Are ‘Euphoria”s sex scenes too explicit?

Euphoria season two has come to its finale, but were all those sex scenes necessary? Now, it’s the perfect time to determine if the number of steamy scenes was unreasonable, which maybe it was. The Euphoria episodes without nudity or sex scenes are counted, making sex, one of the series’ principal topics. And honestly, the reason behind all the hype & views. 

However, Euphoria is much more than its steamy scenes, the story might focus on teenagers and their inherent drama, but the narrative holds a story worth watching.  The director, Sam Levinson has been respectively questioned about portraying all that sex & nudity, and the reasons seem to be out of morbidity. Let’s not forget that Zendaya, a young successful woman is also producing the show. 

But why all that nudity? Why so explicit and in almost every single episode? Well, as it was mentioned, sex is always a hook. Having an excited audience is important in terms of logistics & production, nevertheless, portraying sexuality comes with big responsibilities. The presence of sex scenes isn’t the problem, but the fact that it’s teenagers the show talks about.

But movies & T.V. shows are all about creating exaggerated fiction, right?

What’s wrong with Euphoria’s sex scenes?

As it was mentioned, there’s no problem at all with explicit scenes in movies & T.V. On the contrary, it’s important to have several diverse representations of sexuality. Yet, what’s portrayed in T.V. shows, movies, and media end up establishing values & expectations from the audiences. Haven’t you questioned your sex life in high school after watching the show? 

It’s important to produce diverse & open-minded content, where teenage sexuality has a place, but there’s a line between representing & hyper-sexualizing. The argument when it comes to representing sex is indeed complex. But what’s questionable about Euphoria’s sex scenes is that they’re so many, they become unnecessary. 

Sydney Sweeney who plays Cassie, the most sexualized character in the show, has spoken about it. The actress claims her right to decide about her nudity and said Levinson was always respectful as a director. She also mentioned that not all the sex scenes were filmed because she didn’t want to, still, every single explicit sex scene on the show involves Cassie.

However, the debate goes further than the number of sex scenes and their relationship with reality. The exploitation & consumption of teenage bodies should be talked about, even though none of the actors are under eighteen. Yet, Euphoria isn’t the only show with explicit scenes of teenagers. Elite is another example. Nevertheless, this isn’t Euphoria’s or Levinson’s exclusive issue, but a structural one.

Hits on Euphoria

Clearly, there are things to be changed, but not everything is bad about Euphoria, on the contrary, there are a lot of things to celebrate about the series. Having a show that portrays teenage addiction is important, especially when the director was an addict himself. In order to build an open-minded society where drug use is fun & visible, the dark side of substances must be portrayed too. 

Diversity is the keyword, not only in bodies but also in gender expression & sexual orientation. The show has a diverse cast in many ways. There’s a trans-lesbic relationship between Rue (Zendaya) & Jules (Hunter Schafer). Also, divergent ways of sexuality are visible,  like Kat (Barbie Ferreira) being a dom or Cal (Eric Dane) being attracted to men. 

Euphoria portrays the contemporary thoughts & practices of teenagers in the current world and will mark a generation with other shows like Sex Education. It’s undoubtedly an eminent show, however, audiences will play an important role in demanding congruence from Levinson. Hopefully, next season will drag diversity to all the sex scenes and let Cassie rest for a moment. 

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What do you think about Euphoria? Have you watched the entire show yet? Tell us in the comments below!