News feed
Euphoria has always been controversial – from being accused of glamorising drug abuse to concerns the teen series is too risque for its audience, Euphoria has never been about people-pleasing or avoiding controversy. But while the show has been pretty groundbreaking in many ways, I felt uncomfortable watching this week’s episode. The show is doing Cassie dirty in the worst way – via the male gaze.
Cassie (played by Sydney Sweeney) has easily had the most nude scenes of any character in Euphoria. Sometimes, these scenes make sense. When Cassie first went to hook up with ex-boyfriend McKay, she takes off her bra and covers her chest uncomfortably – a raw, intimate portrayal of teen insecurity. It’s exactly how you feel as a teenager – overwhelmed by the changes your body goes through, interested in sex but also often doing it with bravado, not actual confidence. Sweeney is a masterful actor – with her behind the wheel, Cassie is too trusting with no self-trust, a fascinating character with a great arc this season, as she spontaneously sleeps with her best friend’s ex and battles through infatuation as he gives her breadcrumbs of affection.
I love the Cassie and Nate storyline. I think we can all relate to those overwhelming, toxic emotions an emotionally unavailable partner brings out in us. It’s textbook “she’s crazy” – the unravelling of a relatively grounded person in the hands of someone who gives them just enough to keep hoping, but not enough to give them security. I love how Sweeney is playing it – Cassie’s spiral has been raw and realistic. Even in her most outrageous moments, you can see the pain and longing fuelling her chaotic behaviour.
What I don’t love about the storyline is how sexualised Cassie’s scenes have been. Yes, one way we try to win someone’s affection is via sex – sexy outfits, sexual movement, innuendo. It’s not so much what has been written into the script for Cassie, but how it’s being filmed.
The male gaze is when we see women portrayed or viewed in film in a sexualised way. For example, the way the camera panned slowly over Cassie’s body after she changed into that pink swimsuit? That’s textbook male gaze. In fact, I’d argue that Cassie has often (if not always) been portrayed via the male gaze – it’s just become more apparent and prolific in season two.
Sweeney herself has actually spoken out about how much nudity is asked of her. “There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless and I would tell Sam [Levinson, creator of Euphoria), ‘I don’t really think that’s necessary here.’ He was like, ‘OK, we don’t need it’. I’ve never felt like Sam has pushed it on me or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show. When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me,” she told The Independent last month.
Still, while Sweeney said Levinson is “amazing” in regards to this kind of feedback, is it about nudity, or about how that nudity is filmed?
For example, a few episodes ago we saw Cassie obsessing over her school outfits as she tried (and failed) to pull Nate’s attention. As the days go on, her hair gets bigger, her makeup stronger and her outfits more risque – all of which makes sense, but it felt like we honed in on Cassie’s cleavage to a point that goes beyond simply acknowledging that she’s a woman desperate for attention.
I mean, the entire series opened with Cassie’s nudes being leaked – and we saw all of them, but did we need to? Even in the premiere episode for season 2, Nate pulls down Cassie’s dress during their hook up. Considering Nate remained fully clothed and it was a quick and dirty bathroom moment, was this necessary? It’s moments like these that strike a nerve in me. They go beyond depicting character and cross over into sexualising a woman.
Sure, the show has no problem with full-frontal male nudity, it’s likely we’ve seen just as many penises as we have seen breasts. But that can’t be the benchmark here. You can’t compare male and female on-screen nudity because the impact is not the same. As Sweeney herself said to The Independent, “when a guy has a sex scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise. But the moment a girl does it, it’s completely different.”
There is a message sent when we sexualise female nudity on film. Women are objects. As the camera in Euphoria lingers on Cassie’s body during this episode, it’s not nudity for realism’s sake, it’s gratuitous.
I don’t expect Euphoria to become a G-rated series or for Cassie to start wearing cleavage-covering blouses. I do expect a show created in 2022, that is progressive in many ways, to stop objectifying women.
