Sydney Sweeney was a victim of SNL’s 'hot woman edit', but history tells us things could have been worse.

Sydney Sweeney has become one of Hollywood's most in-demand actors. 

And recently she scored a coveted spot hosting Saturday Night Live to prove it.

In the long-standing history of the famous sketch show, if you get the call-up to host you've already hit the big time or you're on the cusp. 

For Sweeney her star has been on the rise ever since her breakout role in Euphoria. She then followed up her star-turn as Cassie Howard with a role in The White Lotus and before long she took on the lead role for the rom-com Anyone But You. She also kicked off 2024 with the Marvel comic adaptation of Madame Web starring alongside Dakota Johnson.

Not only is she booked and busy but the accolades are reflecting all of the hard work she is putting into these diverse and nuanced characters. In 2022 she received not one but two Emmy nominations for her acting in Euphoria and The White Lotus, respectively.

Furthermore, the internet loves her (despite that MAGA snafu), which in this day and age is a surefire way to make it big in Hollywood. But a legion of fans can't be bamboozled by a perfect marketing campaign - the truth is, she's talented and certainly has something to offer this industry.

So it would come as no surprise she got given the SNL treatment. 

Sydney Sweeney hosting Saturday Night Live in 2024. Image: NBC.

 On Saturday evening (Sunday AEDT) as the show broadcast live from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City the online world began its usual commentary much like it does every week. Sweeney opened with her monologue which always immediately sets the tone for the show. As the jokes rolled in a very one-note through line was becoming very obvious. Sweeney is a beautiful woman and it came across as though the writers felt like that was the only angle.

She addressed the audience and said "people only see me as the girl on TV who screams, cries, and has sex," before adding that her backup plan to make it in Hollywood was to "show boobs."

Sydney Sweeney hosting in SNL. Image: NBC.

 And from there on out little was done to show Sweeney's range outside of being a one-dimensional object of desire. 

Perhaps it was the opening monologue or was it the overt Hooters sketch or perhaps the scene where Sweeney's character falls for a Golden Retriever dog that sent people over the edge, but the internet had a pretty visceral reaction to the host's portrayal within the sketches. 

we will never know a world in which she is not used as eye candy and/or sexualised 99% of the time… who cares about being funny!!! HEY!!!!! look at sydney sweeney in a hooters uniform!!!!! god… WHO LET THIS HAPPEN (s*m l*vinson it was you)
pic.twitter.com/v6De2qlAL1 https://t.co/0XeHqELFdM

— raf (@zoeyduatch) March 4, 2024

SNL makes fun of Trump for being sexist and reducing women to their looks but that is what every single sketch has done to Sydney Sweeney to tonight and it’s a shame. They’re just as bad as the rest of men.

— ahs 🛸 (@imrickdalton) March 3, 2024

I missed how this was supposed to be funny. She's hot and she gets the best tips...what's the point? Come on writers, do better.

— Lawrence Stern (@LawrenceHughes) March 3, 2024

Challenge for SNL writers: have Sydney tell jokes that aren’t just about her being hot, and speak to her other qualities as an actor and person. Cmon guys

— Hussain (@huspsa) February 29, 2024

Of course, there is something to be said in favour of self-deprecating humour. There is absolutely a place for it, especially in Hollywood where delusions of grandeur can make it seem like everything is a bit too serious. But when SNL largely relied on Sweeney's looks to inform the majority of the jokes, it felt sexist and a huge overshadowing of her genuine talents.

But this isn't the first time SNL has fallen on cheap, sexist comedy without actually trying to give dimensions to their female guests. 

In 2004 Lindsay Lohan was the actress du jour after the iconic film Mean Girls was met with worldwide acclaim. As a result, SNL writers reduced her to little more than an object to be ogled at in the "Hermione Granger" sketch.

When Margot Robbie hosted SNL in 2016 she starred in a sketch called "Live Report" and an ongoing joke was made about how her character was too good-looking to be married to a 'regular' guy. That's it, that's the whole joke.

In 2009 host Megan Fox was given a similar treatment in a sketch called "Russian Bride". I think you can gather from the title it wasn't doing her any favours and merely made a joke through the male gaze that went nowhere fast and for too long.

SNL's 'hot woman' edit has raised eyebrows in the past and yet decades later it's still taking place. 

Maybe SNL just isn't layered enough to approach a woman's abilities and talents outside of their looks. And yet they've managed to make statements outside of the world of satire many times before.

They aren't afraid to take aim at the likes of accused sexual abuser Donald Trump. Whilst there is no world where you can compare an actual predator with sexist jokes on a sketch show, it is incredibly tone-deaf. To lack the capacity to recognise that promoting that kind of humour is indirectly pushing the "locker room" energy that Trump emanates is truly mind-boggling.

Of course Sweeney is a woman who has agency and she has every right to show off her body in a way that feels comfortable to her. But I can't help but think she stepped into a room of SNL writers (an experience that would no doubt make anyone feel slightly nervous) and was blindsided by a one-note narrative she felt compelled to comply with.

Listen to The Spill hosts explain how Sydney Sweeney fell victim to the SNL curse.

Sweeney has a really exciting project coming up. 

In 2014 she auditioned for the role in a horror film called Immaculate. As is standard practice in Hollywood, the project was scrapped, seemingly to never see the light of day. Then almost a decade later Sweeney brought the film back to life by coming on board as a producer, working on a revised script, finding a director and getting backing for the distribution. It will be given a worldwide cinematic release later this month. Pretty impressive, right?

It's almost as if her drive, talent, and prowess in the industry could've made for great source material for some witty, well-rounded scripts on Saturday Night Live. 

Wouldn't that be something?

Feature Image: NBC.

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