6 minute read
PHOTOS
Captured: Campus in Color
PHOTO CREDITS: KATRINA AQUILLINO, NATALIE BROWNSELL, SARAH GOLDSTEIN, CORA HARTMANN, IAN LAU, ELIN SHIH, QUAN TRAN AND KIANA VALLO / THE TUFTS DAILY
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FEMINISM
continued from page 5 finally contacted me to offer sponsorship.”
Hello Kitty aside, the shining star of “Don Wong” is the jokes Wong makes about cheating on her husband. Toward the start of the special, Wong says, “I think about cheating on my husband every five minutes. I haven’t done it yet. Not because I’m a good person, only because no worthy opportunity has presented itself.” She brings up cheating on her husband quite frequently, but she does not address the topic for an extended period of time until much later. Approaching the end of her special, Wong answers the question that many in the audience and those watching at home might have regarding how her husband feels about these jokes. Wong provides the perfect answer to the question: “Right now … my husband is at home, in the house that I bought, telling time on the Rolex I got him for Father’s Day, jacking off to porn he streams on the high-speed internet I pay for every month … He doesn’t give a shit about what I say on stage, because he’s too busy living the life I wanted for myself.” Not only is this joke perfect toward the end of her set, because it is a parallel to all of her “trophy wife” jokes from her previous special, but it also fully captures her essence as a fearless comedian who does not care how people view her — she lives her life how she wants.
As a whole, Ali Wong delivers another spectacular comedy special with “Don Wong.” The special is most definitely her dirtiest, most sexual one yet; however, she stays true to her roots of untraditional feminist comedy which her fans have come to love. With her third special, Wong has solidified her place as one of the elite standup comics of the modern age, with the ability to connect with her audience and her confidence to say whatever she wants, no matter how others might react. For many Asian Americans, it is refreshing and inspiring to see Wong continue to grow as
COURTESY IMBD Ali Wong’s Netflix special “Don Wong” (2022) is pictured.
Sacha Waters
Public Cinemy No. 1 Sexualization in ‘Euphoria’
Every teen drama criticized for graphic portrayals of sex is met with arguments that many teenagers do have sex lives, and that these shows’ portrayals are realistic and refreshing. Although many high schoolers are indeed sexually active, the casting of adult actors by shows like “Euphoria” (2019-) and “Riverdale” (2017-) can become distasteful fast. While I don’t believe in pearl-clutching over teenage sexuality nor in not portraying it at all, I am disturbed by Hollywood’s tendency to cast adult actors to play minors. The fine line between a realistic portrayal of teenagers and over-sexualization is found in how teenage sex is portrayed, and the current, popular teen drama “Euphoria” fails on many counts.
Euphoria sometimes portrays sex as empowering for female characters, which can be a great thing and a departure from much other media. However, this sexual empowerment often manifests in a way that co-opts the women’s empowerment movement as an excuse to cater to the male gaze. This is exemplified through the characterization of Kat’s (Barbie Ferreira) sexualized cam girl arc as a method of empowerment. While women should be free to express their sexuality and exert control over their own bodies, this perversion of feminism by male directors, writers and producers not only eroticizes female bodies, but also pressures women and girls to chase desirability in harmful ways and to base their self-worth on sexual attractiveness as Kat did in the show. This can exacerbate the objectification of women and underage girls.
Furthermore, while “Euphoria” can successfully cover nuanced topics like addiction, its empathetic visage feels shallow due to the show sexualizing its characters. Nate (Jacob Elordi), Cassie’s (Sydney Sweeney) love interest in Season 2, is framed as unsympathetic because he sexualizes her, but my inner cynic rolls its eyes at this would-be noble attempt to reject the male gaze when the show turns around and crafts intentionally erotic cinematography when shooting Cassie. While Nate is hospitalized, he has a feverdream sex fantasy of Cassie. Female characters in the show do have similar sexual fantasies—like when Kat pictures a hyper-masculine Viking—but the scenes are shot incredibly differently. While Kat’s Viking is filmed at more of a distance, making the viewer less involved with the scene, Cassie is pictured from Nate’s point of view, with close-up, sexualized angles. Kat’s fantasy is a way of conveying information about her to the audience. Nate’s is intended to tantalize us as it does him. When cinematography is actively sexualizing teen girls, the show is no longer subversive, or a commentary—it is complicit.
With underage girls, Hollywood toes a line of technicalities. 37-year-old Sam Levinson’s history of sexualizing underage female characters in his work and Drake’s (“Euphoria” Executive Producer) previous predatory behavior is ignored in the show. Hollywood’s strange fixation with underage girls hints at a bigger societal problem: the barely curtailed obsession of adult men with underage and barely legal teens. TV creators and consumers alike must be more aware of the impact of sexualizing minors, and should treat “Euphoria” and similar shows with a careful, critical eye.
Sacha Waters is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. Sacha can be reached at sacha.waters@tufts.edu.
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