CW: Mentions of sexualisation of minors and SA
And you know what? After the way they treated Jane for 5 seasons I will state that the choice to have her wear a skin-tight swimsuit for half the fucking final season was insane.
It's November and everyone else is layered up. She could have easily worn a shirt or sweater over that swimsuit when she was not actively in water. I wouldn't be surprised if Millie insisted on wearing the sweatpants at this point. Why the choice to parade her around in that non-seasonable skin-tight clothing?
And after she wore a fucking collar of all things in the previous season—a collar only her abuser could unlock.
She goes from a flimsy hospital gown to her first "outfit" — a sopping wet t-shirt and nothing else, that she attempts to strip out of in front of the boys. I thought there was possibly some deeper subtext there about her upbringing. Apparently not.
It was the Born Sexy Yesterday power fantasy. It was an abused little girl attaching herself to men, constantly dehumanised, over and over, with no vindication. A fantasy about a beautiful and powerful girl who is constantly finding herself trapped.
I'm... in awe. I was engaging in good faith when the entire time her character was indeed being sexualised, even from childhood.
Similarly, a young Will Byers is graphically sexually assaulted in the season's opener and it is simply... never addressed. We see him be orally assaulted multiple times throughout the series, even communicating distress regarding this invasion of bodily privacy, and the writers seemingly don't provide any justification for it.
Portray characters who represent abuse victims. Utilise the supernatural for this purpose so it less confronting to watch. That is fine. But please for the love of god, make it mean something.
Once again, I engaged in good faith when they showed these things, including when they had Troy comment on Will's disappearance, insinuating that he had been sexually assaulted and murdered by another gay man.
All that only for him to be re-traumatised in the next season. All that to show him in a flimsy hospital gown just like Jane, tied to a bed as he thrashes in agony to exorcise the entity inside his body that... never actually left him.
He was described as "sensitive" and "delicate" young gay boy—in the Duffer's own words—and was consistently shown restrained or on his knees, his body used by other entities. All while he yearns and pines for the boy who makes him feel safe and gives him courage.
It feels an awful lot like trauma porn, framed as something beautiful.
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