My Beef With Euphoria And Daddy Issues
By Missy
I attempted to watch Euphoria and couldn’t get past episode three. One might ask why. Well, I’m too immature to see male’s anatomy thrown in my face. My hand can only cover so much. I think that’s a pretty fair and legitimate reason. So, I did what any other teenager would do, and that’s watching YouTube reactions to each episode.
Eventually, I got to Cassie’s episode, and it was dozy. Poor, sweet, sweet Cassie has what the media calls daddy issues. For context, her dad was a junky and used her for drug money; then, her other family members sexualized her as soon as she hit puberty. Present-day Cassie in episode 8 is led to have an abortion, as she dissociates to the ice rink and figure skates to My Body Is a Cage by Arcade Fire, something she used to do with her dad when she was young.
So, now every wrong Cassie has done, or even her seeking male validation, is all pushed into the category of daddy issues. So, what are daddy issues exactly?
In simple terms, daddy issues are issues young girls/women get from their fathers. According to Dictionary. Com, “Daddy issues is an informal phrase for the psychological challenges resulting from an absent or abnormal relationship with one’s father.”
Euphoria Season 2 – Cassie got beat up by Maddie. It was glorious!
Now, you would think that this stereotype would villainize the father who gave the girl these problems, but how sadly mistaken you are, my friend. From henceforth, we shall be friends, and I’ll refer to you as such. So, my friend symptoms include “an often manifesting in a distrust of men or sexual desire for men who act as father figures.”
When you read this and see men who act as father figures, I hope we can all see a gigantic red flag over these words the size of Texas. Men who act as father figures to me read as old men in their late 30s to 50s. My friend, you’re probably thinking 30 isn’t old, but to a 14–16-year-old, they are as old as the dirt we walk on. Are you picking up what I’m putting down?
A light example of this, not including children, is Modern Family. Modern Family is a sitcom set on a reality show premise. It looks at three different households all tied to one family tree. The ones we are going to look at are Gloria and Jay. They have an age difference of 20 years, and Gloria is even a few years younger than his daughter Claire.
In one episode, we have Sonia, Gloria’s sister, who came for some shenanigans. They brought up how Jay looks really familiar—to who, you might ask….. Gloria’s father. Even Jay himself got shivers up the spine. It’s disturbing, but love is love, they say.
Modern Family – On the left Gloria. On the right Jay.
Interesting choice of words, isn’t it? Love is love, age is just a number, and boys will be boys, but why do these words only get brought up in a conversation of defense? These men know there’s a problem, and they know how society will view them being 20 years older than their partner because of what they call it…. daddy issues.
It’s like daddy issues put a target on a young girl’s back in big, bold red ink, saying I’m vulnerable. It’s like the baby bird syndrome with women trying to fix somebody, always looking for a new project, trying to build a better boy, and then getting heartbroken when they don’t change. Like, what in the world are you expecting at that point?
Daddy issues. Daddy issues. Daddy issues. Oh, the spectrums you come in. All the media shows is one side of you or the other, like a Penny.. heads or tails. Either you come in the form that makes a girl give her body to any and everybody, or you come in the form of the damaged girl who writes off all men. It’s a coin toss between which one is the real you, or maybe that’s the point. Maybe you don’t care.
- The End