Sydney Sweeny and the Power (and Performance) of the Female Form

What Sydney Sweeney’s gown at Variety’s Power of Women event reveals — about art, femininity, and our ongoing confusion between sensuality and performance.

Woooo eeee! Sydney Sweeney — the pint-sized bombshell who’s got heads rolling off shoulders and tongues waggin’.

Let’s break this down.

First, the art. Because I’ll always be drawn to beauty found in art before anything else.

The dress — that dress — is simply gorgeous. It debuted at the Christian Cowan Spring/Summer 2026 show during New York Fashion Week. I’m not a fashionista, but I do love fashion as art — the textures, the craftsmanship, the way fabric becomes narrative. The way a designer tells a story through folds and seams.

This particular piece, from the Cowan x Elias Matso collection, is a stunning example of their signature “twisted snatched waist” and that beautiful contradiction they do so well — a blurry line between private and public, delicacy and force, vulnerability and power.

And that’s exactly what draws me to Sydney Sweeney. There’s a delicate, almost old-Hollywood femininity in her… but also this magnetic, unapologetic force. She’s beauty in contradiction — soft power wrapped in porcelain skin and steely resolve.

So when she showed up at the Variety Power of Women 2025 event — an honouree no less — in a sheer, nipple-baring gown, I had… thoughts.

Is this the dress you wear to convey the “power of women”?

Is the “power of women” found only in our hot bods?

There’s no puritanical bullshitery coming from me, promise. But I do wonder — is this our current definition of feminine power?

Honestly… maybe it always has been. Our bodies do hold incredible power. My Spanish grandfather used to joke that “a woman’s bosom pulls harder than an ox and bull cart.” (Don’t come for him — he was born in the early 1900's. Different times, different truths.) But the man had a point.

Our feminine energy is magnetic — commanding in a way that defies logic. But here’s where I get caught: in today’s culture, that magnetism is often mistaken for performance.

We can layer this in art-speak — talk about the duality of the private and public, the reclaiming of the gaze, the power in contradiction. And yes, that’s all valid. But sometimes… it’s just another performance of confidence and empowerment.

And that’s what this feels like — performative sexuality dressed up as empowerment.

I’m not mad about it. Truly. She looked stunning. The gown was exquisite. It just felt misplaced.

Wear it to the Oscars? Absolutely. But to an event celebrating women’s power?

That choice says something. To me, it says: “We are powerful women — show your tits!” (Please don’t cancel me; that line makes me giggle every time.) It’s not empowerment. It’s spectacle. It’s the illusion of confidence rather than the quiet, grounded embodiment of it.

To me, sensuality — true sensuality — is about embodying your senses, not displaying them for applause. It’s the way you walk through a room, not how much of your skin you’ve revealed.

That’s the lesson I want for my daughter. That power isn’t in exposure; it’s in presence.

Sydney said she wore the dress to empower women, to show them they’re “good enough as they are.” And I believe her heart in that. But ironically, it might’ve landed with more impact if she’d left a little more to the imagination. Even a pair of pasties could’ve created a balance between allure and art — a nod to delicacy within boldness.

After all, there is beauty in contradiction. And perhaps… power too.

Share your thoughts, I want to know what you think? Was it too much? Too little? Just right?

Was it the perfect choice for a "Power of Women" event.

Let's discuss.

Love y'all.