Actress-turned-OnlyFans creator Maitland Ward is not happy with Sydney Sweeney‘s character arc on Euphoria season 3.
“In the climate we’re in, that they dressed her up as a baby to make pornographic OnlyFans content was beyond troubling and again serves to perpetuate stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money,” the Boy Meets World alum, 49, said to Variety on Sunday, May 10. “And there’s always this untrue stigma that somehow sex work is synonymous with sex trafficking and abuse. And they just said, let’s make a joke of it. That is so funny. I’m not laughing.”
Sweeney has played Cassie on the HBO drama since its inaugural season. In the show’s latest season, Cassie pursues a career as an adult content creator before attempting to carve out a place in Hollywood. She is seen posing topless while licking an ice cream cone and dressing up like a baby in recent episodes.
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson previously spoke out about Cassie’s controversial season 3 story line.
“[Cassie] has got her dog house and her little dog ears and the nose, and that has its own humor, but what makes the scene is the fact that her housekeeper is the one filming it,” Levinson told The Hollywood Reporter in April. “What we wanted to always find is the other layer of absurdity that we’re able to tie into it so that we’re not too inside of her fantasy or illusion — the gag is to jump out, to break the wall.”
Ward subsequently slammed Levinson’s remarks, explaining that his notion makes adult content creators feel like a joke.
“That speaks volumes to me about why this OnlyFans storyline is being represented in the way that it is. It’s not being taken seriously,” Ward told Variety on Sunday. “It reminds me of when I pranced around in lingerie on Boy Meets World. It’s just the guys in the writer’s room coming up with their fantasies. To take someone so traditionally blonde and beautiful with the biggest boobs and dress her up as a dog and baby is really bizarre, but at the same time so expected in Hollywood.”
Ward is not the only adult content creator who has spoken out about Euphoria’s portrayal of sex workers this season. OnlyFans creator Taila Maddison exclusively told Us Weekly that her job is not just about “fulfilling kinks.”
“I’d say that’s probably only 20 [to] 30 percent of what my subscribers want and what I do day to day,” she explained to Us. “That said, kinks are one of the more fun aspects to explore. It’s always interesting when someone asks for something and you think, ‘Wow, I’ve never even considered that people would be into that.’”
To learn more about the serious potential risks and harms of “competitive sex” and other explicit OnlyFans content — read what doctors, mental health professionals and other experts told Us Weekly here.
