In yet another baffling and unnecessary invasion of a young woman’s private life, reports have made the rounds that Sydney Sweeney is romantically involved with her co-star – and Top Gun: Maverick actor – Glen Powell.
Sydney has posted cute, companionable pictures of herself with Glen, alongside other cast and crew members of recently-wrapped romcom Anyone But You,directed by Easy A director Will Gluck_._ And many have since suggested that the actors are having an affair.
The fact that Glen’s girlfriend since 2020, Gigi Paris, has reportedly unfollowed Sydney in the wake of these posted pics has only thrown fuel on the fire.
Fans have come out in their droves to speculate and comment on the likelihood of an affair: ‘streets are saying glen powell cheated on his girlfriend of 5 years with sydney sweeney,’ one tweeted.
Another posted: ‘just found out about the sydney sweeney/glen powell cheating rumors-- girl after those first photos I would have started pulling my hair what is this.’
This imagined feud reeks of the classic trope of pitting women against each other. Just because Sydney is working with another woman’s boyfriend, it doesn’t mean she’s seducing him, stealing him, or that Paris should hate her or be afraid. It also assumes women are insecure and should feel threatened by another beautiful woman being anywhere near their partner.
Misogyny is also at play: would we be monitoring the Instagram follows (and unfollows) of a male counterpart, a husband or partner of an actor in the same way, or is it just ingrained in us to police and monitor women’s movements, even the ones they make on social media?
Next, Sweeney has been engaged to restaurateur Jonathan Davino since 2022 – so to publicly speculate about whether she’s having an affair shows direct disrespect towards both public and private elements of a woman’s relationship.
Also, to fixate over onscreen chemistry and friendly pictures is to detract attention from Sweeney’s professional identity as an actor and subsequently reduces her down to a body, a romantic interest only, on and off screen. It’s degrading – and it’s disrespectful.
Sure, sometimes actors do become attracted to each other on set – Tom Holland and Zendaya on Spider-Man, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds on Green Lantern, Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling on The Notebook, the list of sizzling onscreen chemistry goes on forever.
Maybe Sydney and Glen could be attracted to each other, even. But to obsess over every couple’s perceived compatibility is an overstep and a decision to focus on a part of their lives that doesn’t belong to us. It’s also a mistake, and insulting to both actors’ relationships and professionalism, to make assumptions before they’ve made any movements to confirm any romance themselves.
Bottom line: it’s just really – and completely – none of our business. And all this speculation, and obsession over women unfollowing women due to suspected infidelity or ‘man-stealing’, is just another tiresome patriarchal trope that conflates chemistry (onscreen or not) with infidelity and reduces women to being a love interest and nothing more.