The Use of Privilege #Euphoria
Hi, so, episode seven of Euphoria has had a lot to say about privilege and I love it. Euphoria is not-so-subtly explaining to us each character’s privilege, the level of privilege they have, and how to choose to wield it. And since Euphoria makes it very clear that no one is safe and everyone can catch these hands, their privilege will most likely lead to their downfall. Let’s take a look at each character that was highlighted in episode seven.
Nate
In episode six, we see Nate get away with assaulting his girlfriend, assaulting a stranger, lying to the police, and blackmail. He uses the law to his advantage because people in his community want to believe he is innocent, most likely because he is an attractive, “straight,” white man who plays football. He’s their hero. Nate knows people will believe another story if he cooks one up for them, so his master plan in to manipulate a few key people into proving his innocence to back up his new story. Because he is such a trustworthy individual in the eyes of the community, he knows that the police will believe him in episode seven when he calls and says that there is a young man selling drugs out of a convenience store/apartment. The police will not care that Nate is threatening a drug dealers friends. They see a good boy reporting a crime.
Nate calls the police on Fez because he knows the system will take care of the problem for him. The system will refuse to believe that Nate is the bad guy. Fez is automatically the bad guy because he is a drug dealer. The police won’t care that he has to make an insane amount of money to care for his comatose grandmother and her incredibly expensive medical bills. And his younger brother. And provide food for the table and rent for the roof over their small business. In the eyes of the system, Fez is a criminal. Nate knew that so he used it to his advantage.
McKay
After the incident with the frat guys bursting into his room, McKay has decided to get rid of the rest of the love in his heart and become a cold, unfeeling young man. The only thing that matters now is him and his needs. He must get off the bench in college football, he must make his father proud, he must be able to have sex with his girlfriend no matter the consequences.
In episode 7, Cassie tells McKay that she is pregnant. McKay chooses to act as if this was her plan, to get pregnant so that they could start a family together. When in reality, we have always seen McKay be the aggressor in their intimate scenes, in which he could decide if she could get pregnant or not. Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he looks down his nose at Cassie, implying coldly that she cannot keep it. He, of course, can say this because he does not have to carry the child and he does not have to be there when the child is removed. In choosing to purge is emotions to protect himself, he’s abandoned Cassie, adding to her long list of traumas and endangers a child’s life. He doesn’t want to deal with it so he doesn’t, because he is not physically tied to the situation. McKay could leave Cassie with a problem he helped create and make her believe it is entirely her fault.
Jules
Jules is in a stage in her life where she is ok, at least by Euphoria standards. And it seems as if she expects everything to turn out ok. No matter what the problem is, it’s just a hill to get over, and your life will still be waiting for you, intact, when you get there. Not everyone has that privilege. Her girlfriend, not really her girlfriend, Rue has lived a life where she knows things are probably not going to be ok. Her father was killed by cancer, she is going to be addicted to drugs the rest of her life, she has multiple mental illnesses and they are getting worse. All of Rue’s problems are a long and painful battle of endurance, suffering, and heartbreak, while Jules’s problems are solvable, temporary, and behind her. The two see the world in two very different ways and Jules is asking Rue to see the world her way, no matter what.
Because Jules thinks that everything is going to be ok, and Rue knows nothing is ever ok most of the time, it is incredibly selfish to ask Rue to see the world the way Jules does, because then she’d be deluding herself. Rue can see through the darkness because she’s been there and she knows that her relationship with Jules is going to end and is starting to accept it. But Jules thinks that she can treat Rue however she wants because she has good intentions. She can disappear for a couple of days, never check in on her, never explain anything, and get away with it because she sent a sweet text out of nowhere. She thinks can get away with it because she thinks everything is going to be ok because the consequences are never that bad. For her. For everyone else * shrugs * who knows.
Thank you so much for reading you guys! Give this post a like if you liked it and subscribe to my newsletter. I'll be posting twice a week about movies, tv shows, books, and more. Let me know in a comment down below what you think about each character’s privilege. Did I miss anyone? Did I get anyone wrong? Feel free to share this post and follow me at @sahra.bae.inc on Instagram. See you soon!