People Are Calling Out “Everything Sucks!” Over THIS Scene Between Kate And Emaline
20 February 2018, 13:54
Viewers are now calling the show out for being problematic.
Netflix dropped its brand new teen series Everything Sucks! earlier this month and the show has already been praised for its diversity and its handling of the all-too-familiar feelings of navigating high school, bullying, dating and sexuality. (Oh, and its amazing soundtrack.)
One of the key storylines of the show follows Kate Messner and her complicated journey in finding her own sexuality. While she spends most of the season "dating" fellow student Luke, it's established fairly early on that she is attracted to females. At the end of the season, Kate finds out that Emaline, the slightly older Drama club queen, is attracted to her, too. The two end up sharing a kiss in the final episode.
The relationship between Kate and Emaline has become one of the show's biggest - and most important (!!) - ships, but after finding out the ages of the actresses who play them, viewers are calling the show out for being problematic.
Kate is meant to be around 15 years old and Emaline is slightly older. The actors however? Peyton Kennedy has just turned 14 and Sydney Sweeney is 20.
they had a 14 year old and a 20 year old kiss on everything sucks? pic.twitter.com/Ox0oaphaAQ
— moni✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 (@bitchywolfhard) February 18, 2018
i don’t really wanna watch everything sucks after learning the main actress is 14 and her love interest on the show 20 in rl that’s bad
— char (@tararrosita) February 18, 2018
everything sucks made a 14 and 20 year old kiss i think the fuck not
— jari loves newt (@skatacalprnia) February 18, 2018
OMG WHAT THE HECK I'M SHOOK SO THE GIRL THAT PLAYS KATE IN EVERYTHING SUCKS IS 14 SHE HAS A CRUSH ON A GIRL WHO'S PLAYED BY A 20 YO ACTRESS AND THEY FRENCH KISS IN A SCENE WHAT THE FUCK I'M MINDBLOWN LIKE LITERALLY pic.twitter.com/v6DUdtvkqG
— heend🍂 (@evenaesheirn) February 20, 2018
wait is that even allowed to have a 14 year old and a 20 year old kiss?? even if its just acting?? that sounds pretty messed up to me
— َ (@kaspbrk) February 18, 2018
Others are calling out the backlash, saying there isn't an issue.
everything sucks! having peyton and sydney kiss isn't gross or weird.
—  (@80stalia) February 20, 2018
1) if EITHER person was uncomfortable, it's very easy to talk to ppl & cut it or change the scene 2) its just a kiss 3) if it was a straight couple nobody would say shit
scenes between them. but everything sucks has no sexual scenes between emaline, the most they do is kiss and y'all ( fake woke twitter ) are tryna boycott the show?? like this show has at least 2 canon queer people, the main character is a black kid who lives with his mom,
— brooklyn | ברוקלין (@bwayhowell) February 19, 2018
While some are rightfully concerned about the age difference between the actresses, there's no way this would have happened without consent (parental consent at that and maybe even supervision too, because Peyton is a minor) and each actress feeling comfortable in the situation. Neither actress would have been forced to do it.
However, it's easy to see where the concern lies (and totally we agree), particularly if Kate and Emaline's relationship goes even further physically in the second season of the show.
It should be noted that Emaline also kisses McQuaid in the show, who is played by 15-year-old Rio Mangini. Would things be different if it had been a 20-year-old guy kissing a 14-year-old girl? Yes, 100% - in fact, it would be an even bigger issue but why not when it's the other way around?
It's not the first time this kind of thing has happened either, but that doesn't make it ok. In Pretty Little Liars season one, Sasha Pieterse was only 14 when she shared her first on-screen kiss with Shay Mitchell, who was 21 at the time. Both characters were meant to be the same age in the show. The same thing happened on That 70's Show in 1998 with Mila Kunis (15) and Ashton Kutcher (20) but, given the current #MeToo and #TimesUp climate, people aren't hesitating to point out things that they find problematic anymore, particularly when it comes to actors and actresses under the age of 18.
Neither Netflix nor the creators of Everything Sucks! have addressed the recent backlash but with more and more people tuning in to the show on Netflix, we're sure there'll be an uptick in tweets about the kiss in question.
