‘White Lotus’ and the smoothie of toxic masculinity
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Season 3 of “The White Lotus.”
Smoothie sippers are taking a second look at their blender today.
On April 6, the filthy rich guests of the White Lotus all checked out of their luxurious Thailand digs, either by boat or body bag — but the watercooler dramedy sprinkled a red herring throughout Season 3 in the form of a smoothie.
Cringeworthy large adult son Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) scooped heaps of creatine-laced powder to keep up his fitness routine, which ultimately became a symbol for the Ratliff boys’ struggles with masculinity.
This all came to an almost-heart-stopping head for his younger bro, Lochlan (Sam Nivola), who accidentally drinks a protein smoothie laced with poisonous seeds blended by his father Tim (Jason Isaacs).
The show’s opening credits clued us into Lochy’s fate, since Nivola’s name appears next to a boy laying on his back in water, exactly how his character was positioned while approaching death. Although he ultimately survives, the brothers’ smoothies were filled with poison of a different kind all along — toxic masculinity — and that was not lost on viewers.
“Every time I make my morning protein smoothie I feel like a douche, thanks to the White Lotus,” posted one X user.
“tbh Lochlan almost deserved to die for not cleaning out this day-old dirty blender before using it!” wrote another user. “men!!!”
“The Saxon and Lochlan dynamic in White Lotus shows that men who preach ‘unbreakable’ masculinity only ever end up getting punked by the very weak men they’ve groomed,” posted someone else. “The modern male’s obsession with power dynamics is just a slow march to the slaughterhouse.”
“As a naive 18-year old boy, Saxon is this super cool, macho guy that knows how to be a real, masculine man and F—-. To him, at least,” wrote one Reddit user. “We know the reason Lochlan hangs on to his every word is because his masculinity is a major source of insecurity for him.”
From problematic smoothies shilled by podcast hosts to the $20 Erewhon smoothie, blended, supplement-filled drinks have become synonymous with wealth, privilege and disordered eating habits, according to experts.
A 2015 study by the California School of Professional Psychology found that men are increasingly overusing supplements like protein powders, creatine and glutamine due to “an underlying sense of insecurity about one’s masculinity” — something the Ratliff boys have dealt with all season.
Lochlan’s smoothie made him “see god,” and hopefully that god wasn’t just another protein-maxxing alpha male like Saxon.
