KAT HERNANDEZ SERIES

If Sam Levinson, the show’s writer and creator, truly wants to give fat people a storyline without falling back on stereotypes, perhaps he should cast more fat actresses.įerreira has helped shine a positive media spotlight on fat women through “Euphoria,” but the show should explore a variety of fat figures and their desires. Unfortunately, its gestures toward inclusivity remain misguided.

Casting practices seem to demand that fat women be fat enough to fetishize without diverging too far from the norm to be hypersexualized. It speaks to how we view fat bodies and how we determine which ones deserve attention. Rather, the fault lies with casting agencies only moving forward with Ferreira-esque body types: curvy and small-framed. The problem doesn’t reside in Ferreira identifying with a fat body type. In order to be seen as valuable in that sphere, fat women must have an hourglass figure they must remain as close as possible to conventional standards of body size and shape.

KAT HERNANDEZ SERIES

Casting Ferreira as the sole fat character imposes on the series a specific standard of fat women. “Euphoria” is overrun by misplaced conventionality, as the bulk of its cast is composed of models. Underlying Kat’s depiction in “Euphoria” are the societal conventions surrounding fatness, which the show reflects and reinforces. Her storyline continues to be reductive in season two ― while other characters gain time in the spotlight, viewers are left asking where Kat’s plot went. Like Julie, Kat spends much of the first season looming in the shadows of her sexually experienced and perceptibly size-normative best friends. “Lady Bird,” the 2017 Greta Gerwig film that gave adolescent girls an authentic story of leaving home and seeking new platonic, romantic and familial relationships, reduced its only fat character, Julie Steffans (Beanie Feldstein), to a sidekick. Misrepresentation of fat women is not unique to this season or this series. “Euphoria” careened from one side of the spectrum to the other with a story that hypersexualizes a fat woman to give her value.

In the third, she’s fetishized on a PornHub-like platform and decides that a sexual revolution will give her the confidence she previously lacked. In the first episode of season one, Kat has to prove she’s not prudish by losing her virginity to a random boy she met at a party. In an already fraught show, “Euphoria” rejected the trope that fat women can only exist as desexualized characters and instead went for an equally troubling one: In order to love herself, Kat reinvents her character by exploring her sexuality through writing steamy fanfiction and becoming a masked sex worker. When we do see her, she’s either indulging sexual fantasies or being bombarded by imaginary influencers who champion that she should simply “love herself.” Season one laid a strong foundation for Kat’s evolution as a character, but the staleness she is given in season two makes it evident that we were only given a pseudo-revolution of the fat-girl trope the show was initially perceived as avoiding. In season two of “Euphoria,” Kat is essentially removed from the plot. With Kat being the series’s only fat character, the absurdly popular show is yet another example of media that refuses to write fat characters well.

Schafer received her first writing credit as a 'co-writer' on the special episode, Fuck Anyone Who's Not a Sea Blob, along with also being a 'executive producer'.The raw and kaleidoscopic HBO series “Euphoria” deftly explores interpersonal relationships between many of its characters, but it neglects to develop the character of Kat Hernandez (Barbie Ferreira).

More recently however, in December 2021, she stated that her sexuality was 'bi or pan or something'

Regarding her sexuality, Schafer has stated that she is “ closer to what people might call a lesbian”.

Schafer collaborated closely with Levison on creating Jules and her backstory.

Prior to landing the role of Jules, her intentions were to go to London for fashion school.

Euphoria marks Schafer's first ever acting role.

Writer/Co-cxecutive producer Euphoria: Special Episodes You Who Cannot See, Think of Those Who CanĪll My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door Barbie Ferreira (Kat Hernandez): Actor Age 26, Character Age 17 While Barbie Ferreira isn’t going to be in Euphoria Season 3, her character, Kat Hernandez, is most certainly going to. The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Pee While Depressed Her father is a senior pastor.Ĭredits Starring Euphoria: Season 1 While in high school, she protested against the North Carolina Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, also known as the “bathroom bill”.

Kat hernandez