Sydney Sweeney's 'male gaze' photoshoot leaves fans disappointed

American actress Sydney Sweeney has come under fire for a “male gaze” photo shoot that has left fans disappointed.

The shoot was part of the magazine Variety's #PowerofYoungHollywood issue which featured the Euphoria actress as one of its cover stars.

The controversy came when Variety shared a behind-the-scenes video on its Instagram showing a montage of clips from the shoot, sparking a big reaction from fans.

One clip showed Sweeney wearing a short blue playsuit that bared her cleavage and extremely high pink heels. Her lipstick was baby pink and she could be seen licking a pink lollipop.

Instagram users began leaving comments suggesting that the imagery of the shoot was overly sexualised and created for the male gaze.

“Yeah there goes her chance to be taken seriously as an actress,” one person argued.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

In response to the backlash, some fans were unhappy with a section that appeared to have been removed from the video that saw Sweeney licking a dripping ice cream cone.

Someone else said: “It is not just the ice cream part that is sexual and objectifying her. It's the whole male-gaze shoot.

“If you are so afraid of public reaction, why won’t you think before you act instead of all the post-production editing.”

Another disappointed fan commented: “Whose idea was this photoshoot? It’s tacky! Some women objectify themselves in a very sexual way and then complain about being taken seriously.

“You don’t need to be doing sex faces and be half naked licking ice cream to tell us you’re part of the powerful young Hollywood. Lmao.”

In the interview, the 25-year-old spoke about starting a family saying: "I always wanted to be a young mom. I love acting, I love the business, I love producing, I love all of it. But what’s the point if I’m not getting to share it with a family?"

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.