#stranger things rainbows

[stranger-chichka]

The amount of rainbow imagery before 'Cool. Cool' scene (+ Argyle's socks, but they're not in frame)

[stranger-chichka]

There’s a guess it might say “If you can dream it, you can do it", but it’s impossible to read😒😒😒

what a great day to remember mike was written as gay since the very beginning

[willnmike4l]

still in my Will Byers slump 😍😍😍😍

[manon-herself]

Ok well if ST isn’t queer so…

WHY ARE THERE RAINBOWS EVERYWHERE??

[bylertruth3r]

one of the guys Mike was looking at had a rainbow flag on his book, just a funny little detail, and the clock was ticking (Vecna detail?), maybe the fact that he only likes boys will be what gets him Vecna'd?

Mike has been associated with rainbows before (and Will has drawns a rainbow spaceship when he was younger, he's canonically gay)

[stranger-chichka]

YEEEES

[chirpsythismorning]

INTERESTING a storyline that ppl say would be impossible for Mike bc of x y z and yet here is Jack Mcphee in Dawson's Creek living his forced conforming lifestyle, dating a girl and denying his sexuality, having a mental breakdown in his nuclear family front hallway and everything...

[elephantshoetoo]

The Gay Beautician / Hairdresser Trope

(I'm looking at you, Mike Wheeler.)

Has anyone asked themselves why, in season 1, when the boys wanted to dress El up like a girl, they felt the need to put makeup on her?

Why would she need makeup to look like a girl?! She IS a girl!

All she really needed was the wig, since it was her buzz cut that was throwing people off. The dress was just a frilly bonus. But makeup? How many 12-year-old girls wear makeup? Maybe a few, but not many. So, what was the point of this?

At first glance, it seems like just a sweet bonding moment between Mike and El, and I think that's how the Duffers meant it to come across on the surface level, but I believe they also took this opportunity to add a subtle bit of queer coding for Mike, if you take the time to look for it. Because why is Mike the one putting makeup on her? She could easily do that herself.

Oh, she doesn't know about makeup, you say? Okay sure, but then... why would a twelve-year-old BOY know about makeup (especially in the 80's, when gender roles were pretty rigidly observed) ... unless he's GAY.

I'm not saying Mike himself is into makeup or girly things, per se -- not all gay boys are -- but the symbolism of him applying the makeup on El is pretty blatant, since it is quite common for young gay boys to want to experiment with girly things -- makeup, dresses, high heels, etc... And of course, there's the stereotype of the gay hairdresser / cosmetologist, which these shots play right into.

So, I think when the Duffers decided to have a scene with Mike putting makeup on El, it was meant as a little wink to the audience that Mike may not be quite as straight as he would have you believe.

Because there really is no plot-driven reason for this to have happened. Mike could just as easily have found her "pretty" had she come out with just the wig and dress. The whole makeup scene could be removed completely without changing a single thing in the show. Its only purpose is queer coding.

I rest my case.

[mel01837]

MORE BYLER LEAKS?? AND THEM SPOTTED WITH A RAINBOW BOOK?? OH IK WHAT YOU ARE MICHAEL

[gl1tched-r4bb1t]

Caine hosting a multifandom tea-party

Wanna join? ☺️

[stranger-chichka]

Does it… ring any bells?

He’s the one who catches up everything D&D related:

+ he sings “Never Ending Story” which is also the title of the book.

[goddammiteverythingstaken]

Duffer brothers? More like duff-inetly making some weird gay ass choices like what

[upsidedownlurker]

"I rEwAtchEd aLL Of sTrAnGer tHinGS anD I STiLL diDN't FiNd aNy eviDeNcE FoR ByLer."

Because you're not looking for it.

"I aM LoOkiNg fOr iT ThoUgh."

Not in the same way.

As soon as the guy and girl characters smile at each other, audiences stare unblinkingly during every scene those characters are together, mentally noting down every infinitesimal instance that could possibly be seen as romantic. And when the guy and girl do get together, they aren't surprised, because they were already looking. They already knew.

"Ooh, is that a smile? THEY'RE DESTINED TO BE IN LOVE!!! I MUST FIND MORE PROOF!!!"

When it's two guys, people don't give them the same amount of attention.

They don't care about the way they look at each other, or that two of the guys in the friendship group are in fucking tears every time they sit down for a heart-to-heart. Just bros being bros.

Plus, it's a big TV show– one set in the 80s, no less– why would gay people be in it? Gay people are reserved for the little shows about gay people, or as irrelevant side characters to be killed off. Not two of the most integral characters to the show.

That's just not how the media works.

If one of them was constantly decked out in fucking rainbows and spoke with a lisp, maybe then people would start looking for it. That's what we expect. The gay character is always the gay character, nothing more, nothing less.

We've been primed through years of previous media experience to ignore any possibility of a same-sex relationship, and focus on the straight ones. If the show isn't about the gæ, why would it have the gæ?

I know because I thought that way a couple years ago, and I'm an actively-on-fire queerpocalypse of a person.

Anyway, I bet that when/if Byler becomes a thing, people will finally rewatch the show and look for it. Then they'll go, "Oh. Ok." Then a rainbow will shine over their house and shit glitter everywhere in celebration.

[lavender-byler]

🌈☀️Happy boy🌈☀️

[almxndbutter]

this is so funny