"Euphoria": Nate Jacobs - Toxic Masculinity

 

    Euphoria, caught in a toxic atmosphere, altogether makes it a different show. When Euphoria originally aired on HBO Max, I believe many viewers understood how this show was reflecting on male toxicity and portrayed a specific segment of individuals in actual society. One character which I think really achieves a pinnacle of toxic masculinity is Nate Jacobs. In the first season, in a certain way, he is shown as a character with zero imperfection, has it all, is the super jock. The perfect protagonist masculine persona. As well as attacking tv tropes like the jerk jock as well as the high school quarterback. We can see clearly what toxic masculinity looks like in Euphoria, in creating the background as to how toxic ideals of what it means to be a man and emerge in males as early as childhood.

    Nate Jacobs not only provides these tv cliche representations to his character, he sets stereotypes and creates exoticism as well. This program has lately produced Nate Jacobs, the new villain at the moment. The asshole hot shot football player of the high school. He dates Maddy Perez in the show and establishes the power couple. Nate's character is one character where the viewers can plainly notice his behaviors seem to contradict one another, almost psychopathically. Although being the jerk jock and the quarterback of the school, he is intelligent and a superb manipulator.

    Some examples of being the jerk jock go hand in hand with being the archetypal toxic masc. He's forceful and cutthroat while also employing sexist slurs which produces a frightening lack of values. There's a certain scenario in which I think clearly demonstrates how Nate's character is actually the best example of the toxic male persona. When he cat-calls Jules from his window and says “come and ride on this dick,” making Jules fall from her bike. I suppose on TV and in Film is where cat-calling tends to become employed in the real world. In tv scenes exactly like this one moment creates a circumstance where men encounter female characters and have the desire to catch their attention in a misogynistic style.

    This in turn builds and adds into the idea that that's how guys may flirt with and display sexual interest. Which entirely is a portrayal of toxic masculinity, doing this indicates you're a man in society. As described in tvtropes.org, “A nasty, arrogant, spiteful jerk with an out-of-control attitude of entitlement, he spends his time banging people up, getting drunk and destroying property; and in darker works, he may also be an incorrigible rapist.”

    More interestingly and disturbingly, Nate exhibits his psychopathic misogynistic illness when the show takes a peek at his sense of morality, through his online interaction with Jules. Specifically in a way where I feel Nate leverages Jules' persona to make his unknown sexuality a displacement of exoticism toward Jules. In a way Jules believes he is “the perfect man” without ever knowing who she is chatting with and until they do meet is where she feels deceived and not able to trust Nate because of the toxic masculine guy he presents. In a more troubling reading of this scenario, he makes Jules an exotic figure, romanticizing her for who she is as a character in the show.

    As the Quarterback of the high school he is among the most appreciated characters on the squad, and displays under norms of the American education system, is a very significant thing. This is the Quarterback, the moral, fearless, leader with a good arm. Nate not only creates this image of the nice guy because he is the most popular and dating the most popular female, but is in such high favor in the school's football squad that he causes resistance. In contrast to the conventional high school Quarterback, he is always being compared as the jerk jock all the time. Making the toxic masculinity of his character outshine those attributes formed while seeing him as just the Quarterback of the high school.