Euphoria's Maddy - A New Kind of "Mean Girl"

[Music] still love you but why because you're smart and cruel but not really Maddie Perez is the queen bee of euphoria high but unlike the cruel Heathers and Regina George's were used to she has a heart like the stereotypical mean girl ringleader she's popular has lots of confidence and well some anger issues sorry but when a Regina George type is sabotaged we cheer along while audiences want to see Maddie succeed the difference is Maddie's a really good friend rather than a cruel despot and her anger tends to be justified not indiscriminate she also has bigger actual problems than say a few unwanted pounds of weight gain Maddie is the character you get if you take the alpha mean girl seriously and look into what made her and what it's like to be her so what makes Maddie such a special version of the high school queen bee [Music] foreign [Music] skirt I've ever seen queen bees on screen are often cruel Mean Girls Regina George rules over her cohort with an iron fist Heather's ringleader Heather Chandler plays the distant games of croquet Maddie can be harsh and violent but there's Justice to her anger cat what the [ __ ] is your problem you're being a bad friend when she attacks someone it's typically because they actually did something wrong not just because she wants someone to pick on racist so while other queen bees are respected outwardly but secretly hated Maddie is truly respected I wish you could see yourself the way the rest of the world does queen bees always have a tight Posse but most seem to choose their friends based on superficial qualities making it more about how useful her followers are to reinforce her power and popularity Maddie is friends with a more varied group Regina's Plastics practically wear a uniform on Wednesdays we wear pink while when Cassie dresses like Maddie Maddie's weirded out wait what are my class is why then another common popular kid Trope is that they have a friend in Middle School who they ditch for not growing up to be cool enough we were best friends in middle school I know right it's so embarrassing but Maddie is still best friends with her childhood friend Kat who wouldn't fit for example Regina George's harsh body standards she's not too image obsessed to be publicly friendly with Cassie's shy little sister Lexi and her friend Rue and Maddie isn't just nicer than other queen bees she's a genuinely good friend empathetic fiercely loyal and loving [ __ ] you're my soulmate she listens and pays attention to her friends inner lives what's wrong I like can't stand Ethan I was wondering that's why while it's a win for Regina George's followers to turn on her it's heartbreaking when Maddie's bestie Cassie betrays her by Sleeping with Maddie's ex Nate I would have never done this to you queen bees almost never get vulnerable they tend to hide their weakness to maintain their image of a strong leader psychologists know that anger is often a way to hide other emotions like sadness with the more comedic queen bees their anger is left mostly unexplained and therefore unjustified but with Maddie we get to actually see the vulnerability behind the fierce exterior she talks to her friends about what hurts her especially about Nate even if she still makes sure to sound calm and matter of fact I think Nate really [ __ ] me up and the show also lets us see Maddie in very private scary moments when she is terrified and hurt by Nate queen bees tend to come from privilege they're mostly very wealthy and very white reflecting how real world popularity often is tied to material advantages but Maddie is Latina and seems to come from a middle class background her mother was an esthetician which is a fancy way of saying she gave pedicures to rich people even as a little girl Maddie notices class differences and becomes determined to change her position in the hierarchy she quickly realized that there are two kinds of people in the world the people who sit in the chairs with their feet in the foot bath and the people who kneel in front of the foot bath so while other it girls are at least partially born into their status Betty makes herself into a person others admire part of the difference between Maddie and the typical queen bee stems from Euphoria not being a comedy so that means Maddie's not written as a cartoonish villain or a OneNote joke the show also has a more Ensemble Focus so Maddie gets depth instead of being just a one-dimensional supporting character but more fundamentally Maddie moves the queen bee character in a New Direction because she's framed as both a popular girl and gasp a good person this is hard and confusing the last thing you need is to feel worse because you're not feeling something you're supposed to feel do it feels good to you and if you think about it the classic portrayal of queen bees as automatically mean and shallow shows condescension towards teen audiences it implies that a if girls strive for power and popularity they must be jerks and B that teens are so naive and stupid that they blindly idolize Rich thin white girls even when they're terrible people so by rewriting the queen bee as aspirational and human Euphoria shows a respect for teens that is rare in older media the core of the queen bee is confidence and no one gets this better than Maddie she didn't have to be the prettiest or the tallest or the blondest or the widest you just had to have confidence Maddie was always self-possessed but we learned she added to that innate quality by building up her outward confidence like a kind of armor realizing that the secret is simply appearing confident ninety percent of life is confidence the thing about confidence is no one knows if it's real or not so what makes this portrait of a queen bee different is that Maddie's highly aware of the constructed nature of confidence she essentially invented herself as a queen bee by making a conscious choice to develop confidence and she's even secure enough to generously share that Insight with others everyone feels stupid who cares you feel stupid yeah I did and then I just chose not to feel stupid because Maddie understands that looking confident has the same effect as being confident she makes sure that every inch of her outward Persona radiates teen girl power she moves in a self-possessed way and almost never looks flustered I had never seen anyone that sure of themselves as her when she talks she often sounds a little bored a classic cool kid move do I know you she uses fashion as a weapon her fits can be aggressively revealing but they seem as though they're less about looking sexy than simply flaunting the confidence it takes to pull off that kind of outfit Maddie's makeup and hair are another part of her Arsenal her edges are always perfectly laid down and her makeup is heavy and super bold euphoria's makeup artist Donnie Davey said a Maddie Wing is always the sharpest Wing sharp like a knife to cut through whatever stands in her way since Maddie's confidence is built from the outside in it makes sense that she would put a lot of stock in appearances she studies the mannerisms of the rich women she sees at the nail salon she imitates porn to keep Nate happy and she tries on the outfits of Samantha the well-off woman she babysits for literally putting herself in Samantha's shoes Maddie's role model is a character in a movie Sharon Stone and casino was like Maddie's spirit animal like Sharon Stone's Ginger Maddie appears both very noticeable and sort of enigmatic at the same time because of the total control she exercises over her image but if someone crosses either of them they're in big trouble they each have a scene where they burst out violently in a very public setting attacking a person who angered them get lost yes but mainly Maddie and Myers and copy's Ginger's approach to men the cool thing about Sharon Stone and casino is that she ran over dinero and she did the same to Nate [Music] Maddie's focus on appearances leads to her biggest strength her confidence but her interactions with her toxic on-again off-again boyfriend Nate examine how especially with young people too much focus on appearances can also make them vulnerable to danger and even mask ongoing abuse it's like the root of a lot of violence Maddie initially gets interested in Nate because he looks like what she wants he's the Star Quarterback and behaves like a real gentleman at first he was a gentleman like flowers every day kind of gentleman Nate cares about appearances too hiding the parts of himself that don't fit what he thinks he must be between the two the entire relationship looks aspirational but feels contractual she looks and acts like a girlfriend should and he gives the gifts a boyfriend must give both Maddie and Nate are acting out what they think love is supposed to look like and since they're the star couple of euphoria high they also reinforce that this is what it's supposed to look like to everyone else Jake and Marta's relationship was our first impression of love but in private their relationship is physically and emotionally violent the writing underlines how men like Nate who performatively act the most chivalrous can also be the most misogynistic controlling and volatile I don't want to try to hurt you I feel like the sweetest guy ever Maddie tells Nate she's a virgin because she knows it's what he wants to hear and she's so aware of Nate's obsession with her Purity that she lies about whether her interaction with Tyler was consensual leading to an innocent guy getting badly beaten up and terrorized seeing hyper-confident Maddie terrified and broken by Nate takes all this queen bee High School Dynamics to a different more serious place and the portrayal reminds us how poorly we understand as a society what a victim is it wasn't the violence that scared her it was the fact that she knew no matter what he did she'd still love him Maddie is the last person you'd call weak or naive or who would seem susceptible to someone like Nate's manipulation but abuse victims can find it incredibly hard to leave for a number of reasons for example because their self-esteem and identity have been greatly damaged you know when somebody just constantly criticizes like everything about you while Euphoria makes sure to clarify that the mistreatment Maddie suffers is in no way her fault she like many young people falls for the fallacy that play acting the picture of real love is enough to create real love at that age we all thought we knew what love looked like eventually the truth of their relationship Rises to the surface where everyone can see it when a police officer tells Maddie trust me when I tell you that the person that did this doesn't love you the line cuts through the perfect veneer Maddie is holding onto and in season 2 Nate's public betrayal with Cassie is the final nail in the coffin ruining the illusion of the outwardly perfect love story Nate and Maddie both cared about projecting so where will this queen bee go in the long term audiences tend to expect the typical on-screen cool kid narrative peaking in high school and eventually becoming an unsuccessful and immature adult but Euphoria makes everything grittier so the washed up path Maddie could go down feels way scarier the second season raises the prospect of her getting forever stuck with Nate and it draws a parallel between Maddie and Nate's mom Marsha who married the wrong guy Nate's dad Cal when she got unexpectedly pregnant are you sure the test is accurate like Nate and Maddie Marcia and Cal clearly also care about appearances they enjoy a comfortable lifestyle and upstanding reputation in the town while Cal lives a secret double life and Marcia knows about it to some degree you know how many men I've what Cal stop it but the show gives us hope for Maddie not going down Marsha's path season two introduces her elegant and wise new Mentor Samantha who helps Maddie gain a new level of maturity and insight into her drama with Nate and Cassie if you're still dating guys like this in your 40s we'd be having a very different conversation but you're 18 years old who gives a [ __ ] it's symbolic that Samantha gives her vintage dress to Maddie as though she's inviting Maddie to follow her life trajectory growing from an impulsive mess into someone who's happy and together because it was messy oh and I love to fight and Maddie both literally and figuratively Dodges a bullet when Nate acknowledges that their relationship is now truly over I humiliated you so in fact when Maddie tells Cassie that she's now at the start of the Vicious Cycle hey broke up with me before I even went on that stage don't worry this is just the beginning we get the sense that this queen bee is ready to move on to a new hopefully healthier chapter feel bad bad enough to stay in East Highland for the rest of your life no this video was written by friend of the take Anya formosova if you liked the ideas here you can check out her channel q22 for more interesting cultural insights click the link in the description below [Music]

Channel: The Take

Views: 613,743

Keywords: euphoria, maddy perez, mean girl, zendaya, rue bennett, sydney sweeney, cassie howard, hunter schafer, jules vauhgn, alexa demie, barbie ferreria, kat hernandez, fezco, angus cloud, lexi howard, maude apatow, nate jacobs, jacob alrodi, gia bennett, storm reid, cal jacobs, eric dane, the take, breakdown, the plastics, regina george, heathers, gossip girl, casino, friends, how i met your mother

Id: EV8cb64IJvA

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 20 2022