So, I have a friend. He’s an older gay man. An ElderGay™️ as I like to think of him. In his early 60’s. Nice dude. He’s never watched Stranger Things before. So I conducted a little experiment.

I showed him three scenes from season 4 and asked for his thoughts on the characters. Those scenes were Mike and Will in Will’s bedroom, the van scene, and Will and Jonathan in the pizza kitchen. And you know what the first thing he said was? Even before the first scene was over? “I think the one in the blue shirt wants to be more than friends with the other one.” I kid you not. Without prompting. Without any context. He watched that scene and clocked Mike Wheeler immediately. It was more obvious to him than Will being gay, and Will is the one who is canonically gay. The van scene only reinforced this opinion of his. And the scene with Will and Jonathan literally made him cry.

I wanted to share this for two reasons. One, to show that removed from the context of Mike’s relationship with El, his feelings for Will are easy to see, even without 3 prior seasons of buildup. And two, the way queer themes are handled in this show are extremely meaningful, especially for older queer people who lived through that era. This man is literally twice my age, and there we both were, with tears running down our faces, watching how Jonathan affirmed and cared for his gay little brother. It’s so important for queer people and their friends and family everywhere to see interactions like these in mainstream entertainment.

So, anyway, Byler endgame lol

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.

forget stop tryna make straight characters gay someone tell the duffers to stop making gay characters straight

For the youngs arguing about the plausibility of ships on Stranger Things: yeah, it's a science fiction that need not be historically accurate at all, but also, I grew up in a small Midwestern town, like Hawkins, in the 80s, and I knew queer adults. It's true that far fewer were out then, but they were there, and some were out. My mom regularly played cards with some gay male friends, the adult daughter of one of her other friends left her husband for a woman, and my aunt had a favorite coworker who was part of a long-term lesbian couple. All of these people lived in my small town or the surrounding county. As an old, I assure you, we existed in the 80s, even in a place like Hawkins.

sorry I’m sorry but… the idea of Robin, a closeted lesbian in the 80s who has been afraid to pursue romance not only out of fear of rejection but also of the homophobic backlash she would face… befriending the local heartthrob after YEARS of jealousy not only of his ability to attract the attention of girls she was interested in, but also of his freedom to pursue romance safely thanks to his heterosexuality… rejecting his romantic advance, affirming her exclusive interest in women… and THEN going on to win the heart of Nancy Wheeler, THE it girl of the show, the one the show has gone out of its way to show as extremely desirable (while also centering her storylines around her romantic relationships with men, which are often restricting or unfulfilling)… like the POWER that would have. Robin, who in canon feels less desirable in comparison to her straight male counterpart, being the one to ultimately “win” the dream girl. Nancy, who is in fandom reduced to her relationship status and vilified for daring to be unhappy with the fan favorite white boy, giving the middle finger to the audience while also being allowed to establish herself once and for all as a fully realized person outside of her role in some guys life. not to even mention the sheer cinematic excellence of a wlw relationship winning out over everything in THE biggest show in the world….. they would DOMINATE

me, real

no because eddie’s line “forced conformity that’s what’s killing the kids” is arguably one of the most important lines of the whole show especially s4.

for a lot of reasons but especially when looking through a queer lens

Socialist Nancy, Communist Robin, and Anarchist Eddie love to have political debates in front of Steve, who doesn’t know who the U.S. president is.

last night I was denouncing some forgettable shitbag to my girlfriend and said “even the ground wouldn’t want him to rot in it” and was instantly projected into the body of a gnarled old irish woman 200 years ago, spinning thread and spitting on the ground as I bitch and look out to sea.

I got curious and looked shit up here’s some old Irish curses:

Sorrow betide you

May you may be badly positioned on a windy day

My cat’s curse upon you

May the Devil will make a ladder out of your spine

Strife and stress upon you [ngl cursing someone with anxiety is nasty]

May you burn and be severely injured

I hope you die without a priest

Weariness of heart upon you [depression is also a nasty curse!]

May you not see the morning

May you be a load for four [pallbearers] before the year is out

The crow’s curse upon you

Pissmires [ants] and spiders be in your marriage bed

May the lamb of God stir his hoof through the roof and kick your arse down to hell

Six horseloads of graveyard clay upon you

May you have red diarrhoea

May your cat eat you and the devil eat the cat

May you marry a wretch that blows wind [farts] like a stone from a sling

May you find the bees but not the honey

May you have the runs on your wedding night

May you never have a hearth to call your own [did someone hit our entire generation with this?]

May the devil take your last shilling

May the devil cut your head off you and make a day’s work of your neck [I am… pretty sure that means use your neck as an outhouse]

May the devil swallow you sideways

May you be afflicted with an itch and have no nails to scratch with

And one tumblr already seems to know: May you be shamed and disgraced

and lastly, my favorite: May your obituary be written in weasel’s piss

Lmao. I love these so much! I’ll be saving a few of these for future conversations, thanks.

what

I swear this is the best shit ever

Witchy Tip: Write

You don’t need to be Shakespeare to write powerful spells, rituals, and prayers. However, practicing writing (free word association, creative, poetry, brainstorming, etc.) can only make you better at it!

Furthermore, no one else necessarily has to see or hear your writing. It is okay if the only audience is Deity or Spirit.

Book of Mirrors

Book of Shadows

Digital Journals/ Blogs

Grimoire

Bullet Journal

Especially if you are writing informally. Not everything about your craft has to be somber and ceremonial!

Feel free to emulate your poetry heroes or simply express your worries.

If you want to deepen your practice, you might consider writing in your favorite way.

It can be a great way to keep your mind sharp.

(x)

I’ve been saying this since I saw the movie

Im glad I’m not the only one

Gonna find myself somewhere to level out (at Banff National Park)

- Nature blog ^^

✨Curious Zelda ✨

True story

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