Euphoria Cast Canceled Controversy

Overview

Euphoria Cast Canceled, also known as the Euphoria Cast Controversy, refers to a series of controversies regarding lead actresses of HBO's Euphoria. In mid-2022, actress Sydney Sweeney's family received flak for purportedly being Trump and Blue Lives Matter supporters after images of her mom's birthday where people wore MAGA-like hats and Thin Blue Line shirts went viral. Then, actress Barbie Ferraria was accused of allegedly saying the N-word and being a racist on Tumblr via her deactivated account boredbarbara, and actress Hunter Schafer liked a transmedicalism Instagram post that supposedly alluded to anti-nonbinary beliefs in her. The cancel culture controversies each snowballed in mid-2022 in anticipation of Euphoria's third season. The discourse surfaced on Twitter and elsewhere where users drew Xs over a group photo of the actresses. Additionally, Zendaya was discussed as a humorous counter to the rest of the cast's controversies, represented by a picture of her riding a bike.

Developments

Sydney Sweeney's Mom's Birthday Party Controversy

On August 27th, 2022, Sydney Sweeney uploaded a carousel post to Instagram^[1] of photos and videos from her mother Lisa Sweeney's 60th birthday party. Over the course of two days, the post received roughly 2.2 million likes. Roughly three hours after her post, Twitter^[2] user exposedxbihh tweeted a screenshot of Sweeney's last photo, zooming in on the man, presumably her father, in the photo wearing a Thin Blue Line T-shirt and captioning it, "Girl @sydney_sweeney." In two days, the post received roughly 18,700 likes (shown below, left).

Later on August 27th, Twitter^[3] user vespervievv tweeted screenshots taken from Sydney Sweeney's brother Trent's Instagram (@trent_sweeneyy) in which people at the party were wearing MAGA-inspired hats that read, "Make Sixty Great Again." Vespervievv claimed in their tweet how "Sydney Sweeney carefully curated her IG post so that none of the MAGA-inspired hats were seen and then her dimwitted brother’s post blew it all up." The tweet received roughly 17,000 likes in two days (shown below, right). Trent Sweeney then deleted the Instagram post on the morning of August 29th.

As the backlash against Sweeney accumulated on social media from some, she posted a tweet^[4] on the evening of August 27th that read, "You guys this is wild. An innocent celebration for my moms milestone 60th birthday has turned into an absurd political statement, which was not the intention. Please stop making assumptions. Much love to everyone ♥️ and Happy Birthday Mom!" Over the course of two days, the tweet received roughly 117,200 likes (shown below).

Reactions and Memes

In the days that followed the initial discourse, Twitter users levied their takes on the situation either supporting Sweeney's response or condoning her and her family. On August 27th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user CATnOATS tried to defend Sweeney by stating in a tweet, "Has the thought crossed anyone’s mind that it’s possible Sydney Sweeney strongly disagrees with the politics of her parents, just like an enormous proportion of Millennials / Gen Z?" The tweet received roughly 9,500 likes (shown below, left).

On the contrary, Twitter^[6] user _slimarella_ tweeted, "Sydney Sweeney family has on MAGA inspired merch and she’s saying she doesn’t know why everything has to be political girl be fr," receiving roughly 29,000 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Barbie Ferreira Controversy For Saying N-Word / Being Racist

In mid-2020, allegations surfaced on Twitter about actress Barbie Ferraria purportedly pretending to be Black on her old Tumblr account boredbarbara.^[8] On September 2nd, 2020, the Twitter^[7] account bestoferreira tweeted photos of Ferraria. In the replies to the fan account's tweet, many Twitter users joked about Ferraria's "racist" past. Then, in a since-deleted Twitter thread started in September 2020, Twitter users claaassyy, spiritus__and and jacquenergy shared screenshots of Ferraria's old Tumblr post (screenshot shown below). The original boredbarbara Tumblr post^[9] cited in the screenshot was posted on December 14th, 2014, and received roughly 2,800 notes in eight years.

Hunter Schafer Supporting Transmedicalism Instagram Post / Anti-Nonbinary Controversy

On August 17th, 2022, Instagram^[10] user piggytaiwan posted a long-form text post about her take on Florida's recent recategorization of being transgender, as in, it no longer being a medical condition that requires transition surgery. Piggytaiwan blamed non-binary persons (enbies) for recategorizing what being transgender means. Piggytaiwan's beliefs read to many as transmedicalist.

Transmedicalism^[11] is the belief that being transgender or transsexual is contingent upon experiencing gender dysphoria and then needing to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Non-binary people and some trans people believe that one does not need to undergo surgery in order to be trans. Due to this belief, some like piggytaiwan believe that enbies have unknowingly given reason to conservative state governments to limit gender-affirming surgery based on the anti-transmedicalist notion that surgery and dysmorphia are not required to be trans.

Piggytaiwan's Instagram^[10] post received roughly 4,200 likes in two weeks (shown below). Also, Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer liked the post, additionally commenting on it "!!!!!" and receiving roughly 1,400 likes in one week (shown below).

Awareness of Schafer's liking and commenting on the post surfaced on Twitter and TikTok. This happened predominantly on August 23rd, 2022, when Twitter^[12] user bisexualcrises tweeted the screenshots, captioning them, "hunter schafer is a transmedicalist and enbyphobic… fucking hell," and earning roughly 2,900 likes in six days. Also on August 23rd, TikToker amalaunapologetic posted a video about the controversy, earning roughly 368,500 plays and 35,700 likes in five days (shown below).

X-ing Out Euphoria Cast Group Photo

On August 27th, 2022, Twitter^[13] user vveetto tweeted a photo of all of the lead actresses in the Euphoria cast, captioning it, "this pic but they disappear one by one like the end of an antm episode," and earning roughly 260,000 likes in two days (shown below, left). On August 28th, 2022, Twitter^[14] user ByYourLogic tweeted the photo but with Xs over the actresses' faces, captioning it, "laughing imaging 2 aides sprinting into the Oval Office and handing this to Biden," and earning roughly 46,600 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Also on August 27th, 2022, Twitter^[15] user nfwarmani tweeted a video that actualized vveetto's request, showing the actresses who were canceled slowly fading out. The video received roughly 25,400 likes and 2.7 million views in two days (shown below).

Zendaya On A Bike

While the rest of the Euphoria cast was getting called out on Twitter, a photo of actress Zendaya riding a bike in Budapest surfaced as a humorous counter to the controversies. For instance, on August 27th, 2022, Twitter^[16] user zendayurs captioned the photo with, "losing my mind at half the euphoria cast fighting for their lives on this app, meanwhile zendaya:" earning roughly 88,300 likes in two days (shown below).

Search Interest

External References