Netflix's EVERYTHING SUCKS! (2018): Teen Masturbation & High School Lipstick Lesbians

I read about Netflix's Everything Sucks! in the March 2018 issue of Vanity Fair, which described the teen show as a "disarmingly wining series".

 

Here is part of Google's plot summary: 

It's the 1990s in Boring, Ore., and groups of outcasts in Boring High School's AV and drama clubs are trying to brave the ups and downs of teenage life [...] The two crews of nerdy students are frustrated that no one is taking them seriously so they decide the best way to make it through high school is to join forces and make a movie [...] And there's also the usual teenage romance issues to deal with. Luke, the de facto ringleader of the AV club, falls for Kate, the principal's daughter, but she doesn't necessarily reciprocate the romantic feelings Luke has for her and is dealing with her own issues.

The first episode of the show, which New York magazine recommended that its readers binge watch, has a teen masturbation scene and by the last episode a lipstick lesbian scene that takes place on the stage in the high school's auditorium. 

Tavi Gevinson

In the masturbation scene, Kate Messner, a high school freshman, masturbated to a stolen porn magazine until her father interrupted her autoeroticism. Kate must not have read "How to Deal When You’re Caught Masturbating: Six decent excuses to have at the ready" in Yearbook Three of Tavi Gevinson's Rookie magazine.

Interestingly, the lipstick lesbian kiss is between Kate, who is played by 14-year-old Peyton Kennedy, and Emaline, who is played by 20-year-old Sydney Sweeney. (It's conceivable that they were 13 and 19 when the episode was filmed.) This poses the question: "Do age of consent laws apply to (lipstick) lesbians?"

There are at least two interesting points that can culled from this coming-of-age Netflix series:

1. If Kate were a non-lipstick lesbian, that would mean that there is an extremely good chance that she had been sexually abused.

2. And, although many female viewers of the show may have looked at these scenes as heart warming coming-of-age dramatizations, many males, including boys and men, eagerly viewed these scenes as soft-core teen porn. 

Peyton Kennedy & Sydney Sweeney