Euphoria has received a backlash from some OnlyFans creators for its depiction of Sydney Sweeney‘s character Cassie Howard.
Read More: Euphoria season two review: still the best teen drama on TV
While the first season of the hit HBO show was widely praised for its subversive take on the conventional teen high-school drama, the newest season – which features a five-year time jump from the last – has proved divisive because of its sudden emphasis on sex work, with central storylines revolving around strip clubs, sugar babies, and OnlyFans.
Currently in the middle of its third season, the show has followed Cassie as she embarks on a career posting explicit content on OnlyFans to raise money for an expensive wedding to Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi). The storyline has already attracted controversy, after Cassie dressed up as a baby and a dog for her content.
OnlyFans’ acceptable use policy states that “illegal activity including actual, claimed, or role-played: exploitation, abuse, or harm of individuals under the age of 18; incest; bestiality; necrophilia; rape or sexual assault; and any content or conduct that promotes terrorism” is prohibited.
Show creator Sam Levinson previously told The Hollywood Reporter of the storyline: “[Cassie] has got her dog house and her little dog ears and the nose, and that has its own humor, but what makes the scene is the fact that her housekeeper is the one filming it.
“What we wanted to always find is the other layer of absurdity that we’re able to tie into it so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion — the gag is to jump out, to break the wall.”
However, real-life OnlyFans creator Sydney Leathers called much of the storyline “ridiculous and cartoonish”, noting that there is “so much that they have her doing that is not even allowed on OnlyFans”.
“That alone is infuriating: the age-play stuff where she’s dressed as a baby in a diaper, for example,” Leathers added to Variety. “Credit card processors have very strict rules that you have to abide by, and the rules are getting stricter all the time.”
Fellow creator and former Boy Meets World star Maitland Ward called the baby scene “beyond troubling” and one that “serves to perpetuate stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money”.
“There’s always this untrue stigma that somehow sex work is synonymous with sex trafficking and abuse,” the creator said. “And they just said, let’s make a joke of it. That is so funny. I’m not laughing.”
Responding to Levinson’s previous explanation of the arc, Ward added: “That speaks volumes to me about why this OnlyFans storyline is being represented in the way that it is. It’s not being taken seriously.
Sydney Sweeney as Cassie in HBO’s ‘Euphoria’. CREDIT: Patrick Wymore/HBO/PRESS
“It reminds me of when I pranced around in lingerie on Boy Meets World. It’s just the guys in the writer’s room coming up with their fantasies. To take someone so traditionally blonde and beautiful with the biggest boobs and dress her up as a dog and baby is really bizarre, but at the same time so expected in Hollywood.”
Creator Alix Lynx suggested that the social media influencer side of the storyline, such as Maddie attending a raucous mansion party to try and go viral, was “smart”, though stressed: “It’s portrayed that if you just dress up and do crazy shit, you’ll instantly make money, or you just have to be hot and have big boobs and you’ll instantly cash out, and it doesn’t work like that. You have to really grow and nurture a fan base.”
Leathers further noted: “Sex workers in general, myself included, tend to be hyper-sensitive about the way Hollywood portrays us because it’s almost never nice. It’s always absurd or depressing and rarely ever on point. When you’re part of a marginalized community, it’s easy to get upset about certain portrayals of it.”
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