BREAKING: Trump Vindicated in Newly Released 'Epstein Files' Interview
There’s a Blue Collar Boom Happening in America
Abrego Garcia, 'Maryland Man,' MS-13 Member, and Alleged Human Trafficker, Has Been Sprung...
Antifa Tried to Incite Violence Between Black and Jewish Neighbors – Watch How...
Defiant DeSantis Hits Back Hard at Federal Judge Who Slapped Down 'Alligator Alcatraz'
The First Wave of Epstein Files Is on its Way to Congress –...
SAFE HAVEN IN OHIO
Pennsylvania Man Sentenced to 28 months for SNAP, Medical Fraud
Ghislaine Maxwell Transcript: 'There is no list'
Canada Drops Retaliatory Tariffs Against the US
Trump: Lisa Cook Must Resign or Be Fired Over Mortgage Fraud Allegations
Nevada Man Sentenced for Over $11M COVID-19 Relief Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme
Joni Ernst Takes a Chainsaw to Washington Waste — And Taxpayers Are Winning
Chip Roy Champions Texas’s Redistricting
Trump Brings Law and Order — And Dinner — to D.C.'s Front Lines
OPINION

Cleavage in a Bored Country

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Copyright Business Wire 2025

Some countries have true, serious problems. 

Then there are countries that have national discussions over a buxom young white woman in a jeans commercial.

Obviously, America is the latter. 

Advertisement

This week, the internet -- and the media more generally -- exploded over a commercial starring actress Sydney Sweeney for American Eagle. The spot features Sweeney, lying seductively on the ground as she buttons her jeans, stating, "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue." The ad concludes with the tagline: "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans." 

According to those who apparently have far too much time on their hands, this ad is reminiscent of Nazism. Washington Post fashion critic Rachel Tashjian lamented that the ad felt "regressive." A wide variety of colorfully haired and bewilderingly pierced TikTok users labeled the ad a "Nazi dog whistle," presumably based on the idea that praising the genes of a blond-haired, blue-eyed woman with an hourglass figure is somehow an ode to the Third Reich. Charlie Warzel of The Atlantic wrote, "(Sweeney's) image has been co-opted by the right, accurately or not, in part because of where she's from (the Mountain West) and some of her hobbies (fixing cars). Even her figure has become a cultural stand-in for the idea, pushed by conservative commentators, that Americans should be free to love boobs." 

Advertisement

Yes, we have now reached the point in American life that it is controversial to suggest that men like breasts; it is now apparently "right-coded." 

This is patently insane. 

But perhaps the insanity isn't just a sign of a culture infected with terrible ideas, ranging from the mutability of gender to the evisceration of beauty standards to the willfully ridiculous attempt to treat the male sex drive as uniquely evil. 

Perhaps it's a sign of a culture that has lost touch with actual, real problems in the world. A culture that is out of touch not just with reality, but with threat. For a while, such cultures can survive. After all, America is uniquely placed in the world: thousands of miles from any direct foreign policy threat, blessed by natural resources beyond those of any other country, heir to a robust tradition of Anglo-American law and custom that have generated an unprecedented level of economic prosperity. 

But reality has a funny way of clocking such cultures back into reality. It turns out that history never stops moving, that threats never stop militating. And what's more, a self-obsessed and shallow culture that worries about whether boobs in jeans ads are a return to Hitler makes itself uniquely vulnerable to such threats. A people who imbibe the stupidity that trauma amounts to taking mild offense at a dumb pun in an advertisement is a people utterly unprepared for the return of reality.

Advertisement

The great German leader Otto von Bismarck once remarked, "There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America." We can only pray that Providence continues to protect us from our own idiocy as we sink ever deeper into social media reveries of borderline psychopathy.

Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

Help us continue to expose their left-wing bias by reading news you can trust. Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement