#like i'm all here for reclaiming this trope and using it for actual queer representation! especially in such a queernormative dw era

[purplespacecats]

okay i continue to catch up on dw and re: the devil's chord, it is weird to see the classic campy queer-coded drag queen-esque villain be replicated exactly except explicitly queer now

not bad! but weird

[tryharder-bitch]

Stranger Things: could Robin be bi?

Since season 3 aired, I have seen all sorts of discourse about wether Robin is gay or bi and well, time to add my own two cents.

In my opinion, Robin being a lesbian was one of the best trope subversion of this season. Her being Steve’s love interest would have been predictible and rather boring. Instead, Steve is finally allowed to have a friend of his age without the complications of it being a love story! It shows that you can find happiness in other ways that romantic love! And she was very well written, not reduced to her sexuality but fleshed out as an actual interesting character, useful to the plot! So yeah, I'm glad they went for it.

Of course, Robin and Steve have a great chemistry and they would make a cute couple - but then Joe Keery has chemistry with pretty much everyone, that's just this little man's magic.

And of course, Robin could be bi irl. Sexuality is fluid after all, and even though she rejected Steve, there is a tiny possibility that she could still be attracted by him and yada yada yada.

But it would be a major faux pas to make this her storyline. Why, you ask me?

Stranger Things is a Netflix show airing in 2019. Honestly, it was even a bit surprising that we had to wait until season 3 to have some queer rep. We’re in an era in entertainment where diversity is widely reclaimed by at least a part of the audience. Netflix is run by (mostly) smart people who are eager to answer those demands - in order to, ya know, make money (not that I think they don’t care for representation, but tbh they’re here to sell in the first place).

Right now, Robin is the only canon queer character in Stranger Things (I'm not counting Will, because even though it's pretty obvious that he has some sexual identity conflicts going on, the duffers could still chose not to follow through with that plotline). And when you have the opportunity to show the only gay character in your show be happy in a gay relationship, you can't put her instead in a seemingly “straight relationship”. That would pretty much erase her queerness in the eye of the casual watcher - a sort of "she's queer but dont worry, not that much" (i know her being canonically bi and in a relationship with Steve wouldn't make her straight, please don't @ me and keep on reading).

I would love to see more bi rep in fiction, believe me. And I would be glad to have a bi character in Stranger Things, as long as they're well written.

But as much as I regret this, most people have an easier time understanding homosexuality than bisexuality. Bisexuality is still in this grey zone with lots and lots of misconceptions, whereas nowadays most people get the fact that you can be gay - even of they don't approve it. Therfore if you want to add queer rep in a show, you're probably wanting to begin with something simple, easy to understand. So boom, you choose the gay character!

I feel like the duffer brothers are using Robin to test the waters. If people are happy with her storyline, good, they can add more rep, and if people don't like her being gay... well, she's not that important to the plot, so they can gently push her aside. I think the duffers know their audience and care more about pleasing the mass than writing a specific story they absolutely want to tell - which is both a good and a bad thing, maybe I'll write a post about it. But if they decide to keep Robin (and she's very cool and people love her so I'm pretty sure they will), they are clever enough to exploit her queerness in order to give us a compelling sense of representation.

Now, if you want to ship Stobin, write fanfictions, draw fanarts of them, of course you're free to do it. That's what fandoms are for, so enjoy!

Just don't act like it's canon (because it's not) and don't hope it will become canon (because it won't).