[gracegrove]

*Doorbell Rings* *Billy opens the door.* Billy: Yeah? Mormon Missionary 1: Hello sir, we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Mormon Missionary 2: We would like to talk with you, if you have time. *Billy takes a step back.* Billy: I was excommunicated. *Billy slams the door in their faces.* -END SCENE-

[gracegrove]

Question for the class:

Would Billy keep his cassette tape deck once CD-compatible stereo systems came on the scene? *Assume that money and space are not an issue

[gracegrove]

Whyyyy is tumblr breaking and undoing my like hearts????

[subaru-copilot]

it gets to a point that is just weirder if they didn't fuck

[gracegrove]

Harringrove, but they are cats that are smacking each other. First very fervently and angrily, downgrading to passive swats simply because the other one smacked them back. They do not remember who started it.

[gracegrove]

Just a little niche post for the fandom.

This is the placement where calluses would most likely be on Billy's hands related to heavy weightlifting, pull-ups/chin-ups, and other movements that place a lot of emphasis on grip and hand placement. The more often he does these kinds of movements, the more pronounced the calluses would be. Athletes will try to use preventative measures such as gymnast chalk, grips, gloves, athletic tapes. But that doesn't guarantee anything. Some athletes prefer being bare-handed because the calluses can improve overall grip and prevent slipping (as opposed to no calluses). Athletes will typically use a pumice stone to file down any calluses that are too pronounced or inhibiting. Commonly, calluses often start out as blisters caused by rapid and repetitive strain on that part of the hand. i.e., multiple rounds of pull-ups in one workout.

[gracegrove]

I just gotta say,

Billy Hargrove shapes his eyebrows. They’re perfectly symmetrical.

[gracegrove]

Billy Hargrove despises the concept of casserole.

[gracegrove]

Niche things that clue me in to who younger writers are in the fandom:

- Little mention, use, or reliance on phones and telecommunications

ie. calling ahead to see if someone is home, calling your parents once you’ve arrived someplace, having to knock on the door of a random house in the middle of the night to ask to borrow their phone during an emergency (or hoping there’s a pay phone nearby), calling and having to speak to your friend’s parents “hi, is Billy home?” And be at their mercy as to whether or not they could talk.

- That every landline phone makes a dial tone when picked up off the receiver

If there’s no tone, you’re not making a call.

- That telephone lines were ran via wire from nearby power lines to people’s houses

- That you could steal your neighbor’s cable

- Rabbit ears and aluminum foil

- The concept of hitting or kicking something to make it work

- That a fair amount of phones had coiled cords

- That most television remotes at the time had hard plastic buttons, you would ‘click’ on

- That type writers were still in use in the 80’s

- That some household appliances had turn dials, not digital touch screens

- That most households had only analog clocks

- The verbs xerox and fax

- That fax numbers work similar to phone number dialing

- Yellow Pages vs White Pages (yes there was a difference)

- That all pay phones had a phone book attached under them (they went missing a lot)

- That all automobiles had a carburetor (an auto part under the hood that assisted the internal combustion car engine control air and fuel entering in) until late in the 80s

- That Tupperware was a brand and not just a word for plastic food storage

- That the staple colors of the 80s were: Brown, Orange, Yellow, and Olive Green

- That you truly did need to keep some spare change on your person just in case

- That credit cards used to have raised numbers and letters

- That most cars had roll-down (hand crank) windows, and locks (knobs) you had to push or pull to lock the car

- That most cars did not have an alarm system

- What a slim Jim, or ‘to jimmy’ something means

- That most electronic children’s toys were remote controlled

A handheld controller, usually with an antenna.

- KB Toys

- A newspaper boy, or a newspaper subscription

- That all mail-order catalogs had a paper ordering form in the middle of the magazine

You would fill out your order, mail it, and wait for products to be shipped

- In the US in the 1980s, football was the number one watched sport

- RadioShack was the Best Buy of the 80s

- That cars had cigarette lighters (which generated heat) and were not a charging port

- That the majority of cars had a radio antenna on them

- That garage doors were motorized and came with a remote button

There was no password/combination needed

- A higher presence of sewing machines in the household

- Floor-to-ceiling mirrors were popular

- What a Rolodex is and what it’s for

- A Kodak Moment

[harbek]

bite risk.

(alts + info under cut)

Shoutout to the Billy Hargrove fandom for enabling me to draw him more, simply by being enthusiastic when I do.

Friend asked me why he was muzzled, and I was like... Is it flayed Billy to keep him under control? Is it a kink thing? Is about how he's powerless against his dad? Or a metaphor like a dog he'll bite to keep himself safe because he has no other option? Take your pick!

(Really I just got the image in my brain last night and enjoyed it enough to remember it the next day.)

Drawn in Clip Studio Paint + Photoshop. I was gonna colour this but then I drew the muzzle in red just to make it stand out while drawing, and I liked the way it looked. His expression was honestly the most difficult thing, and I'm still not entirely convinced.

[gracegrove]

[gracegrove]

One thing about me,

I may not get the last word, but I sure as hell am getting the wittiest/snarkiest one.

[cuunos]

being a kid and hearing adults say stuff like "woah 2011 was 4 years ago haha" didn't really convey the fucking horror of a youtube video crossing my recommended labelled "9 years ago" and it's from 2017. that's not true. 9 years ago is 2010 or something. don't lie.

[icantspellthings]

Top 3 things people love insisting they don't have despite it being impossible

Pronouns

An accent

Bias

[gracegrove]

Some guy in my Hinge likes this morning decided to comment on the little clip I have lifting a barbell (sumo squat). He says, "now do it the right way..." implying that I'm lifting light and can't lift heavier (in a strict deadlift position).

I blocked him.

However, what I wanted to say was,

"Lay down and let's find out." (if I would drop it on him or not)

[gracegrove]

Imagine with me,

Billy as a kid seeing Evil Knievel stunting for the first time. On TV approx. 1974

[gracegrove]

Imagine explaining AI to someone in 1985.

[dealtgod]

Billy's style and body language at the Byers' house in S2 versus his style and body language in his own home in the epilogue of S2 tells us a lot about Billy's character. What we're seeing here is not the same Billy, and that shift is important in understanding the why and how behind this shift.

Below, I'm going to be getting into the nuances of color, clothing style, hair style, body language, and expressions as it relates to this change in Billy.

Color & Styling

Billy's style at the Byers' house is his loud persona about which I speak regularly. Everything about this outfit is loud in that you almost can't look away from it. For more information on the color analysis of this shirt (and the implications of Billy looking exactly like his mother as a larger commentary on how they are both victims of abuse), read here and here. To summarize those posts, the red shirt is a vibrant and an antagonistic color. It can represent power, agitation, anger, rage, danger, warning, dominance, and sexual implications of desire and passion. The color symbolism of his shirt runs in stark contrast to Billy's reality. By wearing this shirt, Billy is projecting this image of control and power when he has no agency and control of his life, nor has he ever had agency over his body. Billy's shirt is also almost entirely unbuttoned, save for one button at the very bottom. Again, there are implications of Billy exuding confidence and power in this choice. We can also go quite literal here in that Billy is completely bare-chested, almost in a sense of baring himself to the world.

I've spoken regularly about how image and styling is important to Billy because it is the one moment of agency that he has over his body and what is done to his body. He chooses how he dresses and styles himself, and it is canonically something that Billy enjoys. And while this outfit is certainly projecting an image of control to the outside world when he has none, we must also remember the personal element to his choices. He's dressing for himself, too. And he's dressing in ways that make him feel good and make him feel that his body is his own to express and feel good in. And he leans into these things, and leans into them with full spirit (i.e. Billy Hargrove isn't just unbuttoning one button; he's going all out-- this is who he is).

Everything changes when Billy is at home in the epilogue of S2. This scene, of course, happens several weeks after the fight at the Byers' home. Instead of a vibrant red shirt, Billy is wearing a blue shirt. Blue is more subdued and can represent sadness. And when we understand the context of this scene, the color tells us this:

Billy has been, quite literally, beaten into submission and silence. This is not a happy moment. This is not a feel good moment. This is not a victory. This is a sad and sobering reality of the silencing and the alienation of abused victims. And it's saying a lot about the situational factors going on in an abusive home.

Billy is living at home where Neil abuses him, Susan has looked away while Billy is abused and, in this specific scene, doesn't even acknowledge Billy in the house, and Max has drugged him with an unknown drug and in such a way that should have killed him. He has been beaten into silence, and with no support system at home, withdraws into himself. At home, there is no point in projecting the loud image of his clothing style to others. Because at home, Billy has no control, and everyone knows it. Hence the color Billy is wearing...

And something else.

Note how many buttons Billy has buttoned up. Three. As opposed to one when he's out in public at the Byers' home. He is more buttoned up and more withdrawn in this shirt. This is an act of protecting himself and of hiding within the confines of an abusive household. Yes, he is still partially unbuttoned, but it's not as deeply pronounced and certainly not as loud in expression. His shirt collar is also mismatched. One side is turned up; the other side is turned down. It suggests a lack of balance. Without balance, there is instability. Billy is in a highly unstable home environment. With the amount of instability in his life, he is left in constant survival mode.

Hair Styling

Even his hair style is telling us something. At the Byers' home, Billy's hair is perfectly styled and curly. At home, his curls have gone flat. Less pronounced. Ratted. I spoke here about Billy's hair styling routine, delving deeper into the whys behind Billy having both mousse and hair setting lotion (for curlers) on his vanity. And the important thing to remember is that, though these two hair styling products aren't typically used at once, it lets us know that Billy's hair has changed because of: 1) the climate change from California to Indiana 2) the amount of stress going on in his life. Because Billy lives under extreme traumatic stress, fear, and control in an abusive household (and has also had a highly traumatic upbringing from witnessing abuse and being abused from a young age, being left by his mother with an abuser, being parentified, and being completely uprooted from his life), his hair texture has changed, which includes a flattening of his curls. He has to maintain and style his curls differently to get the curls he used to have. And the fact that Billy's hair is so flat at home tells us quite a bit about the stress going on in his life and the fact that the abusive situation in which he lives is preventing him from caring for himself via his curls in proper ways. In other words, the abuse prevents him from expressing himself in the ways that matter to him.

Body Language

Also, these two images show body language and expression that are NOT the same. In the red shirt, Billy's confident. He's taking OFF his leather jacket, revealing more of himself. His chin is tilted up, exuding more confidence and the sense of appearing larger than life. There's a brightening of his features. Billy is so outward here. There is no mistaking his presence.

In the blue shirt, Billy's buttoned up. He's biting his nails (a nervous habit). His head is down, implying a sense of being withdrawn and closed up. He looks smaller here, smaller in a way that implies a loss and implies the reality of Billy's situation: his world is unsafe.

Conclusions

Through clothing, styling, and body language, we see a different Billy. It reveals the effects of abuse and how that abuse and violence is perpetuated in such a way that beats him into a withdrawn silence. This is not a victory; this is an abuse victim silenced via more abuse and kept in an abusive environment where no help coming.

And this framework of understanding in Billy shows us not only how he's physically changed by this, but emotionally changed by it, as well.