In Carol Clover's seminal 1992 study, "Men, Women, and Chain Saws," she writes that in occult and paranormal films, those who are "open" to being in tune with the paranormal are always gendered as being more "feminine." "Occult films code emotional openness as feminine, and figure those who indulge in it, male and female, as physically opened, penetrated," she writes. "Stranger Things" and the frustrations of Gen X's '80s nostalgia habitīeyond these hints subtle or big, fans of the horror genre might have known Will Byers was always going to be gay. Hopper asks if the boy is, and Joyce, exasperated, shouts: "He's missing! Is what he is." Later on in Season 3, Will is peeved that his friends' girlfriends have distracted the boys from their Dungeons & Dragons play, and Mike hollers at Will, "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" In a hushed tone, Joyce says that her ex-husband used to call the boy "queer," almost mouthing the word so no one would hear her. If this clue wasn't enough, the scene at the police station then becomes more heavy-handed in foreshadowing Will's sexuality. most." She then adds, "Look, he's a sensitive kid." In the '80s, "sensitive kid" usually signaled someone wasn't being heteronormative in terms of their performance of stereotypical gender roles. Though Hopper thinks Will might be off playing hooky, Joyce disagrees: "He's not like you, Hopper. ![]() Way back in the very first episode, after Will first disappears, his mom Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) seeks local police chief, Hopper's (David Harbour) help. While fans may have missed these brief moments, they certainly were there in prior seasons. And it's this latter fact especially that paved the way for Will Byers' coming out.īut first, let's take a look back at the instances of coded language. ![]() not conforming with society's strict views of masculinity) were unfairly linked with the monstrous. The 1980s was also a time when cisgender boys and men considered "too feminine" (i.e. But this shyness is pretty faithful to the 1980s, a time when coded language was often employed to identify someone as queer. The show doesn't actually say he's gay outright. Fans who completed Volume 2 of "Stranger Things" Season 4 will know Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) has finally, in a roundabout way, come out as gay.
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