In the latest episode of HBO's hedonistic drama Euphoria, Cassie Howard screams at her new husband, Nate Jacobs, "You're not a man! Men provide." The scene, set at their wedding reception, reveals Nate's secret borrowing to fund their luxury lifestyle. Cassie, played by Sydney Sweeney, berates him as guests awkwardly look away. This moment encapsulates the show's troubling portrayal of women in its third season.
A Shift in Tone
Creator Sam Levinson revealed the wedding months before the season aired. The spectacle is cinematic but descends into disaster. Now set five years after the last season, the characters navigate their early 20s. However, the show's portrayal of women feels old-fashioned and eerily prescient, projecting a shallow, manosphere-inflected fantasy. In a confusing jumble of plots, the only constant is disdain for the young women who made the show great.
Women at the Behest of Men
Freed from high school, the female characters are now disempowered. Cassie is trapped in a tradwife fantasy with Nate. Jules Vaughn (Hunter Schafer) dropped out of art school to become a sugar baby, going on dates with older men for money. In one scene, she is mummified in cling film by a horny plastic surgeon. Rue Bennett (Zendaya) works as a drug mule for a strip club boss. The show objectifies its female characters and pits them against each other, a trend that was more acceptable in a high school setting but now feels confronting.
Missed Opportunities
If Euphoria explored female subjugation with nuance, like HBO's Industry, it might work. Instead, it offers a manosphere-tinted fantasy, glamorized with gorgeous costumes and cinematography. The men in Louis Theroux's documentary Inside the Manosphere view women as manipulative creatures extracting resources. Similarly, Cassie, once motivated by love, now obsesses over money. She manipulates Nate into allowing her OnlyFans by denting his pride. At their wedding, she cares more about blood on her dress than Nate's safety.
Gamified Life
Both Euphoria and the manosphere present a gamified view of life. Theroux notes that manosphere figures treat life as a video game with metrics like money and sex. Euphoria offers a feminized version: Rue narrates that Jules found her "window of opportunity" by becoming a sugar baby. It's bleak that Jules, a trans woman fetishized since childhood, drops out of art school for this. Such plots feel nihilistic.
Engagement Bait
Leaving high school removes the genre's intrinsic justification. Now, the show exists in the attention economy, where algorithms reward controversy. Dialogue and imagery feel like engagement bait, such as Cassie dressing as a puppy and being called a "bad, bad dog." Viewing figures are up, suggesting the formula works.
Only Maddy Perez (Alexa Demie) shows direction, working as an assistant to a talent agent. But she soon feels unfulfilled, believing her true calling is teaching women to make millions on OnlyFans. Once again, the limit of Euphoria's fantasy is catering to a male one.
Euphoria season 3 is available on HBO Max.
