Sydney Sweeney has called out trolls shaming her sex scenes in Euphoria as subjecting her to the same ridicule her character endured in the show.
The 25-year-old actress opened up about having her nude scenes screenshotted and reuploaded onto the internet by trolls who wanted to shame her for filming sex scenes. Which fkn sucks considering she previously said filming those scenes was empowering.
“It got to the point where they were tagging my family,” Sweeney told British GQ.
“My cousins don’t need that. It’s completely disgusting and unfair. You have a character that goes through the scrutiny of being a sexualized person at school and then an audience that does the same thing.”
If you haven’t watched Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney plays Cassie, a high school girl with severe self-esteem issues who was abandoned by her father. Her desperate need to fulfil that place in her life leads her to use her sex appeal for validation, because it’s the only way she’s able to get the kind of attention she needs.
What this results in is Cassie gets pressured into taking nudes and filming sex tapes by the boys she desperately wants to be loved by. They end up getting leaked online, and she is slut-shamed by her peers.
Given the premise of Cassie’s trauma (and her eventual nervous breakdown), it is fkn gross for people to not only try to recreate those circumstances in real life, but to involve her family too. Talk about ick.
There’s also something so sexist and patriarchal about trying to snitch on a woman’s sexuality by sharing it with her family, as if they will somehow step in and correct her. Gross.
Though it seems Sweeney’s family doesn’t mind her sex scenes: her grandparents controversially said she has “the best tits in Hollywood”. Which is weird in its own way but at least they’re supportive.
Sweeney previously said her sex scenes worked wonders for her self-esteem. She told Variety that Euphoria made her “very confident with by body through Cassie”, so it’s a fkn shame trolls are trying to reverse that.
There’s definitely a lot to criticise with Sydney Sweeney (both she and her family have been accused of being Trump supporters), but there’s ways to do that without slut-shaming her.
