If you haven’t seen the newest conservative sex symbol’s sports betting ad yet, know that Sydney Sweeney sits on a basketball hoop wearing nothing, twirling a basketball on her finger, sensually saying “sports” to the camera. 

The ad, as disturbing as it is, speaks to something greater. Sweeney’s public association with the right — marked by her lingerie brand’s partnership at Stagecoach, or “Trumpchella,” and her Republican voter registration discovered amid her infamous jeans ad — has been marked by an increasing amount of self-sexualization and a transition deep into the straight male gaze. 

From Mar-a-Lago face and GLP-1s, to Lauren Sánchez Bezos’ lacy outfit for President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a shift is becoming clear. The party that once prided itself on conservatism is now rebranding boobs. Or, more broadly, women’s sexuality. 

When the President is known for saying things like “grab them by the p—-” or “quiet piggy” to or about women, the degradation of respect for women becomes dangerously normalized. 

But this new norm isn’t leading us straight to “The Handmaid’s Tale” dystopia where women are fully covered and silent; it’s leading us to a conundrum that The New Yorker’s Jennifer Wilson paints as the question: “Have conservatives taken sexy back?” 

Maybe they have. Make America Hot Again is a movement — and a brand that only seems to sell a singular hat for $42 — founded by Raquel Debono. Debono, a lawyer-turned-influencer, is poisoning the streets of New York City with tweets like “Who’s Jalen Brunson and why is every man in nyc gay for him?” and “‘All men do is lie’ ok well have you ever been in a fat women’s comment section?” 

Make America Hot Again hosts events for young conservatives to meet each other, and Debono bragged to the New York Post that there was a couple “getting hot and heavy” in the bathroom of one of her parties. 

And this sexiness rebrand doesn’t just have a face-value impact. In December 2025, Trump purchased up to $1 million of Victoria’s Secret bonds.

Trump’s purchase might be because CEO Hillary Super chose to bring back the signature Victoria’s Secret fashion show in 2024, which had been cancelled since 2019, likely because former chief marketing officer Ed Razek told Vogue that transgender and plus-size models didn’t fit the show’s “fantasy” in 2018. 

It isn’t that MAGA has taken sexy back; it’s that MAGA is trying to rebrand sexy to fit the straight male gaze. With the downfall of diversity, equity and inclusion, our media has become whiter and more male-centric. 

A 2025 Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report found that while the number of women “behind the camera” in Hollywood has gone up since 2007, there was little to no progress between 2023 and 2024. According to the report, only 25% of the top 100 highest-grossing films in 2024 had a lead/co-lead character from an underrepresented racial group, compared to 37% in 2023. 

The Annenberg report also found that, since 2007, the percentage of speaking female characters in the top 100 highest-grossing films has only increased by 3.7%. In 2024, it was listed at 33.6%.

Without intentional work toward creating diverse narratives, mainstream media slowly moves backward by annihilating equal and positive representation. The downfall of DEI leads us into a culture where Meghan Trainor is on GLP-1s despite building her brand on body positivity, and no actors of color won an Emmy for a major prize. 

What the media tells us is hot becomes what is hot, especially in the age of social media, and without fair representation, sexiness becomes limited to Sydney Sweeney saying “sports.”

The sexual liberation movement was pioneered by feminists, hippies and queer leaders; the women-hating leaders of our nation and media do not get to decide what sexy is. 

The likes of Les Wexner, the former owner of VS and a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein and alleged contributor to his trafficking crimes, or Philip Anschutz, the owner of Coachella and Stagecoach who has donated $75,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association to enforce anti-abortion laws, control far too much of what is considered sexy and what isn’t. 

Sweeney’s ad isn’t inherently empowering or degrading, but the danger lies in who is watching and what the target audience is supposed to be. All audiences have power, but so does the media; when the media feeds its audiences whiteness, thinness and female submission as the only possible avenue for sexiness, the true fantasy is lost.