The truest thing about Sydney right now is that she has the pop culture world completely divided.

Half of her fans are obsessed with her and think she is the most amazing gift to planet Earth.

Others think that she is overhyped, overexposed, oversexualized, and too problematic.

Is she starting controversies on purpose?

Beyond what Euphoria did for Sydney’s career, I am also questioning some of the controversial things she’s done behind the scenes that have pushed the boundaries. It’s like she’s seeing if she’ll be able to maintain support no matter what she does. Because it seems that in the past, people have been quick to forgive Sydney for different mishaps here and there, but she’s slowly starting to lose that edge where it’s been easy for people to forgive her.

Obviously, her controversies have been amplified this past year, but part of me is starting to wonder if being super controversial is just part of her overall long-term plan. As in, maybe she’s playing the long game knowing that a few negative headlines about her early on in her career might help seal her long-term future into motion because if people are willing to forgive her for different things now, then it means they’ll continue putting her on a pedestal down the line.

We’ll start with the photos that were snapped at a political-themed birthday party for one of her family members in 2023. People were photographed wearing hats that resembled MAGA hats, and it was unfortunate because things in this political atmosphere have been extremely tense the last few years. We’ve got an attack on immigrants currently happening with ICE agents tearing families apart, we’ve got the scandal of the Epstein files, we’ve got the president dismantling most DEI initiatives which were a main tool in supporting historically marginalized groups, we’ve got the president re-ordering how federal civil rights are enforced which has often been to the detriment of minorities, we’ve got the president ordering the rewriting and erasure of Black history and the history of racial oppression from federal museums, national parks, and federal lands, and we’ve got a president who’s setting the tone for mainstream acceptance of racism and white nationalism.

So it’s not worse than it sounds to be anti-MAGA at this juncture. Supporting that side means you’re cosigning bigotry. Point blank. So when Sydney was spotted at that family member’s birthday, a lot of her fans were rightfully upset.

Another scandal was the backlash she received during her press tour for the movie Anyone But You that she filmed with Glen Powell. She and Glen played into the rumors that they were having an affair while filming the movie, and it ended his long-term relationship with his girlfriend Gigi Paris. Gigi outright spoke about their breakup in an interview and made it clear that his behavior behind the scenes with Sydney was a factor in the breakup because she felt so disrespected — which is understandable.

Then she put out a bath soap collaboration with a brand called Dr. Squatch that allegedly had some of her bathwater infused into the soap blend. At the time, a lot of her female fans slammed her for setting feminism back by many years, because it was widely believed that she was catering to the patriarchy by doing the exact scandalous thing that Belle Delphine got canceled for back in like 2019. Belle was famous as a gamer girl, but when she decided to sell her bathwater online, and she ended up getting banned from Instagram permanently. Since Belle was judged and punished for doing something so similar just a few years ago, a lot of people were confused why Sydney was able to do something similar and get away with it without really any repercussions. I didn’t really personally care that much because I get that she was just trying to get her bag and earn more money with a brand collaboration. If she’s going to drain anyone’s bank account it might as well be pervy men. But the scary part is that the rise of red pill and incel culture in young men was truly put on display when Sydney started selling this soap, since her target demographic was incel men. Incel men are generally the scariest demographic of human beings on this earth because they don’t see women as human beings.

And obviously the American Eagle advertisement that claimed she had “good genes” as a play on words with the blue jeans she was wearing from the brand. A lot of people started posting hot takes about the advertisement on social media with some fans questioning if the advertisement was hinting at the idea that the genes of white people are superior. Sydney then sat down for a separate interview where she had the opportunity to shut that narrative down, but she refused to shut it down, which only made people feel more upset and angry with her.

When she went public in her relationship with Scooter Braun, that also had some fans feeling some type of way because none of us loved seeing Scooter’s drama with Taylor Swift just a few years ago when he bought Taylor’s masters without her permission. Taylor ended up having to re-record a bunch of her songs because of it. So when Sydney started dating Scooter, it made it abundantly clear that she’s not a girl’s girl, even for someone as beloved as Taylor Swift, who has the army of Swifties behind her.

There have been a few other controversies and scandals, but those are the only ones I’m going to dig into right now because this isn’t supposed to be a shit-on-Sydney-Sweeney article. I am trying to remain as objective as possible. But the question of whether she’s been willing to place herself directly into scandals early on in her career in order to see how far she can push the envelope while maintaining fan support is loud. Although it’s a very risky angle because if a person has too many controversies under their belt too early, it can actually butcher their chances of having longevity in their career.