TV Representation of Female Drug Abuse Within the Urban Night

A gorgeous blonde in a sequin dress snorts a line of cocaine in an expensive hotel room. A teenager with dark circles wearing pajamas pops pills in her messy bedroom. One is wealthy. One is not. One is White. One is Black. Both are teenagers in twenty-first-century television series. Gossip Girl (The CW, 2007–2012) and Euphoria (HBO, 2019–present) represent teenage drug users but in drastically different ways. One of the main characters in Gossip Girl, socialite Serena van der Woodsen, is frequently seen drinking in bars and nightclubs and using recreational drugs with her friends. She is labeled as a “party girl,” and her drug use is a major theme throughout all six seasons of the series. Similarly, drugs play a crucial role in the Euphoria storyline. The protagonist of Euphoria, Rue Bennett, is a poor, teenage drug addict who spends the entire series struggling with her drug use and attempting to get clean.

By analyzing the contrasting portrayals of Serena van der Woodsen and Rue Bennett, I evaluate how television series contribute to racial and class-based stereotypes surrounding teenage drug use. Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) is a wealthy, White socialite who lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, while Rue Bennett (Zendaya) is a Black girl living in poverty in the fictional suburban area of East Highland, California. Both series use the city to glamorize drug use and make it acceptable for wealthy White girls, while simultaneously demonizing drug use for poorer Black girls in the suburbs. These stereotypes reflect larger social issues regarding how Americans perceive and police drug users across racial lines.

This essay uses an intersectional approach to examine the experiences of Serena van der Woodsen and Rue Bennett. It evaluates how their differing race and class contexts contribute to the varying portrayal of their drug use. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and Marxist approaches to criminology, this essay evaluates the ways the two characters are portrayed and the spaces they inhabit onscreen, and considers how their representation compares to wider societal perceptions and policing of drug users from different backgrounds.

Critical Race Theory (CRT), is a theoretical approach that was developed in the 1970s as a product of Critical Legal Studies.¹Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (New York: NYU Press, 2023), 1–15. Critical Legal Studies is based upon the idea that the law is not neutral and factual but rather reflects social biases and is generally written to favor those who created it. CRT takes the ideas of Critical Legal Theory and applies them specifically to race, arguing that white supremacy and racism continue to permeate all formal and informal American economic, social, political, and legal systems.²Reuben A. B. May, “Exploring the Use of Exclusionary Practices against African American Participation in Urban Nightlife,” Sociological Forum 37, 1 (2022): 91–110, https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12780. CRT can help analyze how racial stereotypes influence media and how media influences racial stereotypes. It can be used to evaluate the way teenage drug users of different races are portrayed in television shows, and how that portrayal compares to drug policies, arrests, and perceptions within American society.

When looking at Serena and Rue from an intersectional perspective, it is not possible to separate race from class. Vegh Weis connects social classes and inequality to the concept of “criminal selectivity,” which helps to analyze how the criminal justice system unfairly targets racial minorities and impoverished populations.³Valeria Vegh Weis, Marxism and Criminology: A History of Criminal Selectivity (Leiden: Brill, 2017), https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004319561. This unequal treatment under the criminal justice system can be connected both to racial and class disparities within policing systems and the differing portrayals of drug users within the media.

In Gossip Girl, the socialite Serena van der Woodsen is labeled as a “party girl” from the start. The series is riddled with scenes of the characters drinking, dancing, going out to clubs, and participating in recreational drug use. The episode “Woman on the Verge” (Season 1, Episode 17) shows a flashback scene in which Serena is delivering her friend a line of cocaine after a night out partying at a wedding in New York City. The scene is set in a fancy hotel room with all three characters wearing nice outfits. The lighting is bright but there is a diffused glow over the whole scene to remind viewers that this is a flashback. The camera switches back and forth between Serena and her friend as he takes cocaine. While avoiding direct shots of the drugs, the shots before and after make the drug use clear (Figure 1 depicts Serena after her drug use). After taking the line, Serena’s friend proceeds to enter cardiac arrest. The editing becomes rapid as we follow Serena in her attempts to help him. Despite the frantic pace, the scene is not designed to scare the viewer. The following scene shows Serena watching the paramedics outside of the hotel on a New York City street. Although it is night, the street is well lit, and the viewers can make out the building and all the police officers and paramedics. The ambulance and police car lights are flashing, but they are subtle with no jarring noises and a muted color rather than the classic bright red and blue. The scene depicts dangerous drug use, yet the stylistic choices do not make the setting seem scary to the viewer. The dark streets of New York City are surprisingly calm and well-lit.

From the first season to the last, Serena’s drug use is never taken seriously but rather played down and shown as an everyday part of her glamorous and extravagant lifestyle. In the final scene of Season 5, in the episode “The Return of the Ring,” viewers see Serena on a train to upstate New York after falling out with all her friends in the city. A man sits down next to her and hands her a vial of cocaine, which she promptly sniffs. The cocaine appears to immediately set in as Serena’s head lolls back and the man begins kissing her neck and touching her (Figures 2 and 3). The scene depicts Serena on the brink of an overdose, about to get sexually assaulted. This is, of course, a disturbing scene, which certainly shows how Serena’s drug problem is taking a toll on her life. However, in Season 6, Episode 1, her drug overdose, and the subsequent sexual assault, are brushed aside. The episode shows Serena on the train with blood coming out of her nose. It is not a particularly scary or gruesome image and does not depict the severity of what an overdose might actually look like. The scene also takes place during the day, so the lighting is natural and bright, which serves to minimize the fear factor. In the rest of the episode, Serena makes one comment that she started the summer being “revived by paramedics” and a friend jokes that she hit rock bottom. The sexual assault is not mentioned at all. There is no discussion of rehab or how Serena seemed to move up from rock bottom. Instead, Serena’s friends find her going by the name “Sabrina” and dating a new boyfriend; shown at a party in a floor length dress with her hair done, she hardly looks like someone who suffered a drug overdose mere months before (Figure 4). The rest of Season 6 follows Serena returning to New York and continuing to live her glamorous lifestyle. Her drug abuse issues are simply a blip in her past.

While both scenes depict the severe consequences of hard drug use, any longer-term impact on Serena is downplayed entirely. Despite watching her friend die of an overdose, Serena continues to use cocaine in the subsequent seasons. And even though Serena has used drugs numerous times and has now overdosed, there is minimal discussion among her friends or family about a potential drug problem, nor a trip to rehab. Drugs are used as an addition to Serena’s crazy, party-girl personality, rather than a serious part of her character progression. Her drug use is shown in tandem with glamorous depictions of the urban night, which tends to minimize perceptions of harm and normalizes her behavior. The drugs never affect her appearance and there are rarely direct shots of her taking drugs. The scenes are not intended to evoke fear in the viewer; often well-lit and glamorous, they show Serena partying with Manhattan’s elite.

Euphoria (HBO: 2019-present) depicts teenage drug use with a different repertoire of representational strategies to Gossip Girl. The protagonist Rue Bennett is the most frequent drug user in the series, yet nearly all the main characters use drugs at some point. Throughout the show, viewers watch Rue struggle with both her drug use and her attempts to get clean. The show depicts graphic scenes of drug withdrawal and the serious complications associated with drug use. In most episodes, she is seen with messy, unkempt hair and an oversized red zip-up sweatshirt. She rarely wears makeup, and her eyes are sunken and rimmed with dark circles. Her drug use is depicted as taking a severe toll on her appearance and mental health.

Several storylines show that Rue’s drug use is dangerous and harmful. In Season 2, Episode 5 (“Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”), Rue enters into an agreement with a drug dealer named Laurie. The stylistic choices in this episode evoke fear in the viewers as they watch Rue put herself in harm’s way. The scenes are dimly lit and take place at night in alleys or sketchier parts of the suburbs. Rue looks sickly and her interactions with Laurie are nothing short of terrifying (Figure 5). In one scene, Rue is running from the police after escaping Laurie’s house. The image is so dark that viewers can barely see any of Rue’s surroundings, and an eerie blue sheen is cast over the entire scene. Rue is filmed dodging in and out of back alleys as the police chase after her with dogs. The police car lights flash as she attempts to hide. The stylistic choices are meant to place Rue in a dangerous setting that terrifies viewers and demonizes drug use.

While Rue is struggling with her addiction, the other characters in the show are also experimenting with drugs. In Season 1, Episode 7, “The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Pee While Depressed,” another main character, Jules, goes into the city to party with some friends. The friends are getting ready to go out and they pass around a joint. Jules is seen smiling as she smokes the joint, and the scene is cast in a pink and purple hue. She is having a casual conversation with a friend as they smoke and enjoy their time getting ready. There is no ominous music or dark lighting. Similarly, the shots of Jules partying in the city are lit with neon strobes (Figure 6). The scene shows a slowed down montage of her dancing and having a great time as she jumps around in a crowd. Even though Jules is high the whole time, and uses drugs at other points throughout the show, there is no concern for her wellbeing. The scene makes nightlife and drugs look like a fun time.

The portrayal of Jules’s drug use in Euphoria mirrors the portrayal of Serena’s drug use in Gossip Girl. These young, White girls can use drugs in a fun, recreational way while partying at night in the city, or to “destress,” whereas the only Black girl is crippled by her drug use. It is important to note when comparing these two TV shows that Gossip Girl was aired in the mid-2000s, with the final episode airing in 2012, while Euphoria is a more recent show that began in 2019 and is still running. Throughout Gossip Girl’s run, few characters are people of color. The show’s primary cast is entirely White except for Vanessa Abrams, who is a side character. In contrast, Euphoria emphasizes diversity and has a Black girl as the main character.

The portrayal of drug use on television feeds into existing stereotypes about who is viewed as a drug user. Ingrid Walker writes about historic stereotypes circulated by the news media about White hippies using LSD and Black mothers addicted to crack. She discusses the dichotomy between the representation of recreational drug use and pharmaceutical drug use, arguing that the former is portrayed as always leading to addiction and serious issues while the latter are marketed as a fix to all health issues. This labeling of someone as an “addict” versus using drugs out of “medical necessity” creates different perceptions of drug users and informs how they interact with the criminal justice and legal systems.⁴Ingrid Walker, High: Drugs, Desire, and a Nation of Users (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017), 24–37. While Serena does not use drugs out of “medical necessity,” she is portrayed as having fun, rebelling, or “blowing off steam.” In contrast, Rue is immediately labeled as a drug addict. Her drug use results in a disheveled, tired appearance, and puts a huge strain on her friendships and her relationship with her mother and younger sister. Her drug use consumes her life. Like Serena, Jules’s drug use is portrayed as something fun and recreational that she participates in at parties and nights in the city. She is allowed to experiment with drug use and have fun with it while out at night, without being labeled as an addict.

There is a clear racial disparity in how these characters are portrayed, which aligns with existing stereotypes about White versus Black drug use.⁵Ingrid Walker, “Picture a Drug User.” The shots of Serena and Jules use specific lighting strategies and nightlife settings to minimize the fear factor of drugs, while the shots of Rue are designed to evoke feelings of fear and danger. In their contrasting portrayals of Black and White characters, Gossip Girl and Euphoria reflect a deeper-rooted societal issue that makes assumptions about who we perceive as “dabbling” in drugs recreationally and who we see as drug addicts.⁶May, “Exploring the Use of Exclusionary Practices,” 92. White girls can use drugs in an unassuming way while out at night, but Black girls cannot. These television portrayals of teenagers reinforce social assumptions that normalize drugs as part of urban nightlife but demonize drugs in the suburbs. Serena and Jules use drugs at night in the city, which is glamorized through shots of them in colorful or bright lighting, party clothes, fun makeup, and scenes of them dancing, having fun, and looking attractive. Rue uses drugs at night in her bedroom or on the dark streets of the suburbs, which is shot in an ominous way that portrays Rue as a crazy drug addict who will do anything for her next fix. Her portrayal scares viewers and shows how drugs can take over a person’s life. Drugs are demonized when they are done in the suburbs by a poor Black girl like Rue, but they are perfectly fine when done in the city, especially by a wealthy White girl like Serena.

The setting and identity of a drug user greatly affects whether they are perceived in a negative or positive light. This informal portrayal and perception of drug users through the media can be usefullly framed by what Shannon Mattern, following Rahul Mehrotra, calls the “Kinetic City.”⁷Rahul Mehrotra, “Negotiating the Static and Kinetic Cities: The Emergent Urbanism of Mumbai,” in Other Cities, Other Worlds: Urban Imaginaries in a Globalizing Age, ed. Andreas Huyssen (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2008), 205–18.  The Kinetic City is the informal information and connections within a city that are not regulated by laws. It is uncovered through on-the-ground fieldwork and is shaped by culture and people.⁸Shannon Mattern, Deep Mapping the Media City (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015). In this context, the Kinetic City refers to how individuals interact with drugs and how they are perceived based on their identities and drug use. For example, we might consider the way Serena uses cocaine as a party drug, and Rue uses pills as a numbing agent, and their subsequent labeling as a wild teenager or a drug addict. The Kinetic City is not a separate entity, however; it directly interacts with what Mattern calls the “Static City,” which consists of the laws and formal structures within a city.⁹Mattern, Deep Mapping the Media City. When it comes to drug use, the structures of the Static City that come to the forefront are the legal and policing systems. However, as Critical Race Theory has shown, systems are not unbiased but are rather built upon the political and social contexts in which they exist.¹⁰May, “Exploring the Use of Exclusionary Practices,” 92. In this sense, the Static City is directly impacted by the social context of the Kinetic City.

In New York and Los Angeles, the urban areas where these TV shows take place, there is a racial disparity between drug arrests/charges and the actual proportion of the population that each race represents. In New York County, Black people represent roughly twelve percent of the population but make up over fifty percent of drug arrests. In contrast, White people represent roughly forty-five percent of the New York County population yet make up roughly eleven percent of the total drug arrests.¹¹“New York County, New York,” U.S. Census Bureau, Census Reporter, 2022, http://censusreporter.dokku.censusreporter.org/profiles/05000US36061-new-york-county-ny/; “Adult Arrest Demographics New York County: 2022.” NYPD, New York City Police Department,  2023, https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/adult-arrest-demographics/2022/index.html Similarly, in Los Angeles, Black people make up roughly eight percent of the population, but twenty-seven percent of the drug charges. This is the largest disparity by far. White people make up about twenty-eight percent of the Los Angeles population and make up twenty-six percent of drug possession charges.¹²“Demographics.” American Community Survey (ACS) 2022 Five-Year Estimate, Los Angeles, 2022, https://planning.lacity.gov/resources/demographics; “Map of Drug Possession Charges: Los Angeles – Open Data Portal,” LAPD, City of Los Angeles, 2019, https://data.lacity.org/Public-Safety/Map-of-drug-possession-charges/isxh-ztfe. In both Los Angeles and New York, there is a huge discrepancy between the percentage of Black people charged with drug crimes and their actual racial proportions within the cities. This disparity connects to the concept of criminal selectivity. Racial minorities and impoverished populations are more likely to have run-ins with the criminal justice system than White, wealthy people.¹³Weis, Marxism and Criminology. Gossip Girl and Euphoria reflect these societal structures through their differing portrayals of Rue, Jules, and Serena.

Through aesthetic strategies and narrative choices, the creators of Gossip Girl and Euphoria create conflicting narratives about drug use among teenage girls. Drug use is normalized for White girls like Jules and Serena who use drugs recreationally when going out at night in the city, while it is simultaneously demonized for Black girls like Rue, who is a drug addict in the suburbs. Drugs are a serious part of Rue’s character progression but only serve as an addition to Jules and Serena’s storylines. This racial discrepancy affects how viewers perceive drug users based on their identities and permeates into how drugs are policed and handled within the criminal justice, healthcare, and social service systems. Euphoria is already bounding ahead of Gossip Girl in terms of its diversity and its realistic representation of drugs but, there is still more work ahead. Television series must diverge from classic racial and economic stereotypes associated with drug use and work towards ending this harmful representation in the media.

Ava DeAngelis

Ava DeAngelis is a senior studying Political Science and Communication Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. She spent the Spring 2024 semester studying in Rome at John Cabot University. While studying at John Cabot she took Professor Eleonora Diamanti’s class, Urban Media. Outside of class, Ava is the Service Vice President of the Eta Phi chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, the nation’s largest co-ed service fraternity.