#billy's masculine traits to me read like they could be an overcompensation for something

[ghostlynimbus]

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

Thank you for sending this in!!! <3

This is a tough question bc with my current obsession (Stranger Things) there's a lot of characters that I feel get mischaracterized by the fandom.

But since I already talked about Nancy and Joyce in some of my other responses to this ask game I think I'll talk about Steve in this one:

I really don't get why the fandom (or at least parts of the fandom i stumble across quite often) feminizes him so much.

Now, I'm all for femme dudes. I am a femme dude and I love seeing that sort of thing in fiction. I even really love seeing more traditionally masculine characters exploring their more feminine sides.

But i see so many fics feminize him to the point that the character is to me unrecognizable. These depictions of Steve don't feel (to me) like a fun new twist on the character, or exploring the potential of something that's underexplored in the canon, or exploring how things might have turned out different if x, y, or z had been changed.

They just kind of feel like some character i don't know masquerading as a character i find really interesting and compelling in the canon.

Along a similar vein, I don't like when I see him depicted as being stupid about everything?

Steve is shown to not be smart in the same ways as many of the other characters, and he is frequently paired up with characters that are just generally very academically smart (compared to everyone) such as Nancy and Dustin. But he is also, repeatedly, shown to be very competent and capable in a lot of other ways (even if he doesn't do well in school).

One area in particular, is that in the canon Steve is generally pretty socially acute (with some inconsistencies bc the show sucks at consistent characterization). He is also really good at being presented with new information or a new situation and adapting quickly and skillfully (even if he freaks out a bit about it in the process).

He may not be good at writing essays. He may not know as much about science or history as Dustin does.

But Steve is not only good at listening to people who know more about a subject than him, but also at getting the work done and doing what is necessary to action that info in any given situation.

He also is repeatedly shown to have a decent amount of common sense, something which those super academically smart characters he's often paired with tend to lack.

So I really don't like how often i see him depicted at just being so incompetent and stupid about everything. And i don't like when the canon contradicts itself to try and show him like this also.

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