Why are all the women in Euphoria now sex workers? Season three is a crime against womankind

When season one of Euphoria aired, like, a century ago, viewers praised the show for depicting teens dealing with a diverse range of issues rarely seen on TV. But in the new episodes, Euphoria seems to have narrowed its scope. Why have all the lead women in Euphoria become some form of sex worker by season three?

Sex work has become the writers’ go-to plot. Rue is employed by a pimp. Jules is a sugar baby. Cassie and Maddy are making content for OnlyFans. Kat isn’t in season three – the actor Barbie Ferreira quit – but we’ve already seen her career as a cam girl. We don’t know what season three has in store for Lexi, but she’s historically had less screen time than the other heroines.

Are the writers aware that women can in fact get different jobs? Was the careers guidance counsellor at the show’s East Highland High School providing very limited information?

Jules’s new part-time job
(Image via HBO)

Now, there are many real-life adult entertainment content creators who say they enjoy their chosen career. They like being creative, or they’ve found a welcoming community, or they prefer flexibility to a nine-to-five.

Euphoria doesn’t bother to depict any of these aspects of the porn industry. The show doesn’t give us a nuanced take on any of the many, many different types of sex work. Every character’s trajectory is the same. Literal children are sexually exploited, then they react to their trauma by turning to sex work.

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Think about it. Laurie threatened to sex traffic Rue, and now her “dream job” is to help Alamo do this to other women. Jules is groomed by older, more powerful men (including Nate’s dad). So, she becomes a “sugar baby”. Cassie has been sexually violated by family members and boyfriends since her early teens. She equates this with love, and now seeks popularity on OnlyFans. Kat is filmed having sex, and the video is shared online without her consent. She starts camming. We haven’t yet seen Maddy’s new storyline in season three. However, trailers imply she pushes Cassie into making pornographic content as vengeance for how Nate and Cassie treated her.

Surely, Maddy is up to something…
(Image via HBO)

No element of these stories is “empowering”. These girls’ lives are tragic, and horrifying. Yet Euphoria uses their stories for shock value, or even jokes.

It’s 2026. Can’t TV try a bit harder to avoid misogyny? Euphoria’s one-note portrayal of camming and OnlyFans does a disservice to any adult content creators who do choose to do this because they enjoy it. When Euphoria throws in different, illicit sex work for “shock value” and “plot twists”, the show risks aestheticising sex crimes and doing a terrible disservice to people who have sadly been victims of this. Presumably, I don’t need to explain why it’s an issue for a TV show to make all the female characters’ stories about sex. It’s hard to see who benefits from Euphoria’s depictions of sex work, beyond creeps who like looking at Sydney Sweeney in a baby costume.

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