He admits that he hasn’t thought of his own sexuality “in a particularly rigid way.”īefore hooking up with Jules, Elliot has an opportunity in the bathroom to do a line (like Rue had just done). In episode 4, “You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who Can,” Jules and Elliot have an intimate moment discussing sexuality, in which she asks, point blank: “Are you straight?” to which Elliot replies, “Kinda.” Jules then asks if he is gay, and Elliot, again, says, “Kinda.” Jules asks if he is bisexual to which Elliot gives us more insight: “I don’t think of it that way,” he explains. But as we get to know Elliot throughout Season 2, we realize he’s much more than what those stereotypes and tropes hold. ElliotĪs far as first impressions go, we might have pinned Elliot as The Druggie, The Loser, or The Addict since we met him, sitting alone on the floor of a laundry room at a house party on New Year’s Eve. As viewers watch closely, we are seeing more nuanced layers to who these characters really are beyond their 2D renderings. Sam Levinson-the creator, primary director, and writer of Euphoria-seems to have wanted to go deeper this season into his male characters, revealing a depth and context that may not otherwise have been explored. We aren’t, in these cases, getting the whole picture: where they’ve been, and how their unique histories have shaped them. When boys and men, or anyone for that matter, can be neatly organized into categories, we’re likely getting just a surface level idea of who they are. We’ve gotten used to these simple stereotypes because they create less work for the brain. For years in mainstream media, we’ve consumed male characters who were neatly written into boxes: The jock, the loser, the brainy nerd-think The Breakfast Club. The boys and men in Season 2 of Euphoria are challenging toxic masculinity and the predisposed notions and tropes set out for them. Men tend to believe they should they should think and act a certain way, but seeing an alternative depiction on one of TV's biggest shows can go a long way toward shifting that. This is incredibly important to see in mainstream media, since toxic masculinity continues to harm men themselves. For the first time in a long time, we are seeing stereotypical tropes of men come up against more complex portrayals of their whole selves.
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