The Right to Speak: Why I Defend Sydney Sweeney’s Controversial Voice

Her recent political agenda and jean ads irked many. Yet, her courage is the very thing we need to champion for the truly silenced — from me to the victims of Myra’s Ghost.

Charlotte Joan Cheng

5 min read

·

Just now

--

An Open Letter to Sydney Sweeney: On Complicity, Courage, and the Cost of Silence

Dear Sydney Sweeney,

I sincerely hope you are reading this. I am writing publicly in the wake of the commercial turbulence surrounding your recent biopic, Christy. It is a shame that such a story — documenting a boxing pioneer, Christy Martin, overcoming grooming and domestic violence — has been dismissed, potentially overshadowed by minor, tangential controversies like the July 2025 American Eagle Jeans ad and your political viewpoints.

Coming from a multicultural country like Malaysia, I do not criticize you for your viewpoints. We all carry controversy. I myself was blacklisted three times in the education industry for nearly a decade for refusing to falsify records, speaking out against sexual harassment, and challenging ethical compromises. I deeply empathize with the intense scrutiny you face as a prominent voice in your generation.

The Problem of Scrutiny and the Value of Volatility

Frankly, I am neutral on the American Eagle Jeans ad controversy. While some may find it tone-deaf for utilizing race in promoting a standardized Western ideal, the backlash is disproportionate. Neither that ad, nor your previous statements on Hollywood wage gaps, warrants the damage done.

As someone who comes from an educational background where speaking out means being blacklisted, I believe your statements and controversies are among the bravest and most daring things you have done. I respect you profoundly.

Furthermore, your performance as Cassie Howard in Euphoria — a character scrutinized for her choices and her figure — resonates deeply with me, a fellow Asian woman whose personal and professional life, and even physical appearance, has been scrutinized. I have seen the volatile, yet vulnerable, teenager you embodied, and I see in that performance the channel for something much greater.

The Role I Designed for You: Charlotte Irene Elric Veidt

I am the author of Myra’s Ghost, an upcoming six-volume autofiction series centered on a trillion-dollar crime ring called the Vile Archives, which operates on institutional silence within Hollywood, education, and religion. The series requires actors who understand the cost of complicity and the capacity for redemption.

While I envisioned Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs) as the basis for my redeeming protagonist, Clay Hawkins — an NFL star turned director seeking atonement — I specifically designed the role of Charlotte Irene Elric Veidt for you.

In the Myra’s Ghost universe, Charlotte Irene is a beautiful blonde actress from a political dynasty who bitterly regrets her past over-sexualized performances and her silence regarding the bullying of the central victim, Myra Markle.

Press enter or click to view image in full size

The Privilege to Speak Out

Charlotte Irene must shed the “ice maiden” Cassie archetype and channel her guilt into advocacy. Crucially, as a prominent White woman with a Harvard law background, she becomes the essential White ally to speak up for the most vulnerable victims:

• White Victims: Myra Markle, Penelope Carpenter.
• Marginalized Asian Victims: Anna Yagami, Ai Shinsuka, Myrtle Yamamoto, and Amanda Tan.

The main villain, Ethan Yamamoto, maintains a squeaky-clean image while exploiting Asian women who cannot speak out due to the pervasive demands of Asian filial piety and patriarchy. This is the core tragedy: White voices like yours (and Charlotte Irene’s) can speak out without suffering the absolute career annihilation that women of color often face. This is why your willingness to advocate for what is right, despite the controversies, makes you the perfect fit.

Ending the Cycle of Lethal Silence

Myra’s Ghost is autofiction drawn from my own experience as a neurodiverse Asian woman who endured financial, emotional, and physical abuse within my family, and faced severe bullying in elite schools and the education sector. I’ve witnessed how Asian cultural standards silence individuals who dare to challenge them.

The controversies you face — like the jeans ad — are not equivalent to the lethal sins of the Vile Archives. The Vile Archives destroys lives, perpetrating systematic murder, spreading diseases like AIDS/STDs, and enacting family and domestic violence, often perpetuated by seemingly “good” community members like Ethan Yamamoto, the Markles (Carol and Lewis Markle), Adam Lyon or my cousin’s husband, Nicholas Tan (who murdered a young woman named Joanne Tee to hide his affairs).

It is for the sake of women of color and women of lesser privilege (like Myra Markle) who cannot articulate their pain that someone in your position of privilege, traditional White beauty, and proven courage must stand.

I know you are the right person to embody Charlotte Irene Elric Veidt — the lawyer and narrator who overcomes her guilt and rage to speak truth to power. By channeling the volatility of your career and your characters, you can bring profound impact to a story that urgently needs to be heard.

If you are reading this, thank you. We need more powerful, White voices like yours to speak for the victims — whether they are White like Myra Markle, or Asian like me, Anna Yagami, and Ai Shinsuka — who are consistently unable to have their pain heard.

Your peer and hopeful collaborator,

Charlotte-Joan Cheng (Founder/CEO of St Epiphanie Destine Enterprise and Writer of Myra’s Ghost)

The deepest intellectual flaw in our society is the collective insistence on the Saccharine Lie—the beautiful lie of perfection, maintained at the cost of human life. I know this cost intimately. For ten years, I navigated a procedural system that valued a forgotten leave certificate over my basic health and sanity. I witnessed firsthand how the fear of being "found fault with" and the anxiety of "losing a job" (fears I inherited from my own mother) forces good people into silence. I now leave that rigid environment not in failure, but in righteous anger, because the survival of our children depends on dismantling the structural rot I was forced to observe.

The book I have written, Myra’s Ghost, is not a novel of entertainment; it is a meticulously researched manifesto detailing the mechanisms of this systemic failure. The coming chapters reveal not only the truth behind the heartbreaking murders of Myra Markle and the abuse of countless others but expose the very institutional silence that allowed the Vile Archives to thrive. We are facing a cultural inflection point—a purge is upon us—and this book is the blueprint for the necessary confrontation.

The author, Charlotte-Joan Cheng, is a neurodivergent writer and structural theorist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My work is dedicated to examining the flaws of institutional frameworks and the psychology of trauma. My personal journey includes fighting institutional rigidity within the education sector for over a decade, a path that ultimately provided the framework for the structural analysis found within this text. My current focus, as seen in this article and others, is to provide the intellectual honesty and Volatile Truth required to combat the global Saccharine Lie. The fight begins now.