The internet has a wild obsession with Sydney Sweeney's body. So she got in on the joke.
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What's more shocking: That an A-list celebrity made soap with her bathwater, or that the soap is now re-selling for thousands of dollars online?
The internet is divided over a recent marketing gimmick involving Sydney Sweeney, who, in collaboration with the men's personal care company Dr. Squatch, authorized the creation and sale of bars of soap containing, among other things, her bathwater.
Yes, this is real. In fact, the actress told E! News at the "Echo Valley" premiere earlier this month it was actually her idea.
"I think that's it's more fun to see everybody else talk about it," Sweeney said, when asked for her reaction to the soap.
Dr. Squatch made 5,000 bars of the soap − dubbed Sydney's Bathwater Bliss − and sold them online for $8 each. They quickly sold out, and now those bars are getting re-sold for much, much more on eBay. Some are priced as high as $1,600.
The soap clearly has its fans, but not everyone's amused by it. "Sad day for humanity," one person wrote on Instagram. "Everyone who bought this is an absolute vile form of human," wrote another.
Sweeney clearly wanted to get people talking with her soap, and she's obviously succeeded. But could she also be making a point that her critics are missing? Sweeney has been open before about society's rampant sexualization of her and the challenges this has brought to her life. By selling soap made with her bathwater, could she be calling attention to a deeper issue?
"Our culture polices women's sexuality, profits off it at the same time and shames them for profiting from it themselves − especially when it comes to young, beautiful, talented stars like Sydney Sweeney," Shira Tarrant, a women's, gender and sexuality studies professor and the author of "The Pornography Industry: What Everyone Needs to Know." In short: Sweeney's soap is a statement in more ways than one, intentional or not.
Sweeney said she got the idea for the soap after seeing the internet's reaction to an advertisement she did with Dr. Squatch last year.
That ad, which showed a nearly nude Sweeney sitting in a bathtub, got over 1.7 million likes on Instagram, along with plenty of comments inquiring about how to buy the actress' bathwater from the commercial shoot.
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Sweeney said she and Dr. Squatch decided to give the people what they want.
'When your fans start asking for your bathwater, you can either ignore it, or turn it into a bar of Dr. Squatch soap,' the actress said in a press release.
It seems that, no matter what she does, Sweeney can't escape scrutiny over her body. More recently, the actress stirred buzz for gaining 30 pounds to play boxer Christy Martin in an upcoming biopic. Some have noted that Sweeney's soap stunt seems especially odd, given what the actress has said before about being objectified. Sweeney opened up about the scrutiny surrounding her body last year in an interview with Variety.
"I see it, and I just can't allow myself to have a reaction," she told the outlet. "I don't know how to explain it — I'm still trying to figure it out myself. People feel connected and free to be able to speak about me in whatever way they want, because they believe that I've signed my life away. That I'm not on a human level anymore, because I'm an actor. That these characters are for everybody else, but then me as Sydney is not for me anymore. It's this weird relationship that people have with me that I have no control or say over."
More: Sydney Sweeney promotes her own bathwater in new soap collab. The internet has thoughts.
It's not just Sweeney who's come under fire recently either. Last week, Sabrina Carpenter received similar backlash when she unveiled the cover of her upcoming album 'Man's Best Friend.' The cover shows the pop star on her knees as a man off-camera holds her by the hair. Some defended the cover, while others called it degrading.
"It's always so funny to me when people complain. They're like, 'All she does is sing about this.' But those are the songs that you've made popular," Carpenter told Rolling Stone about the controversy. "Clearly you love sex. You're obsessed with it."
According to gender and sexuality experts, there are many ways to interpret Sweeney's intentions. On the one hand, it's possible she's acquiescing to society's mistreatment of her.
If this is the case, it's something that, unfortunately, many women can relate to, says Leora Tanenbaum, author of the book "Sexy Selfie Nation: Standing Up for Yourself in Today's Toxic, Sexist Culture."
"I heard the narrative so many times of 'I may as well monetize my sexuality because everyone else is already exploiting and objectifying me'," Tanenbaum says.
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On the other hand, it's also possible that Sweeney may be leaning into parody and satire in order to call out this objectification. Unless she states her intentions, we can't know for sure.
"Sydney Sweeney just found a brilliant way to literally package her own reputation — and sell it," Tarrant says. "Is this simply a money-making publicity stunt or a provocative statement about larger issues? The answer is both."
Perhaps the bigger question isn't what Sweeney is trying to say with her soap, but rather what her soap says about us.
Tanenbaum says the soap's popularity raises more questions about the people buying it than it does about Sweeney.
Degrading or empowering? Why people can't stop talking about Bianca Censori's naked dress.
The conversation around Sweeney's soap presents an opportunity for reflection. What does sexual empowerment really look like? There's nothing wrong with wanting to feel sexy − but it's important to know where this desire is coming from and why.
"I don't believe it's a good idea to engage in sexual behavior just to fulfill a script that's handed to you, or to prove a point to other people," Tanenbaum says. "When you take ownership over your sexuality to meet the expectations of other people, you actually lose your autonomy because it's about other people, not you."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sydney Sweeney and the real message of her bathwater soap
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