hmm

[bylerbait]

sorry to all the people following this blog because of that post. i made it on this blank blog because i am afraid of being confrontational on main 😔

[will-mcfly]

the way the stranger things fandom at large speaks about the HIV/AIDS crisis is very ill informed (shocker)… being gay and sexually active in the 80s/90s was not a guarantee of contracting HIV. will byers faced more stigma and danger in hawkins than he will amongst his community.

safe sex advocacy campaigns were in full swing by the late 80s. younger people may underestimate the sheer scale of the work people did because we weren’t alive at the time. safe sex PSAs are the norm now- that wasn’t the case then. the Reagan administration opposed widespread sex education and funding for contraception. they refused to acknowledge there was a crisis at all. ACT UP and other groups fought the NHS and FDA for many years via protests and legal battles to make AIDS treatments and preventative care possible. LGBT grassroots groups took it into their own hands and not only made condoms widely available, but incorporated them into gay culture.

if anything, will would be entering the dating scene with a massive advantage to his predecessors. beginning early encounters through a gay space was far safer than doing so outside of it, as contraceptives and safe sex information were widely distributed by activists in gay spaces, including gay bars. new york city in particular was the center of US AIDS activism and where ACT UP was founded. things were by no means peachy, but community was lifesaving, and will’s entire story is about finding community. he will be just fine and we should push back on any rhetoric that attempts to cast his ending in a sinister light

there are many factors that contribute to low education on this topic, so we have a personal responsibility to educate ourselves. here’s a few great works i’ve watched & read on the HIV/AIDS crisis:

the normal heart by larry kramer

and the band played on by randy shiltz

let the record show: a political history of act up by sarah schulman

christodora by tim murphy

angels in america by tony kushner (i recommend the 2003 miniseries)

common thread: stories from the quilt (1989)

how to survive a plague (2012)

we were here (2011)

[waveoftheocean]

04.07.26 happy birthday mike!! forever endeared by how he tucks his head into will's shoulder when they hug :']]

[bylerbait]

i feel like there's this thing where people are so afraid of being seen as annoying by like... fandom at large, where if a ship they are into is seen as cringe and only shipped by cringey annoying people, that they renounce the ship.

like "No no, I'm not like one of THOSE cringefail losers. I'm normal about the ship!!"

my experience with this lies obviously with byler, but recently i have seen people act this way with buddie (and even destiel, which i was not aware was seen as cringe)

and the insistence that shipping for fun and wanting it to be canon are completely mutually exclusive is soooo weird.

im unfamiliar with buddie outside of hearing that is it a very passionate fandom (in less kind words) and that they are also in a similar boat of hoping for canon queer relationship

i dont know where im going with this and i know im not saying anything revolutionary but whatever

its a shame that people will bow to mean people out of fear. embrace being the most annoying person a normie has ever met.

[rockinwiserebel]

y'know how many fans say they never saw anything between Will and Mike even from the earlier seasons?

In my Gender Studies class, i learned about this term called 'heterosexual matrix'.

It was a term coined by philospher, Judith Butler, in her book Bodies that Matter. It refers to the rigid binary structure of connection between sex, gender and desire. Basically, it refers to how society only validates 'male' and 'female' and only when the sex and gender identity align (aka cis-genderism), and opposite sex attraction (heterosexuality). We live in a heterosexual matrix.

Now, in a heterosexual matrix, everything is viewed only through a heteronormative lens, i.e, heterosexuality, heteroromanticism and the male-female cis-gender binary are the only validated forms of sex, gender and sexuality.

This idea of viewing through a heteronormative lens bleeds into the media we consume too.

If a male and female character form any sort of deep connection in a show or movie, they are shipped together - viewers want them to have the heteronormative happy ending. This is validated too. Not many people would say it's outrageous or whatever. There is a little chemistry, there is a possibility they could be romantically involved.

But if two characters of the same sex have that same sort of chemistry or connection, it is 'a bit crazy to ship them'. They are either a crackship, for shits and giggles. It's not that serious. Or, they are good friends. Why can't two characters of the same sex be just good friends? why does everything have to be gayy, they'll whine.

My point is, viewing everything through a heteronormative lens is drilled into us since the moment we arrive in this society. Heterosexuality is completely normalised, but homosexuality? Not so much. Even though we claim to be a progressive society, not much has changed when it comes to people's mindset. And this shows in popular media. So, any potential chemistry between two characters of the same sex is brushed off or ignored. Whereas any potential chemistry between two characters of the opposite sex is read as romantic.

Will and Mike's love has been the foundation of the story of Stranger Things. If Will had been a girl, I'd bet you my life that they'd be canon. There'd be an angsty love triangle between Will, El and Mike, and Will and Mike would end up together.

But because they're both boys...

So, what i have to say to all the people still shitting on Bylers is - kindly take off the heteronormative lens from your eyes and see the world with an open mind. You don't have to accept anything, but let people live.

[bylerbait]

i feel so famous rn

[bylerbait]

its so weird that there are so many queer people who act like its crazy that other queer people want to see queer relationships in non-romance media and aren't satisfied with queer characters love being unrequited or horribly underdeveloped if a relationship actually happens at all

some people just want others to sit down and be grateful for the scraps they're given