What Euphoria Gets Right (And Wrong) About Being A Modern Teen

During the episode, Jules and Rue are discussing their sexual history, and Rue defines hers as brief, which is a complete lie. How could we improve it? But Levinson's work in this second season makes the case that viewers are watching the lives of a coterie of very specific people mired in their own dysfunction and damage, each self-medicating in different ways, toward an almost universally tragic and emotional result. This leads to her rejecting a kiss Rue initiated. The depiction of teen sexuality is tricky because it risks leading to the sexualisation of teens.

This previously ran in our February 2022 print issue. Aside from that, Nate also blackmailed Jules, and Jules has yet to tell Rue about this. It took her a few uncomfortable sexual encounters with boys before she realized that she is a lesbian. Teens' Online Exposure to Sexual Content and Sex Work. Seeing Rue in this state upsets Jules, with her telling Rue that she's not trying to be best friends with someone who's going to kill themselves so Rue assures her that she'll stop using drugs upon her request. These representations normalise and even romanticise abusive behaviours. I personally think that this approach can be, for many people, very progressive and beneficial. Hopefully, more writers will continue to bring innovative ways to represent the LGBTQ + community authentically. I think she wants to be done with men based off of all these awful experiences she's had with them. Instead, it is presented as Jules' choice for meeting with him to have sex, without addressing how there was no consent for that specific sexual act in that specific way, even if there might be consent at the beginning of the sexual encounter. Rue accepts her sexuality without much drama or much questioning. She enters the new school year wanting to change her reputation and begin exploring her sexuality.

Zendaya stars in Euphoria as Rue, a 17-year-old recovering drug addict who has just returned to high school following an overdose and a summer stint in rehab. But creator/executive producer Sam Levinson has built a storytelling style that transcends the titillation of its surface-level story, finding new ways to stitch together the tales of characters seemingly trapped in a web of tragedies and missteps. Her footwear is usually converse or other sneakers. This episode was good aside from the diminishing Rue's sex history scene, and it lived up to my expectations that I had when watching Episode Five. And scolds like the Parents Television and Media Council warn about the show's explicit content without noting it's a series aimed at adults about youthful characters behaving terribly, showing the often-debilitating consequences they pay for the awful decisions they make. Rue is short of Ruby Bennett. She most often wears her fathers hoodie or some other baggy hoodie/shirt, and shorts or loose fitting pants. They're pretty bad at that, talking about the nature of their relationship. Is Rue Asexual, Bisexual, or Lesbian in Euphoria?

When Rue was on drugs bad, she pulled a shard of glass out and held it to her mom's face. In the trailer for season two, he's seen popping pills with Rue and playing guitar for Jules. Another character, Jules, is seen in relationships with both men and women throughout seasons one and two. With her ambiguous and non-traditional fashion style, she goes to show that presenting as non-binary doesn't always have to be verbally stated for her gender to be valid. As season two begins, though, it's important to remind yourself of everything the characters faced the first time around, because a lot went down in season one. While Lexi strives to take control, her sister Cassie spends several hours a day squeezing, stretching and mostuzing her skin, to the point of oil overdose, making sure her hair, makeup and outfit are perfectly composed, all in the hope of securing a single admiring glance from Nate, who refuses to acknowledge her existence while at school. Two episodes later at the halloween party of another boy, Jules feels upset because of Nate showing up at her house blackmailing her. At the moment, Maddy is single after her and Nate split during season one. But as the ginger-haired drug dealer's story reaches the modern day — and we see Fezco negotiating a tense drug deal with suppliers who demand he and his friends strip naked to prove they aren't informants — Levinson's ability to make audiences feel what the characters are experiencing is masterful and discomfiting, all at once. It all makes sense now because Fezo and Rue don't have your typical dealer and user relationship.

Maddy's on-again, off-again relationship with Nate could use an entire analysis in itself. Zendaya herself has spoken highly of the Rue and Jules relationship, which fans call "Rules". All she wanted to do when she grew up was to explore the world. Some scenes in the show's first season hint that Rue's mother and sister are aware of her interest in women. Rue doesn't care what she takes as long as she experiences the euphoria. Before she leaves, Laurie warns to never betray her, or she'll send some "sick people" after Rue. She has no fear, and that's what I love about her character because it shows that anyone can be abused, no matter how confident they are. She is able to get along with many people, and has several acquaintances. However, even Season 2 almost had more paedophilic scenes and more nudity for the teen characters. The only instance where a queer person's identity is definitively labled throughout the series is Jules' backstory in season one- she is a transgender woman.

This upsets Rue, and as Rue leaves, she tells Lexi (her friend) that she feels like she is a burden. Euphoria is one of the most popular television shows at the moment, with its second season having recently wrapped up airing its episodes. Angus Cloud as Fezco. In my opinion, Jules is one of the most positive trans and queer representations I have seen, she has come to accept herself just the way she is, even if others may see her as messy. Nevertheless, modern teens seem to be savvier than ever before in their use of technology to find romantic relationships on their own terms. After they laugh and Elliot's sure Rue's ok, it's the start of a friendship. Moreover, the sexualisation of teen characters helps normalise the sexualisation of teens in general. This left Cassie to struggle with codependency in romantic relationships. Jules, being in the position of someone who's loving a drug addict, knows that drugs have been reintroduced into Rue's day to day life, despite knowing that weed is relatively mild compared to Rue's preference of opiates, it still makes Jules nervous. Jules can feel that friction, despite not knowing about it.

Nate finally gets punished for his actions and I would've loved every second of it if the show didn't make me sympathize with Nate's dad, Cal. Because of the emphasis on the autonomy and sexual agency of the woman, the sexual violence and abuse are portrayed as partially the woman's fault and the negative effects of experiencing sexual violence on women are never explored. The gritty, controversial, and highly-acclaimed HBO series, Euphoria, a reimagining of the Israeli series of the same name, endeavours to encapsulate the realities of being a teenager in the late 2010s. In the episode '03 Bonnie and Clyde, Maddy and Nate start meeting in secret and lie to the police and everyone else that Nate was not the one who choked her, instead setting up and forcing Tyler to take the blame. We had a live pony there for that. No doubt, watching her father die took a big toll on Rue's emotional and mental well-being.