Sex worker Kayla Jade explains why Euphoria’s portrayal is problematic.
Kayla Jade's feelings regarding Euphoria are not quite exuberant. In the third season of the HBO series, Sydney Sweeney's role Cassie uses OnlyFans to help her husband Nate (Jacob Elordi) pay off debts. The influencer and sex worker discussed her thoughts on this storyline.
“I would never understand the love hate relationship that people have towards SW [sex work] on shows like Euphoria,” Jade first appeared in an updated TikTok. “Like, it's great having them represented in TV when they're shown as a real person who just happens to be a worker.”
But the author of Call Girl Confidential objected to Euphoria's portrayal of Cassie on the program, saying, “When you're showing them have zero boundaries and will do anything for a bit of money, it just reinforces those negative views towards SW.”
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In one scene, Sweeney's role appeared in a dog costume for a photo session; in another, she was seen sucking on a pacifier while wearing a see-through babydoll outfit. However, Jade stated that neither she nor other prostitutes would "encourage that type of behavior."
“The vast majority would tell that guy to f off and probably report him,” the TikToker clarified. “If anything, it's just made us more aware, and we can clock a creep pretty quickly.”
Furthermore, Jade claims that she occasionally had to rebuild her profiles after they were removed, demonstrating how difficult it is to establish a business as a sex worker.
“But these big production companies can profit off the most toxic, exploitative version of it, with none of the risks that real life SWs have to deal with,” she added. “It just sucks that that show is kind of obsessed with S workers, but only in a way that dehumanizes them.”
Jade wasn't the only person who criticized the show; Sydney Leathers, the creator of OnlyFans, also objected to Cassie's plot, especially her baby costume.
“There’s just a lot that’s ridiculous and cartoonish about it,” in an interview that was released on May 10, she informed Variety. “There’s so much that they have her doing that is not even allowed on OnlyFans, and that alone is infuriating: the age-play stuff where she’s dressed as a baby in a diaper, for example. Credit card processors have very strict rules that you have to abide by, and the rules are getting stricter all the time.”
Regarding Sweeney, the 28-year-old has acknowledged some of the acting challenges she's been given while portraying Cassie, most notably as "Cassie-zilla," even though she hasn't responded to criticism of her character. Sweeney's character transformed into a massive, Godzilla-sized lady during a particularly graphic sequence on the May 10 episode, tramping through a miniature representation of Los Angeles.
“The ‘Cassie-zilla’ sequence was probably the coolest thing I’ve done,” on May 12, Sweeney posted a behind-the-scenes video with X. “The details were unbelievable. There were trees and cars and the buildings were my size.”
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