Rue, for instance, is not glorified or dehumanized for drug use. Levinson nails many aspects of going through drug addiction and mental health challenges. I want to see Black, Latinx, Asian and other people of color reflected in Euphoria without having their cultural heritage toned down, but as aspects that enrich their characters’ backgrounds. I want to see Rue as a young Black woman and the joys that come with it. I want to see Kat eating arepas, or pão de queijo because Barbie Ferreira is Brazilian American, for breakfast before school. I want to see Maddy, or Kat, having more conversations in “Spanglish” with her mother, preferably not one when they are having a fight. I want to see Maddy and Kat talking in Spanish to each other when they don’t want anyone else eavesdropping on them. But adding racial context to the storylines is not - and should not be - the only way to add meaningful representation in Euphoria. I can understand the argument against it. I know adding racial baggage might make Euphoria, an already heavy and draining show, harder to watch. If Levinson hopes to tell realistic stories - even if the clothes and high school theater budget hint otherwise - adding these cultural and racial contexts would be more realistic when it comes to Rue, Maddy and Kat as Black and Latinx women. While Latinx women are hypersexualized under the white gaze, at the same time, female sexuality is somewhat of a taboo due to the machismo in Latin American culture. Similarly, the conservative and religious presence in Latinx culture could also play a role in Kat’s sexual awakening. Latinx women who are undocumented may fear deportation if they come forward or might refrain from doing so due to cultural and religious traditions that tend to be misogynistic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in three Latinx women have experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives, and many of these cases do not get reported. Maddy’s upbringing as Latinx woman should, at least theoretically, also impact her storyline of an abusive relationship. People have different arguments on whether and to what extent Rue’s identity as a Black biracial woman should play a role in her story with drug addiction, especially as Black people are more likely to be arrested for drug use and less likely to receive addiction treatment when diagnosed with a substance use disorder.
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