Euphoria Faces Backlash for Degrading Content

Euphoria viewers have claimed the show 'brutalises women' after being disturbed by the latest episode. 

Episode five, entitled This Little Piggy, opened with Cassie () recording more fetish content for her  page, which involved her posing with sex toys and sucking on her toes. 

In yet another degrading move for the star, she then transformed into a 'giantess' to shoot Macrophilia content - a sexual fantasy involving giant people. 

Cassie was seen bursting out of her catsuit as she 'grew' into a giant before stomping over a tiny model town, before going topless and smashing a skyscraper with her bare breasts.  

Disgusted viewers, who have continuously criticised the content in season three, took to X/ to lament the storyline, with one penning: 'How do you go from writing a story about a vulnerable teenage girl with mental illness and addiction struggles to writing the most VILE brutalisation of women in your third season. 

'It's a disgrace. I miss what this show used to be. #'. 

While promoting her OnlyFans content, Cassie also used an ableist slur, responding 'I'm not r*tarded', when asked on a podcast if she was a Democrat. 

Yet Cassie's scenes weren't the only ones to raise eyebrows, with characters tortured in graphic detail. 

Nate (Jacob Elordi) was seen being pinned down by a loan shark and having his ring finger severed as punishment for missed payment. 

He had lost his little toe earlier in the series as a result of being attacked by the same gang, with viewers witnessing in close-up detail the digit being ripped off again after he had it surgically reattached. 

Rue (Zendaya) was also tortured after her boss, strip club owner Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), became suspicious of her motives.

She was forced to dig her own grave, with Alamo's henchman then filling the hole up to her neck before Alamo was seen riding towards her on a horse with a polo mallet in his hand. 

Rue's fate remains to be seen, with the episode ending abruptly before it was determined whether Alamo had killed her. 

Euphoria's creator Sam Levinson has come under fire from fans who have criticised the change in direction in the third season. 

Since its inception in 2019, the show has been famed for breaking boundaries with graphic portrayals of teen drug use, sex and violence.

However, viewers have claimed that Sam's 'disturbing' and 'misogynistic' storylines for the new season have 'lost the plot'.

His projects have frequently been described as steeped in the 'male gaze,' with an emphasis on explicit content, sexualisation, and the degradation of female characters.

Now Cassie's 'degrading' OnlyFans storyline has been described as a 'humiliation ritual' for actress Sydney. 

Sydney has defended her character's X-rated content, telling Entertainment Tonight: 'I mean, Cassie's a crazy character.

'She will do anything and at all costs to be famous this season, and she makes a lot of very wild and interesting choices.'

Sydney also told The Independent in 2022 that she never felt pushed into doing naked scenes, and that Sam welcomed feedback.

'There are moments where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless, and I would tell Sam, 'I don't really think that's necessary here', she recalled. 'He was like, "Okay, we don't need it,"' she added.

The following year, Sydney told Variety that she'd asked Sam to amp up Cassie's mania, saying: 'Give me more. I'm going to show you what I have. There's so much to this girl.'

Sam previously defended the explicit nature of his work, noting during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival: 'We live in a very sexualized world. The influence of pornography is really strong in terms of the psyche of young people.'

However, real-life OnlyFans creators have hit out at the series, claiming Sydney's depiction has caused them to be subject to mockery. 

'There's just a lot that's ridiculous and cartoonish about it,' Sydney Leathers, an OnlyFans creator since 2017, told Variety.

'There's so much that they have her doing that is not even on OnlyFans, and that alone is infuriating: the age-play stuff where she's dressed as a baby in a diaper, for example.'

Indeed, OnlyFans has a strict policy which 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.

Maitland Ward, a former sitcom actress and top creator on the site, argued that such depictions reinforce the false and damaging stigma that sex work is inherently linked to abuse or trafficking.

She told the publication: 'In the climate we're in, that they dressed her up as a baby to make pornographic OnlyFans content was beyond troubling and again serves to perpetuate stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money.'

Maitland felt the show turned a serious issue into a cheap joke.

While adult creator Sophie Rain said she was left just as shocked by the scenes as other viewers.

'I think it's pretty cool that they're bringing OnlyFans into the entertainment world, but the way they're doing it is over-dramatised,' she explained to TMZ.

'We shouldn't be portraying OnlyFans that way... It's very misleading.'

Euphoria airs at 9pm (ET/PT) on HBO on Sundays. In the UK, the series airs at 2am and 9pm on Mondays on Sky Atlantic and streams on HBO Max and Sky Go/NOW