Are you seriously arguing that if a teenage boy wants sexual attention from adults, he can’t be objectified or preyed on by them?
Or, wait, no - he’s a bad teenage boy who wants sexual attention from adults, so he can’t be objectified or preyed on by them?
Or, wait - he’s a bad teenage boy who is also tall and muscular who wants sexual attention from adults, so he can’t be objectified or preyed on by them?
Are you really saying that if teenagers are tall and muscular and could technically defend themselves from attack, they suddenly are incapable of being preyed on by adults? That they suddenly become the predator in those situations? Is that an actual point that you are trying to make here? That if you have behavioral problems and are physically imposing, you are suddenly not a teenager any more and are undeserving of the protections that we grant teenagers?
Look, I think I get what you may have been trying to get at. Characters are put into narratives to serve certain purposes and are given certain characteristics as tools to do that? I agree there. Billy had to make a splash, and part of that was physical attractiveness? Ok. Billy consciously attempts to portray himself as more adult and mature than the other kids? Definitely. There is a little bit of visual ambiguity slotted into the Karen/Billy scenes deliberately because of his size? I’ve said the same.
Billy is not a “cinnamon roll” and has muscles and therefore is pretty much incapable of being a victim and is inevitably in control in a sexual situation with a much older adult? NO, NO, NO, NO, I think the objectification of Billy Hargrove worked a little too well if that’s your conclusion. And here’s why.
Everything being equal, I’m going to assume that if Billy was a bad teenage girl from a broken, abusive home, who happened to have developed early and enjoyed the attention she got from adult men for showing off her body - then those adult men objectifying her would also be cool with you? Because she wants it, it gives her real power over them if they’re attracted to her. She’s no cinnamon roll, after all, she’s bad, which means she definitely understands the long-term consequences of her behavior better than other teenagers.
Let’s also say she’s tall for her age and she plays sports, so maybe she also towers over some of those adult men. According to you, this means that this 17/18-year-old tall, muscular girl is suddenly no longer capable of being victimized by adult men if the guy is short and skinny - she’s actually the predator in the situation.
Because let’s reiterate, she’s bad, mostly because her father is a sack of shit who beats her and psychologically abuses her while the rest of the family gaslights her by pretending it doesn’t happen. And also, her mother abandoned her as a kid to this disaster of a home life (but she still loves her despite that, and despite the fact that she’s a bad person).
When she lashes out, she does a lot more damage than other kids do because she’s bigger and stronger. They learn to fear her and it feels good because it’s just another affirmation that she’s the unlovable dyke slut her father says she is (being a dyke is also basically illegal, btw, so if she is a lesbian, if that’s something she’s concealing by throwing herself at any boy who asks, well, there’s more affirmation that she’s inherently shit, and that the happiest ending she can imagine will likely land her in an early grave). If she plays offense, she’ll never be a victim on the defensive ever again, and so she learns how to paint a certain picture of herself for people, how to smile when she’s scared, how to pose like she’s got it all under control when she’s unsure. She learns how to plant her fucking feet. Maybe there’s some substance underneath the picture, maybe there’s not, but after a while she gets so good at pretending that no one bothers to ask. And if they do, she’s ready with a fist to their face or a mean word. Anything to keep the little bit of safety that she still has.
Maybe she’s wearing the mask so tightly that when she looks into the mirror to adjust it, she mistakes it for her own face. And she smiles at it, winks. Because it keeps her safe. At least until her father bursts into the room, sneers right into that mask, and cracks all of her careful preparations in two with his fist. Then she cracks, too, just a little bit, before she gets up, dusts off the mask, tapes it up where it’s broken, and keeps on going.
This girl, this teenage girl - you think she has any idea what she’s doing when she works hard to turn heads? You think that because she wants the attention, she’s mature enough to handle it? I don’t. And I think the same about Billy.
There’s a reason Billy was put in place of Phoebe Caits in the premiere episode, someone who was inappropriately sexualized in an American cult hit film. There’s a reason that the first thing that happened when he showed up is a bunch of girls checking out his ass and, yes, objectifying him. The Duffers did things with Billy that most writers typically do with teenage female characters and, boy howdy, did it ever change the amount of sympathy he got from the audience. Because when it’s a girl being victimized by a boy, like Max is victimized by Billy (yes, abused kids can perpetrate abuse, alert the press), everyone is full of sympathy and on the lookout for signs of emotional distress. But when it’s a boy being abused by his father? All of a sudden it’s not something that anyone thinks should even affect him emotionally at all. To the point where y'all are actually conflating an emotionally messed-up teenager’s promiscuity with an adult’s maturity.
Bravo, Stranger Things. Did you ever make your point.
amandla
pixelskylines
prguitarman
