image credits: sydney_sweeney

Back in April, Carol was speaking with the New York Times film critic Janet Maslin in front of an audience of fans following a screening of her 1988 film Dead Ringers starring Jeremy Irons, Bored Panda previously reported.

During the event, the director said: “There’s an actress who everybody loves now—Sydney Sweeney.

“I don’t get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie [Anyone But You] because I wanted to watch it. 

“I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her.

“I watched this unwatchable movie—sorry to people who love this movie—[this] romantic comedy where they hate each other.”

In Vanity Fair’s 2024 Hollywood issue, the 27-year-old actress addressed how her talent had been put into question

Image credits: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

“I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty, she can’t act. Why is she so hot?’”

Experts are divided on the reasons behind female competition, with some attributing it to biological instincts, while others argue it’s a result of internalized misogyny.

Joyce Benenson, a researcher at Emmanuel College in Boston, USA, suggested that competition among women often involves subtle forms of rivalry rather than physical confrontations, as women generally prioritize safety to protect future pregnancies, Psychology Today reported in 2014. 

According to Joyce, high-status or attractive women tend to need less support, which can create tension with other women who may view them as competition. 

Image credits: sydney_sweeney

This can lead to an unspoken pressure toward equality and uniformity, where women prefer everyone to share similar attributes or achievements.

In some cases, groups of women might even exclude a particularly attractive newcomer to reduce competition for attention.

Several studies support the idea of “female competition.” Researchers Jon Maner and James McNulty found that women’s testosterone levels rose after unknowingly smelling T-shirts worn by ovulating women, hinting at a biological response to competition. 

Another study by Tracy Vaillancourt and Aanchal Sharma showed that women judged a young female assistant more harshly when she wore revealing clothes than when she wore casual attire, with participants criticizing her or ignoring her based on her appearance. 

Sydney told Vanity Fair: “It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down”

Image credits: Frazer Harrison/GA/The Hollywood Reporter

Nevertheless, feminist psychology argues that competition among females is driven primarily not by biological imperatives but rather by social mechanisms, as per Psychology Today.

According to this argument, cutthroat female competition is due mainly to the fact that women, born and raised in a male-dominated society, internalize the male perspective (the “male gaze”) and adopt it as their own. 

According to Psychology Today, the male view of women as primarily sexual objects becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

As women come to consider being prized by men as their ultimate source of strength, worth, achievement, and identity, they are compelled to battle other women for the prize.

Image credits: sydney_sweeney

“The precept of ‘one seat at the table’ comes from a belief that diversity is mandated, but not useful,” Mikaela Kiner, an HR expert told Harvard Business Review in 2020. 

She added: “In fact, there’s extensive evidence that more diverse teams perform better, are more innovative, produce more revenue, and higher profits. 

“When women adopt this scarcity mindset and fight amongst themselves, it holds all women back. 

“If a woman wants to get ahead, the better course is to champion the women around her, resulting in more opportunities and increased success for all.”

“I’m sick of people trying to tear her down,” a reader commented

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