Move over, Donald Trump. Sorry, Marjorie Taylor Greene. The American Right has a new blonde figurehead, and her name is Sydney Sweeney. The Euphoria actress made a much-heralded appearance as host on Saturday Night Live at the weekend, receiving mixed reviews from the critics but winning over an entirely new fanbase: conservatives on social media.
“Wokeness is dead,” was the response of political scientist and writer Richard Hanania to a clip of Sweeney’s appearance on SNL, while Right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong reacted to the same video by saying that “wokeness is finished”. The actress’s appeal has been ascribed to her being “the first starlet in a long time to unrepentantly and cheerfully chase the male gaze”, while viewers pointed out her sketch dressed as a waitress from the conservative-coded restaurant chain Hooters.
Assumptions about Sweeney’s Right-wing politics follow an episode in 2022 when attendees at her mother’s birthday party were pictured in what appeared to be MAGA hats in support of Donald Trump. One of the actress’s most recent films is Anyone But You, a refrain no doubt shared by Democrats monitoring the contest for the Republican nomination.
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