Zanzibar Land @rhiannonwinterphoenix - Tumblr Blog

Here is my one and only take on #conformitygate: I have no goodwill left to believe any of this was intentional, but as far as theories about being imprisoned in false realities go, I think The Matrix is a more appropriate movie to compare Stranger Things to than The Truman Show.

Because The Matrix is a story for queers that accidentally resonated with cishet men, while Stranger Things is a story for cishet men that accidentally resonated with queers.

The Matrix is commonly understood today as a trans allegory, but it's important to note that the Wachowski sisters were still in the closet when they made it -- which doesn't mean it isn't a trans allegory or anything, but according to Lilly Wachowski it wasn't consciously written to be about the trans experience -- she and her sister were just vibing with escapist fantasy at a time in their lives when (I presume) they still felt like their only option was to live as unhappy men.

So I don't think it's a coincidence that the movie's red pill -- a symbol of being willing to question oppressive social systems and start seeing them for what they really are--

--has been appropriated by incels: a particularly unhappy group of men who can sense that something is deeply wrong with the suffocating gender expectations they're held to, but are so damn close to meeting those expectations -- and thus reaping the reward of social and sexual dominance they've been promised is their birthright -- that they just double down on them instead of rejecting them the way queers do.

I don't think the Duffer brothers are incels, but the ending they wrote for Stranger Things is definitely giving miserable cishet men who don't want to acknowledge the real reason they're so miserable.

I strongly suspect that the movie which most fundamentally inspired the end of Stranger Things is the same movie which inspired its first season: Stand By Me.

This movie has a satisfyingly bittersweet ending about looking back fondly on childhood and knowing that its magic is gone forever. As Gordie, the narrator of Stand By Me who grows up to be a writer, says at the end:

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"

This explains a lot about Mike "The Storyteller" Wheeler's closest relationships: on one side he has El, who represents the magic of childhood and who deep down he always knew he was doomed to lose; on the other side he has Will, his best friend whose ability to stay true to himself helped Mike figure out how to grow up without completely letting go of the whimsy of childhood.

(And they're all wrapped up in a double-doomed love triangle to stress the importance of accepting yourself over thinking romance will solve all your problems.)

At least, that's the most charitable interpretation I can come up with for the story I think the Duffers were trying to write.

What they actually wrote was the bleakest, most bafflingly unsatisfying ending I've ever seen, because instead of letting their characters organically reach the endings they'd grown towards over the course of four and a half seasons, they forced them to act out a predetermined ending that doesn't at all fit who they really are.

I'd call it a silly, terrible play if I had any faith left in the Duffers' capacity for self-awareness.

Making Jane a metaphor for the magic of childhood while also making her a real human girl who was robbed of her own childhood by institutional abuse is an utterly unhinged choice.

It makes sense if the point is to criticize privileged boys like Mike who are at risk of growing up into pricks who take the women in their lives for granted, but ST doesn't do that: the story places the onus on Jane to sacrifice herself yet again instead of on Mike to become part of the solution.

Giving Will a four-season unrequited crush arc (disguised as a reciprocated slowburn romance to trick the audience into experiencing Will's self-delusion and heartbreak along with him, don't even get me fucking started on that) while also making him a CSA-coded gay kid is equally unhinged.

Will did not need to learn a lesson in accepting that romantic prospects don't always work out: that lesson is for cishet kids who expect romance as their birthright, not for traumatized queer kids who think their desires are shameful and forbidden. Once again, the onus is on the abused minority character to learn Mike's lesson for him.

As for Mike himself? That clever, loving, heroic boy was slaughtered like a pig some time after S2 and replaced with a mannequin wearing his skin like a suit.

(No offense to Finn Wolfhard; he did the best he could with what he was given.)

In the end, Mike still couldn't say "I love you" to Jane or do anything to help her. In the end, he still couldn't have a genuinely vulnerable conversation with Will about how his ignorance and cowardice ruined their friendship. In the end, he still couldn't follow Will's lead to keep being his most authentic self.

Will and Jane suffered horribly for the sake of Mike's coming-of-age and it was all for naught, because Mike Wheeler is a coward who chose the blue pill: he gave in to the suffocating expectation that men should be emotionally repressed and accept the loss of their dearest friendships, and he thinks that the closest he can ever get to escaping this fate is to make up stories about the women and queers he envies for their freedom.

(Or, well, the freedom he likes to imagine they have -- much like his creators, Mike doesn't appear to be interested in their perspective on their own experiences.)

And the Duffers apparently want us to believe that this is an "inevitable" and "bittersweet" ending to the Saving Kids From the Horrors of Conformity With the Power of Love and Friendship show...?

I dunno, maybe I'm just too gay to understand why three character arcs lying pointlessly shattered in the aftermath of a fumbled allegory and 20 minutes of self-indulgent manchild ennui is supposed to read as bittersweet closure on Mike's coming-of-age, because all I see is a desperately tragic warning of how far-right sociopolitical climates turn sweet, caring boys into pathetic, self-absorbed men who can't lift a finger to help themselves or their friends.

I'm not surprised #conformitygate went viral. You don't need to think Mike is secretly gay to sense that something is deeply wrong with this picture.

melancholicdreamer666

Mike Wheelers wasn't or isn't ever a gay character. Just because someone who is queer has a crush on you, doesn't mean they have to be gay too. I don't know why so many fans are trying to make a straight character like Mike Wheeler to be gay or bi just because Will liked him.

rhiannonwinterphoenix

What Mike is, most importantly, is fictional. He isn't a real person that people are trying to force to be gay because they think he and his best friend would be cute together. He is whatever his creators choose to make him be. And they chose to make him an incel straight dudebro, yes. And that says volumes about the Duffers and the future trad wives who love their little self insert.

melancholicdreamer666

He is still not gay. The show never once implied or even shown scenes that scream closeted guy. Bylers are delusional and to me is so weird when they want to make straight character gay. Like imagine if people started saying Will is too cute to be gay and should've been straight and with a girl. Can't you see the hypocrisy? Also that wild calling him an incel when they never shown him hating on girls and women and was actually in a relationship.

rhiannonwinterphoenix

I didn't say he was gay, I said he was fictional. I know you kids have trouble with reading comprehension but do keep up. I also never said there were hints toward gayness in the show. I'm merely judging the Duffers' misogynistic and homophobic writing choices. That you clearly agree with.

The fact is, Mike is pretend so it doesn't matter what he is in the show people can imagine him however they want in fanfiction or headcanons. Sorry if that interferes with your little teenage crush on Finn Wolfhard.

If some people want to write Will as straight they're also also free to do so. AUs exist. People with a problem can just not read it.

Also, remind me again who said women operate on emotion not logic? And laughed that they're a different species? Feminist ally there, for sure.

melancholicdreamer666

Calling the writers misogynistic and homophobic because a straight character stayed straight is... definitely a take. Also why you are in a stranger things tagged if you have this view of the creators?

rhiannonwinterphoenix

Again, please try to read carefully. Where did I say the writers were misogynistic and homophobic because Mike stayed straight? I even agree that they always intended Mike to be straight. They're homophobic because they wrote Will to be in love with Mike for three seasons for what? To show him in pain? To educate the queers that they shouldn't fall for their best friend? Because it amused them? Why wait to write Will a reciprocated love interest until the last few minutes of the show while they bombarded everyone for the entire series with their bland ass, poorly written, borderline abusive in some cases, hetero ships.

They made Will's arc about self acceptance because in their own words, they got no dates in high school. But of course, their self insert bumbles his way into a relationship with a girl who should be nominated for sainthood with all she puts up with from Mike. My favorite part is the non consensual kiss before she even knows what a boyfriend is.

Why did these cishet white men want a gay character in love with their self insert so much? Why did they think a girl with a lifetime of severe trauma needed a pretty dress and a lame ass middle school dance instead of therapy? Like the only thing they think women have in their emotional little pea brains is dresses and makeup and boyfriends.

And who cares why I'm here? Why are you defending privileged white men?

melancholicdreamer666

Mike Wheelers wasn't or isn't ever a gay character. Just because someone who is queer has a crush on you, doesn't mean they have to be gay too. I don't know why so many fans are trying to make a straight character like Mike Wheeler to be gay or bi just because Will liked him.

rhiannonwinterphoenix

What Mike is, most importantly, is fictional. He isn't a real person that people are trying to force to be gay because they think he and his best friend would be cute together. He is whatever his creators choose to make him be. And they chose to make him an incel straight dudebro, yes. And that says volumes about the Duffers and the future trad wives who love their little self insert.

melancholicdreamer666

He is still not gay. The show never once implied or even shown scenes that scream closeted guy. Bylers are delusional and to me is so weird when they want to make straight character gay. Like imagine if people started saying Will is too cute to be gay and should've been straight and with a girl. Can't you see the hypocrisy? Also that wild calling him an incel when they never shown him hating on girls and women and was actually in a relationship.

rhiannonwinterphoenix

I didn't say he was gay, I said he was fictional. I know you kids have trouble with reading comprehension but do keep up. I also never said there were hints toward gayness in the show. I'm merely judging the Duffers' misogynistic and homophobic writing choices. That you clearly agree with.

The fact is, Mike is pretend so it doesn't matter what he is in the show people can imagine him however they want in fanfiction or headcanons. Sorry if that interferes with your little teenage crush on Finn Wolfhard.

If some people want to write Will as straight they're also also free to do so. AUs exist. People with a problem can just not read it.

Also, remind me again who said women operate on emotion not logic? And laughed that they're a different species? Feminist ally there, for sure.

melancholicdreamer666

Mike Wheelers wasn't or isn't ever a gay character. Just because someone who is queer has a crush on you, doesn't mean they have to be gay too. I don't know why so many fans are trying to make a straight character like Mike Wheeler to be gay or bi just because Will liked him.

rhiannonwinterphoenix

What Mike is, most importantly, is fictional. He isn't a real person that people are trying to force to be gay because they think he and his best friend would be cute together. He is whatever his creators choose to make him be. And they chose to make him an incel straight dudebro, yes. And that says volumes about the Duffers and the future trad wives who love their little self insert.

Hey, everyone. I just wanted to say thank you so much for allowing me to share the story of my Uncle Bill with you. I'm so happy that it resonated with you.

I remember Uncle Bill had such a calm presence. I was an autistic girl in the 1980s, which was not a fun thing to be, and he didn't try to make me "come out of my shell" like so many people at the time. We just sat on the porch swing and, in his words, "watched the world go by."

He passed away when I was eight and when I was a teenager my mom shared his story with me and I cried for him. I really, really hoped my generation would be the one to change things and when I watched Stranger Things I thought maybe this was finally it. But unfortunately, I think homophobia and misogyny are very firmly entrenched in my generation for reasons I'll discuss in another post.

I'm so glad to hear that so many of you are going to write your own stories now. And always remember what one of my favorite authors, Shirley Jackson, wrote in The Haunting of Hill House:

Eleanor looked up, surprised; the little girl was sliding back in her chair, sullenly refusing her milk, while her father frowned and her brother giggled and her mother said calmly, 'She wants her cup of stars.'

Indeed yes, Eleanor thought; indeed, so do I; a cup of stars, of course.

'Her little cup,' the mother was explaining, smiling apologetically at the waitress, who was thunderstruck at the thought that the mill's good country milk was not rich enough for the little girl. 'It has stars in the bottom, and she always drinks her milk from it at home. She calls it her cup of stars because she can see the stars while she drinks her milk.' The waitress nodded, unconvinced, and the mother told the little girl, 'You'll have your milk from your cup of stars tonight when we get home. But just for now, just to be a very good little girl, will you take a little milk from this glass?'

Don't do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don't do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass

Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl.

When you write your wonderful stories, make sure you insist on your cup of stars.

#byler #stranger things #the duffer brothers

Hi, Byler fans. I don't usually post here but I just finished the Stranger Things finale and wanted to get something out that I feel needs to be said. My grandmother had an older brother named, coincidentally enough, William.

He was born in 1919 and he was gay.

Everyone in the family knew. It became an unspoken secret. And here’s the part people don't really say about the past: he wasn’t cast out. He wasn’t beaten. He wasn’t disowned.

They loved him. They were a close‑knit family.

What they did instead was play a game called pretend.

They never said it out loud. When the family gathered for holidays, his siblings brought their spouses. Uncle Bill came alone. His partner wasn't invited, of course. They didn't even want to know he had a partner. When children asked why Uncle Bill wasn’t married, the adults smiled and said, “He’s just a bachelor.”

That answer was given to my mother in the 1950s. To my sister in the 1970s. And to me in the 1980s.

People like the Duffer brothers seem to imagine that the past was only made up of violent, cartoonish homophobes. And sadly, there were a lot of those, just like there still are today. But some families were “fine” with gay people—as long as they were quiet. As long as they didn’t ask for the same things. As long as they didn’t bring love to the table.

Uncle Bill was accepted on one condition: He sat alone.

So when a modern show frames a gay boy’s arc as “learning to accept himself without expecting love in return,” that’s not radical. That’s not brave. That’s not new.

That story is over a hundred years old.

It’s the story of being tolerated, not chosen. Of being loved in theory, but denied in practice. Of being welcome—so long as you don’t make anyone uncomfortable.

My Uncle William lived that life a century ago. We don’t need to keep calling it progress.

I know a lot of people on here are young. So take the pain you're feeling now and remember it as you get older. Write your own stories that embrace what this show denied. Write the story you wanted Byler to be. Be the generation that stops telling this tired old story.

Do it for my Uncle Bill. Do it for Noah. Do it to give the middle finger to the Duffer brothers. Most of all, do it for yourself.

#byler #stranger things #the duffer brothers

willthewiz

no wonder they can't do interviews together yet lol

shymagnolia

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

shymagnolia

okay so i just got my dream job??? a week after applying to it?? and now i’m thinking….maybe this is the good luck post

flagellant

…..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment

likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post

coffee-or-hot-cocoa

i need all the help i can get for finals

finnglas

Hey so

the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like.

So you know.

This might be the real one, y’all.

dream-of-wanting-me

Reblog if you want to be in the white ball pit with Ville

oceanabylonianshell-deactivated

Reblog for a miracle to happen tonight

To anyone who says the post is a LIE, no. It’s an expiriment to see if it works. Or how it does when it does.

solidsnacks

liquid snake was a whiny bitch and if anyone tries saying “oh but he had a reason” we all have reasons but nobody wants to hear anyone complain about bullshit.

rhiannonwinterphoenix