ITS ALREADY BEEN TWO HOURS SINCE THIS???

The fact that I literally took this 6 days ago… That means we gained 10k in

SIX. DAYS.

This is actually insane

WE MADE IT TO 100K???? WHEN WAS THIS?????

I genuinely don't get any hate towards Will Byers. How can you hate this boy? HOW? WHAT DID HE EVER DO WRONG?

i love this scene, i hate this scene, it's perfect, it's gut wrenching, it's beautiful, it's soul crushing, it's poetic cinema, it's jaw dropping, it makes me wanna curl up and die, it makes me feel my blood running through my veins, it makes me wanna throw up, it gives me butterflies, it has me gasping 3 years later

“queerbaiting” vs “straight-baiting”

with all the recent “controversy” surrounding the whole “mike likes el” thing, i just want to say this so that people don’t get in over themselves. 

as others have said before, doubt is important for both sides to stay engaged. they need us to remain hooked in so we’ll watch s5 and generate revenue and blah blah blah. 

but just remember (looking at u heteros) queerbaiting is a very real thing, and “straight-baiting” does not exist. like at all. 

queerbaiting is a term used to describe our very real exclusion from mainstream media. it’s honestly quite malicious, because showrunners and filmmakers use queer audiences as a pawn. they never intend to represent us, they just want to lure us in so they can maximise their views and profits. 

which just means, yet again, that mainstream media will invariably pander to the GA, which is why “straight-baiting” can’t exist. ur already the majority, everything is already made for u. why would mainstream media need to hook u in, when u already make up a significant portion of their viewership anyway?

like lets not forget that stranger things currently has a 0:4 ratio of leading queer couples and leading het couples. they currently have a 2:12 ratio of explicitly leading queer characters and leading het characters. 

this means that yes, if byler doesn’t happen, it will be queerbaiting. why? queer audiences do not have rich, complex, fully developed relationships in this show otherwise. sure, we have will, who is indubitably a complex and rich character, with seasons-worth of development, but… 1:12? is this really the type of representation that queer audiences deserve? and if byler does happen, that’ll change the ratio to 1:3, which really isn’t that significant because yet again, u are the majority. 

u cannot be baited with rich, complex, fully developed representation pouring out the show for u. u cannot just use a term that is rooted in our historical prohibition from media, just because the ship u want isn’t canon. ur personal disappointment cannot even begin to mirror the collective betrayal and rejection that is felt when queer audiences are intentionally mislead and cast to the side. 

It is my biggest pet peeve when (mostly) straight people try to make queer people feel guilty for shipping two same gender characters together or say it's problematic to ship them, so I've made a little list debunking their ideas. I'll be talking a lot about Byler but this also applies to Elmax, Ronance, Steddie and queer ships in general.

"Why can't people be friends anymore?" Why can't a guy and a girl be friends either? Why aren't you saying this about Chrissy and Eddie shippers? Unless the issue is that they're gay.

"You're assuming Will is gay based on stereotypes!" Of course, the horrible stereotype that gay guys like men but not women, how problematic of me.

"You're fetishizing children!" No one says this about M*leven shippers. The fact that you view a queer relationship as inherently sexual and adult is sexualising young people much more than shipping Will and Mike does.

"Men will be scared to be affectionate to their friends in real life in case people think that they're gay!" First of all, I doubt some straight guy is going to stop hanging out with his friend because some random person on the internet drew Steddie fanart. And second of all, why are we treating straight men's fear of being perceived as gay as a perfectly valid and normal fear? (I elaborate a bit on this point in the reblogs)

"Why is it okay to say Mike Wheeler is gay but not say Robin is straight? You're erasing his sexuality!" First of all, when did Mike say he's straight? Sure he said he loves Eleven (which I doubt he does anyways) but bi people exist. Plus, there are so many straight characters and ships out there. Straight people don't look up lists of shows with canonical queer representation or watch a show because it has a straight girl in it. Lesbians like myself look up to characters like Robin and they are meaningful to them. No straight person feels seen in their heterosexuality because of Mike Wheeler. The only exception in my opinion is when people headcanon straight characters who are dating trans people as bi like Tao from Heartstopper because that comes off as transphobic.

"They're too young to know that they're gay and you're forcing a sexuality on them." I've known I'm gay since I was eleven or twelve which is the age they are in S1. And yet again, why aren't you saying this about straight people! Everyone accepted that Dustin and Lucas liked Max in S2. Yet Will is too young to know who he likes... Interesting.

"Grown adults wanting two young boys to kiss each other is pretty weird." The issue with this is again the hypocrisy. Adult M*leven shippers don't get told this. Mike kissed Eleven in S1 and it was completely cute and non-sexual because they are children so of course it isn't sexual. Hell they even made out when they were 13 and no one complained. Why would that be any different if he kissed Mike instead of Will? Yet again, people view queer people as being inherently sexual but queer people get cute little crushes or want to kiss people sometimes too. It's not a sexual thing. It's the exact same as a straight person doing it.

Anyways that's my rant done. It just annoys me when half of their arguements saying why it's wrong to ship these characters are just masked homophobia, even if the person saying it doesn't realize. Feel free to add more to this in the reblogs, this is just what I've seen.

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Brett knows about the Byler script I'm a little embarrassed

and when the byler kiss happens and lucas slowly hands dustin a 10$ dollar bill then what?