Save the Gays

Hi there ! :) 22yo - She/Her ✨️✨️✨️I love Stranger Things ~ Daria ~ House md ~ TADC ~ Danganronpa ~ Skam ~ Professor Layton ~ some more but I forgot

[linathecat17]

Notice how the only man who is completely nice and doesn't harm any of the women or have any malicious intention towards them is immediately killed in his debute episode, gets lobotomized and only used properly for 2 episodes before getting completely forgotten both by the fans and the show...

[mikesseleven]

And so, the woman dies. The woman dies so the man can be sad about it. The woman dies so the man can suffer. She dies to give him a destiny. Dies so he can fall to the dark side. Dies so he can lament her death. As he stands there, brimming with grief, brimming with life, the woman lies there in silence. The woman dies for him. - The Woman Dies by Aoko Matsuda

[carmenilla]

watched the miseducation of cameron post last night

and that movie really reminds me how homophobia kills. conversion camps kill.

people have the audacity to view being queer as some sort of joke or we're all overreacting about homophobia and it's really not that bad.

it is that bad. torture is still torture if you drive somebody to do it themself, mentally or physically. especially kids. emotional abuse is still abuse

that movie was so hard to watch at parts because of how terribly real it felt

[vampirementality]

TW: opinion!

actually it's more of an incoherent rant. 🤷 anyways..

The thing about them ruining both Hopper and Mike as characters specifically, is that you can really see it in their relationships to each other.

Mike and Hopper had a complex and interesting dynamic in s1 and especially in s2.

It starts small in s1 - they don't have many scenes together but from what i recall, basically all of them are Mike pushing back against Hopper, clashing with him in a way that the other characters don't.

Mike is the main member of the party to completely ignore Hoppers orders to not go looking for Will, he's not even listening when Hopper tells them, unlike Dustin and Lucas.

In s2, when Mike breaks down after finding out that Hopper knew El was alive the whole time, it's one of the most emotional scenes for him in the show. He is taking out his anger, his trauma, on Hopper, because he doesn't know where else to direct it. Watching it, you understand that despite Mike saying he blames Hopper, the person he does actually blame is himself, but he can't express this.

And Hopper knows that. He understands that Mike is just a child who is struggling, he knows it has nothing to do with him and that Mike has no other outlet, so he just allows him to let it all out. Mike keeps hitting him and Hopper just sighs and says "i know, i know" until all the fight leaves Mike and he's left sobbing in his arms. And it's an amazing scene! It's impactful! It's insightful! Both actors do a brilliant job, you can really see the complexities of each character shine through.

Which is why their dynamic in s3 makes no sense. Suddenly hopper is this blundering idiot with zero emotional intelligence. Suddenly he is incapable of understanding how Mike's trauma regarding losing El might make him a little unhealthily attached to her. Suddenly he has no idea why Mike acts the way he does, even though he did before, and he takes everything Mike does and says personally, as if they are at all on the same level, like he's not the chief of police arguing with a fucking 13 year old.

(this also takes away from the fact that Hopper spent all of s2 relearning how to be a parent with El, and that his control issues and emotional outbursts are not helpful or healthy, and that it's something he needs to work on)

And Mike is simultaneously still in his "child acting out" persona, but without the actual willingness to defy authority that he used to have. He'll be rude right to Hoppers face, but when threatened to stay away from El, he listens and acts like he has no choice. Even though both seasons before he did not care what Hopper had to say, and was constantly defying direct orders from him. ???

And we're not given an actual explanation for Mike's behaviour throughout s3-4, so it looks like he's getting both meaner and more cowardly/complacent, for really no reason at all. He also is very attached to El and terrified of losing her again, but he makes no attempt to actually get to know her as a person, he even calls her ridiculous when she calls him out on this. (and again, he does not learn from these mistakes, his character arc stalls here for the rest of the show.)

Hopper starts both s3 and s5 (we're ignoring the russian plot rn) having gone ten steps back in his development from the last season. He makes the same mistakes of being too controlling and aggressive, and keeps learning nothing from it. (not even getting into how they handled his suicidal tendencies. eugh.)

And i think this failure to really stay true to the origin of each character is exemplified in their final talk with each other in the last episode - because it completely falls flat in every way. It doesn't resonate at all emotionally, it's not satisfactory, it's not even a proper tragedy because it's not cathartically sad, it just makes me feel annoyed with them both, and how theirs and El's stories were handled. It's like the polar opposite of their fight in s2, in the worst way.

aND DARE I SAY the behaviour we see from both Mike and Hopper is what contributes to El's willingness to sacrifice herself in the end. Imagine the two most important people in your life being so unable to understand you, so unwilling to learn, so incapable of changing their toxic behaviours, yet so terrified of losing you that they cling on to you with iron grip so crushing that it suffocates you, inhibits you from being your own person, no matter how much you say, "Stop! You're hurting me! You need to let go!" - that even in the best possible scenario that you can imagine for your future, you still feel like you cannot ever truly be free. I'd kms too.

I often think of that quote: "everything i have ever loved has claw marks in it."

and i always think, as the person on the other side of that quote: "Well you better let go before i start kicking and hitting and screaming to escape you."

and i really think it applies here because El deserved to sock them both with a rollerskate for all they kept putting her through.

Call me dramatic, i don't care. This is not cute to me. This is not healthy. This is not something i can ever romanticize. It was truly the most painful part of watching this last season for me. And the most annoying thing about it? The duffers don't even seem to understand that what they wrote is a complete, horrific, tragedy for El. And they say her death is for the development of the male characters who loved her, which is already shitty on it's own - but it doesn't even give them fucking character development - so what the hell are we talking about.

so yeah. Mike and Hopper. Unfortunate they ended up being the suckiest characters to ever suck. If only the show was good lol.

[ceremonyn087]

i honestly miss the s4 byler dynamic as painful as it sometimes was….

[crippled-peeper]

disabled people’s autonomy should be respected in every aspect of life . occupationally . reproductively. sexually . interpersonally. the freedom to choose your own life is where joy is born

[buckleybeat]

Jane is not a concept, Matt and Ross.

She’s just a fucked-up girl who’s looking for her own peace of mind.

[beaulesbian]

Of heroes, secret codes replacements and illusions

The Duffers mentioned multiple times how they were plotting/writing s5 while shooting s4 and that made me think about how, now in retrospect, some scenes in s4 are almost erased (specifically most of the elmike storyline, along with The Painting that has never been brought up again - it sits there, dormant, like a lie and an illusion on Mike's wall in the epilogue),

and why season 5's finale and its characters feel like nothing what the core messages of the show has always been, but as a shell (a vessel) of what they once were, trapped in the villains' illusion, built and shaped by their own dreams, memories and doings.

(long post ahead)

1. Heroes

In the opening of episode 5x5 (opening of volume 2) Henry Creel says to the kids he kidnapped:

"In my travels, I discovered another world. A world far from Earth. This world is much like ours, only… good. Free of monsters and darkness. It is the light. (...) You have dormant powers in here. And I believe if we work together, we can awaken those powers, channel our energy and draw this new world to ours. And as the light reaches the darkness, the light will expel the darkness, your loved ones will be saved, and you… you will be heroes."

But first, let's mention a few things from season 4, specifically this:

Will, away from Hawkins - away from the influence of the Mind Flayer and/or Vecna, and without that awful feeling bearing down his neck, created a project on his favorite hero - Alan Turing, who is not only known as the 'father of the computer science' and a man who helped crack the Enigma code during WWII, but also who was a gay man.

With that, it's especially interesting how season4!Will was focused a lot on his internal struggles, the time and space of his scenes mostly orbited around Mike and the feelings Will has for him - it was on the forefront during most of his scenes, centered, not malicious, not shown in a mocking way, but an honest and important part of him.

He was in the supporting role of trying to get El back to them, and learning that people in Hawkins were in danger again, while him was away from it, at the time.

But come season 5, and we see a bit of different Will, more assured in his abilities to help - already in 5x1 there's a moment that tell us that Will knows how to operate the telemetry track on the Squawk Van because "he helped Dustin set up the antenna", ("It's not just a wheel"). In episode 5x2 Robin compares his abilities of seeing through the demogorgons' eyes as if he is the antenna himself, and if he's close to the hivemind he could gather more information.

In episode 3 he actually does that. In episode 4, it's all building up (with his feelings for Mike still being very present throughout vol. 1) and of course, he becomes the Sorcerer, he's the one in control, he breaks into the code.

Joyce later thinks he could even deal the final blow to Vecna through his mind, with the knowledge and the newly unlocked powers.

He needs to be closer to the hivemind to actually connect to it, but breaking into Vecna's mind or trying to fight him there is not that easy. Not on his own. Not even El, Kali and Max could do that.

But what is the code? What is the secret? Does he try to protect it, or destroy it? Is he still spying as Will, or did Henry managed to 'piggyback' in his mind throughout vol 2 after their connection?

So, who are the heroes?

Are they the kids that Vecna uses while trying to rebuilt the world into what he thinks is something better?

Are they the main protagonist, who, with Mike's bomb, destroyed the Upside Down and with that it took El away, also the military base and the pregnant women there?

Is it the person who's favorite hero is another gay man from history, who was prosecuted and suffered a very tragic end for being a homosexual despite his breakthroughs being crucial in solving the encryptions during the war?

What is actually Henry/Vecna's plan? - He showed Will he was creating the rifts and weakening the Abyss, to merge their worlds. But he also sent demorogons to kill every soldier in the Upside Down that were outside of the military base where the signal supressors, the kryptonite, were possibly active. Humans that brought chaos into another world, as he put it in s4..

"Each life a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Every is just waiting. Waiting for it all to be over. All while performing in a silly, terrible play, day after day. I could not pretend. I could make my own rules. I could restore balance to a broken world. With each life I took, I grew stronger." (Henry to Eleven in 4x7)

He says similar thing in 5x4 to Will:

We know from season 4 that with each kill Vecna targeted his victims, it created also power enough to create the gates to the Upside Down, which weakened Hawkins, preparing it for the merging too. If by killing them and taking their memories, abilities, everything from those people - then merging the worlds could mean he's finding a way to consume all the people as well - yet they're still alive. In his mind.

Possibly feeding him their energy while he has them imprisoned in his own mind, in worlds that might seem similar to reality, but are nothing real.

2. Replacements

What are the replacements?

We see them but we hear something else spoken. We hear them, but we see the opposite or contradictory action of it. [Mike's monologue to El in 4x9]

They carry a truth that should be said, but cannot be perceived. [Will's painting "lie" in 4x8]

The whole of season 5 has a lot of themes playing around with time and possible timeloops, possible time travelling, and a lot of layers related between time and dreams, memories and spying. (Some of the s5 descriptions in trailers and promo were 'A war it coming to Hawkins'. We have not really seen that, though.)

As it was with other seasons, we can go back to the D&D games played in the show, specifically, back to season 4 to explain what's happening:

In 4x1 while they were playing dnd- a campaign ran by Eddie where they found out 'Vecna lives' ("missing not only his hand, but also his eye") the last crucial dice rolls of the game were: 11 and then 20.

The important part is that these scenes had actual dice rolling shots and the numbers matched what we saw:

Unlike in one specific promo that was the countdown to s5 with Mike rolling the die on day 20 before the release; and then the end credits of the whole show - both of those dice have a fake number on top:

Here's how the numbers would appear on real dice:

The nat20 in the countdown promo vid was hiding the actual number 1 - which means critical failure!

The die in the credits from 5x8 does'nt have any correct numbers on any sides of that die, they're on incorrect places - meaning it might just not be a real die at all.

Which means that a different number is behind the visible one, hiding the truth - replacing the facts.

Season 5 starts almost immeditely with the whole group knowing how Robin tells them codes about the military's plans going to the Upside Down, so they can accordingly plan their crawls:

and that's not the only clues we've seen about something being disguised as something else- even just substituting colors means something is wrong, or at least, different, changed. ("You are your brother")

Already in season 1 Will was somehow able to communicate with Joyce via the lights, and then with the lights above the alphabet he could give her a warning message,

Which slowly brings me back to the codebreaking and connection to Will (and Alan Turing), because of the Enigma machine:

very simplified, but just the similarity here - we have an alphabet that's connected with lightbulbs that when pressed (from the other side) they light up and show the letters forming a message, (along with other aspects to the machine - more on that further down), and it's more than one person job.

now we know about the existence of the Exotic matter, which could be connected to this, even for its unique position in the Upside Down - it's anchored there right above the Department of Energy (in the Upside Down version of the building) - which the same building in Hawkins was also doing all kinds of spying for Brenner and his experiments (even besides El and the super-powered kids, but telephone and communication recording), since s1:

Besides that, in season 2 we learn that Will is basically fluent in morse code, and has it memorized better than the other kids, who all are making the note together to find out what's he trying to say, deciphering his message.

And it's also a perfect way to show that Will can still communicate with them while the Mind Flayer's possessing him,

(Again - truths hidden by a code)

Now in s5 in the UD version of the lab we have Brenner's journal, that shows genetic codes, RNA, DNA and other biology stuff that people smarter than me were already pointing out and explaining in other posts and theories.

I just want to point out that Alan Turing was also studying/interested in mathematical biology.

When Turing was 39 years old in 1951, he turned to mathematical biology, finally publishing his masterpiece "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" in January 1952. He was interested in morphogenesis, the development of patterns and shapes in biological organisms. He suggested that a system of chemicals reacting with each other and diffusing across space, termed a reaction–diffusion system, could account for "the main phenomena of morphogenesis" (...) Although published before the structure and role of DNA was understood, Turing's work on morphogenesis remains relevant today and is considered a seminal piece of work in mathematical biology. [x]

and in this particular shot there's even more papers behind Brenner's journal, that I can't help but think it looks more like a code of sorts, not just a sequence of biology terms:

then it touches on the 'Electro magnetic fields interact with the fabric of space-time.' and 'This exotic matter could create a repulsive gravitational effect, necessary to keep the wormhole stabilized and open.' (again, a page with some different letters is just directly out of the focus during these shots)

and it connects that these journals to the wormhole that possibly holds the whole Upside Down together, because of the Exotic matter - which is also something specifically hidden on the roof of the lab, invisible and quiet, until it was disturbed.

If we bring this connection back to Will in season 5 - it was around the same time that Nancy shot the exotic matter in 5x5, that Will tried to actively, for the first time, connect into the demogorgon's mind and the hivemind (to help Max, he made a connection in Henry's mind). When Nancy shot the Exotic matter, the red 'radio waves' (signals?) went off from the lab to the wall that circles around the Upside Down.

3. The wheels

They're an endless, infinite cycle, a loop, and sometimes they need to break to see why something has to change. To find a new path.

And just like Dustin realized the wall was a circle around the Upside Down he needed at least three (3!) points on the map to know the location - the finalize the clue on the map. and it seems for these codes encryption also worked in 3s - trigrams (at least in the first versions of the Enigma machine), modified letters with which they could understand the configuration of the correct letters the message was about.

^ the same map that Brenner had later in the UD laboratory.

Dustin reminded Jonathan that he heard an inteference at one of these points - and later that made sense it was coming from the Wall itself.

Was that why the lab was set up with so many satellietes and listening devices to figure out these interferences as well? Were they visible/picked up even in real Hawkins? Was that how/why Brenner started these journals and experiments?

or is this another misdirection and whatever Brenner calculated in the real Hawkins wasn't actually the wall in the Upside Down but something else? Not a wormhole but a distraction, a lie, an illusion? And instead the Exotic matter being something completely else?

With Dustin mentioning three points to connect the dots to create the circle, and Max talking about 3 doors to choose what to do with your fate, with lot of patterns speaking about trigrams, or needing 3 letters to hide the code.

And with Will, using specifically 3 important people in his happy memories to tap into the hivemind and kill those demos in 5x4, the number 3 is definitely very important.

And still it wasn't enough, because Vecna found a way past Will's defenses,

the thing is, Will understood Vecna's plan as wanting to merge the worlds (understood or was that was Henry/Vecna wanted him to think?), to bring the Abyss into the Hawkins,

and that Vecna needed his help be his spy again - possibly finding Max but possibly something else we've not seen.

But Vecna noted Will being his builder, and then we see Will's eye move in the same way as he was in s2 "building the tunnels". What would Vecna want him to built this time? A door to escape his own prison (Shadowfell / Curse of Strahd dnd campaing references)

A bridge to manage merging the world?

A made up world that looks like Hawkins that no one would recognize it's fake? (If he made the Upside Down version, why not try him do that again? "You showed me what was possible.")

(Another point I feel could be the military base in the Upside Down that has its own satellites, radars and a radome protecting the antenna and Dr. Kay is keeping their her own experiments, along with strangling vines. The military base has the kryptonite, and there's a theory I have that Vecna either wanted to see what was happening there, but he couldn't cross there, so he used Will to do that. But that's for a different post.)

Now this is starting to get more into the Inception building of the story - what is real, what is fake, what is made up and who built the dream?

Will, being Vecna's builder, his spy, his vessel. (Back to the light!), where something is tying him to the Exotic matter - a highly volatile substance that could blow any moment, but holds that whole tunnel that is Upside Down together. Someone who hides his real feelings behind another's name, and protects his friends with his superpowers. Someone who thinks of himself as weak and doesn't really see his own full potential.

and

Mike, the one who built the bomb meant to destroy the Upside Down - to purposely disturb the Exotic matter. But also Will's best friend, someone who thinks about asking Will to be his friend as the best day of his life. Someone who clearly recognized the moment in season 2 where Will wasn't Will anymore ("He's the spy! He's the spy!") And one of the 3 people who helped to communicate when Will was posessed.

(^ Mike's reaction to this sentence from Will in this scene was at first nodding along until he registered what he was actulaly saying and then he frowned.)

It goes to say that to crack the code, the true meaning of the message, there's needed multiple factors into of the whole process.

("It's not just a wheel")

This is a replacement music Mike picked in the end. Purple Rain by Prince -

side note - there's an interesting fact about some of this album's configurations, specifically note the dates! Nov 7th and March 23rd!

And it did the job, but if that shouldn't have happened at all? Because that was Vecna's plan all along. And due to every truth being replaced and hidden, they failed to notice the real intentions. Mike failed that - Mike was the one throwing the die in the promo - we though it was a 20, but it was 1! Mike failed to notice that Will wasn't actually Will anymore, at least, not wholly himself.

Its like a game's bad ending (Dragon's Lair 2x1 reference here), you failed, you didn't figure out the right combo - code combination, you didn't pick up the sword on time, the bomb went off, and either we won't see the heroes (the actual ones, the main group) wake up from the illusion, or they have to try again and again and again, to find the right key.

and lastly,

4. The Illusion itself

How about first - what is the truth we've watched:

Is El dead or alive? (up to the interpretation, apparently)

Is the Mind Flayer truly gone if we saw those shadow particles fly up from all the kids? and before circling the signal (radio) tower in 5x5? (unanswered)

Was Will connected to the hivemind when Joyce cut off Vecna's head? ("We just wanted to focus on the final battle with our heroes." - The Duffer Brothers)

Is Vecna himself truly dead?

Is Hawkins the same if Robin says she barely recognizes the town?

Are the core four boys still nerds and outcasts if the popular girl likes Dustin now and he never mentions his girlfriend Suzie, someone capable of saving the world twice?

Is Mike still clingling on his childhood with playing d&d, or did he realize how different things have been for Will in s3, and he himself suddenly can't move past it?

Is Mike 'sending' Will into the Vallaki village a test if Will knows what it means? To test if the Will in the epilogue is real?

The illusion is built on the truths that have been hidden, replaced -

The three door choice was taken away from Mike. Now he can only be stuck in the one place, or move on - either way - accept the fate. There's no third door, no escape.

18 months timeloop / time skip - rinse & repeat. This time stuck in an illusion - disguising itself as the reality.

and until the truths are uncovered ...then we can be heroes.

(I'll be the king, and you will be the queen)

---

There's more things I've wanted to connect - especially the fact some parts of the cryptography and codebreaking are called Clock. Then there's the Index of coincidence tied all into analysing the ciphers, and through that I got to the Birthday problem in the probability theory.

Which, of course, could mean nothing - except... Will actually sharing the same day as Henry Creel. March 22nd - a birthday, that's somehow forgotten within the show, but little bits of details reminds us viewers of them too much not to notice. ("I don't believe in coincidences")

---

In the end, the finale feels more and more like a puzzle pieced together by illusions and replacements, of characters contradicting their actions set up in and up to season 4 (or even s5 vol. 1).

If, with Mind Flayer's powers ("the more she feeds, the more hungry she gets") they are trapped in a story with no escape - unless all the truths are told. Until then, it's all about infinite cycle of timeloops and redoing the past mistakes and accepting their fates, with third door (escape) being removed from the narrative.

Lost without a signal to decipher the code that'd break the cycle, and they're missing the key to the puzzle.

And the key has always been Mike and Will being honest with each other.

- something that has been purposefully reduced - by narrative, by their respective sturggles, by Vecna playing in Will's (and possibly in Mike's) mind, altered feelings and memories that left them feeling less of what they actually mean to each other (They lost the knowledge - it's been erased, they lost the war. "A war is coming to Hawkins"),

thus leaving the story incomplete, unsatisfactory, and weakened for the villains to see themselves as the heroes. Full circle.

(It was a seven.)

[dunwichbore]

In a crowded street or a deserted square, I'll turn and I'll see you, as if our love were new.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

There’s definitely a lot to unpack with s1 and s3 Mileven, but Mike and El’s relationship in s2 in particular never sat well with me. Mike acts like he’s so in love with her when it seems to only be thought of her that he is attracted to, or maybe the idea of having a female love interest? I would love to hear your thoughts on their s2 relationship because at times it’s a little confusing.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this all before, but I’m still too lazy to make a pinned index post. Maybe someday.

Mike and El’s relationship in Season 2 is really indicative both of where it was in Season 1 and where it would go in Season 3. They bonded in Season 1, largely as a result of seeking comfort with their individual fears. Mike offered El safety, while El offered Mike hope. They never really got to know each other, though, so their behavior in Season 2 is mostly based on their individual perception of what a relationship is and the ideal version of each other that they built over the course of a year apart after knowing each other for a few days.

In Season 2, we see they’re both missing each other. Mike claims to believe El is dead despite reaching out to her for a year. We know he senses her presence at one point, but even he seems to think it’s crazy. I do think he harbors a sort of survivor’s guilt, harboring a sense of responsibility for El putting herself in danger in the first place. He’s not hoping she comes back out of romantic attraction. He just needs to know she’s ok.

Meanwhile, El has been hidden away for a year, but has checked in on Mike at least once (not to mention when she peered in through his window after she escaped the Upside Down). She spends the better part of a year watching soap operas. She already had an extremely limited understanding of love from Mike, now the only thing built on that is cliched tropes and melodrama. This is perhaps why she becomes insanely jealous of Max. Not only is she very possessive of Mike, but she now has consumed a lot of storylines about devious women and love triangles.

When they finally meet again, the relief on Mike’s face is clear. However, he’s just spent days worried sick about Will and was fresh off spilling his feelings in the shed. It’s not a terrible stretch for Mike to confuse his feelings as love. El, on the other hand, doesn’t even really know what love is. She’s never had a good model for it, and Mike’s explanation was lacking. All she knows is that Mike kissed her and then she spent a while learning from TV what that’s supposed to mean.

This would all go on to explain their troubled relationship in Season 3. Soap operas don’t really show deep, meaningful relationships, so all El wants to do is cling to Mike and make out. Mike still has fear of losing El, so he shelters her away. El ostensibly spends little time with anyone but Mike, and only sees the others when he’s with her. Mike and El don’t talk. El calls him on the Supercom immediately after he leaves. They lie to their friends. El still apparently wasn’t on good terms with Max. There’s just nothing good about this relationship, and it’s really just because it’s based on nothing, a nothing they’ve mistaken for something.

[heckinpupperino]

they forcefemming luigi so straight men will be incentivized to learn about why the us healthcare system is broken

[positivewlwvibes]

i want the yearning and tension of queerbaiting but the smooching and kissing of actual queer representation is that so much to ask

[wolfhaquarian]

someone once said that most people who don't believe in/like byler do so because they see gay people as a teenage fetish, a whim of "little girls who only want to see that"

and because of that, they can't see lgbtq relationships as something real, solid, valid, and true, and only see them as a fetish

and that's a serious—and horrible—problem

[moonkissed-sorcerer]

seriously

like sure, you can call me a fetishizer for liking byler but say that to my 13 year old sister who has never been in any lgbtq fandoms also sobbing over them

[90shorrorpaperback]

I'm kinda just tired of the entire rhetoric.

"Byler shippers are just fetishizers who want to see two guys kiss!"

The majority of straight men don't even view women as HUMANS. They see women as resources and sex objects. They don't want to be in relationships because they want to grow and share things with someone else. They want all of the benefits that being with a woman allows them in a patriarchal society. Someone to cook and clean for them, do emotional labor and act as their free therapist, be their personal secretary, pay half of the bills, and touch their unwashed weiners.

They are the ones fetishizing and objectifying people, and I'm sick to death of them projecting their nonsense on to other people. No one is buying it anymore.

[buckleybeat]

The patriarchy doesn’t take what teenage girls enjoy seriously.

In fact, they only take what young straight men enjoy seriously.

Straight men will take their insecurities out on any group of people they see as “less than”, especially women.

[clairamustdie]

”ewwwwww you wanna see two underage boys kiss? that’s fetishization”

so what if i remind you that mike and el are underage kids too. THEYRE ALL THE SAME AGE.

and you still ship them.

if i’m a fetishizer, then mileven fans are no better.

[buckleybeat]

“ew you wanna see two teenage boys kissing?! you’re a pervert!”

“aww look at this teenage boy and girl in love! they can’t keep their hands off each other! i think they’re gonna get married at 18 and have three kids.”

[nothingness-everafter-02]

Hilarious how Mileven agenda literally put Max in a coma

Meanwhile the Byler agenda ended up saving Lucas

It's so funny that Max was hated for whatever was going on with Mileven and almost died (conformity is killing the kids) but the Bylers are over here praying for Lucas' sanity for having to deal with their gay ass shit.

[queenofshippingcringe]

Reblog if you ship Daria x Jane! 🧠🎨

[willfreakbyers]

"Steve is like a mom!" Shut up SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!

Im sorry, but steve is not like a mother to those kids. Maybe more of a big brother, at best. You only really ever see him interact with dustin one on one, really. When has he ever interacted with Will? Or mike one on one? He's only really ever 'babysat' them once in season two, and once or twice in season four. Wow! So motherly and paternal, right guys?

Meanwhile jonathan had to be the built in parent for Will since he was (correct me if I'm wrong) twelve! And Jonathan gets all the shit. Jonathan, who's been a queer ally since season one, Meanwhile Steve wasn't one until late season three.

[a-a-a-a-a-deactivated20260420]

A hockey player just came out as gay and thanked Heated Rivalry for giving him strength to do so.

THIS is how you empower freaks and outcasts.