I haven’t watched a single episode of Euphoria, but the internet is loud about that one scene with 28-year-old Sydney Sweeney. Her character Cassie pops up in pigtails, a pacifier, and full baby get-up, hitting that classic “happy baby” pose with legs up while filming for her OnlyFans storyline. And wow, the outrage is rolling in hard.
Critics and media folks are throwing around words like “sick,” “disgusting,” “creepy,” and calling it a direct “sexualization of infancy” or “nightmare fuel.” They say it blurs into fetish content instead of character work, and some wonder if creator Sam Levinson has tipped from edgy drama into straight-up exploitative territory.
Here’s the thing we always keep front and center in this padded little corner of the web: paraphilic infantilism — aka AB/DL play — is exclusively for consenting adults. Grown-ups role-playing regression, wearing diapers, sucking on pacis, or acting little with other grown-ups who are enthusiastically on board. No actual infants. No interest in actual infants. Just fantasy, clear boundaries, safewords, and aftercare between adults who can legally consent. That’s been the standard for decades.
The pearl-clutching feels extra selective when you zoom out. People have all sorts of kinks between consenting adults, and acting pious while deciding which ones are “acceptable” for mainstream TV is a fool’s errand. The real ethical line isn’t whether a fictional adult wears baby clothes on HBO—it’s whether everyone involved (cast, crew, viewers choosing to watch) is informed and consenting.
And let’s be real: scenes with grown adults in babyish situations have been popping up in mainstream pop culture way more often than the outrage cycle suggests. They’re not some shocking new invention—they’re surprisingly commonplace, usually played for laughs, shock, or character quirks, and the world keeps spinning just fine.
We already know the 1992 comedy Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, where Sylvester Stallone’s character ends up in a giant cloth diaper getting teased by his mom (Estelle Getty). Pure slapstick — no hand-wringing required.
Back in 2013, The Simpsons gave us Grizzly Shawn, an LGBTQ character, dressed as an infant in the episode “The Changing of the Guardian.” Just a quick visual gag with an adult in baby mode. No infants harmed, no controversies that stuck.
Flip through the channels and you’ll spot plenty more casual nods. American Dad has tossed in multiple adult diaper references over the years. The Fairly OddParents had a blink-and-you-miss-it moment where Wanda turns Cosmo into a baby who fills his diaper, then they both chuckle about how fun it was. Malcolm in the Middle had an episode where Dewey gets jealous of a baby and straight-up wears a diaper to get attention. Even Scrubs slipped in a casual mention of a character whose partner sometimes puts him in a diaper during intimate moments.
These aren’t deep explorations of the kink — they’re quick jokes or character bits dropped into family-friendly or prime-time shows. And that’s kind of the point: depictions of adults playing with infantilism imagery have been normalized as harmless comedic fodder for decades. They show up, people chuckle (or roll their eyes), and we move on. No society-ending moral panic usually follows.
The outrage machine loves to act like every new baby-themed scene is crossing some sacred line, but the history says otherwise. Paraphilic infantilism has been part of adult fantasy and media winks for a long time, always framed around consenting adults when it’s real-life practice.
At the end of the day, the only thing that actually matters is consent. Adults choosing to explore this with other adults? That’s valid, private, and none of the Internet’s business to shame. Fictional characters doing the same on screen? Just storytelling — edgy or silly depending on the tone.
So next time the cycle kicks off and folks call it “full-blown nightmare fuel,” remember how many times we’ve seen a grown-up in a diaper or bonnet on TV or in movies and laughed it off. It’s more common than the critics admit, and way less controversial than they want to pretend.
| What do you think, crew? Spot any other mainstream baby moments I missed? Bothered by the Euphoria backlash, or just here vibing in your favorite print? Drop a comment below or comment on Bsky and tag me at @crinklecattales.com in the discussion. |