#mike wheeler is queer

[sleep02sunshiine]

"Girlfriends?"

"No, no, no not girlfriends."

"Boyfriends?"

*panic* "NO, No, no not boyfriends either..."

[gayofthefae]

You know how I know Mike is queer?

These are the same person. Mike is an inherently caring, loving, and protective person. It's what Will called out in 4x08 and reminded us of with Mike's desire and practice in attempt to be a "hero" and be able to help the ones he loves.

But when El tells him she feels unloved by him, he doesn't comfort her. At all. He defends himself. He doesn't even say "yes I do". He says "I say it". Even when he's arguing that he loves her, he is defending himself, not comforting her. If he was comforting her he would have reacted to her crying at all. He doesn't. He just becomes increasingly desperate and escalates the tactics that are making her cry more.

Because the accusation is that important to him. Not many things could be so important to him that he would deprioritize her or taking care and protecting and comforting those he loves. He even does quite well at it at the start of the scene. We have PROOF that he is pretty stable these days with any sort of accusation or invalidation with how well he takes "you don't understand" and simply asks questions without any sort of offense. So he CAN take it. He takes it IN THIS CONVERSATION.

But when she says he doesn't love him, he stops the "they just don't know you". He stops the "don't say that about yourself, you're lovable," which is what this is really about for her. If he had said that even if he couldn't say it himself, it might have still helped a little bit: frame it as his own fault if he can't. But he couldn't do that. Instead, he went with how it reflected on HIM that he couldn't say it and defended himself AGAINST her. FOUGHT her on it.

There are few things that can make him fight a person. And they've all actually been pretty similar. They're all El:

"You're prioritizing El over Will"

"There is something off about your relationship with El"

"You're prioritizing El over [Will]"

"He's right that your and [El's] relationship wasn't a good one"

"Your and El's relationship wasn't a good one"

"You're prioritizing El over [Will]"

"You don't love [El]"

He is comforting. He is kind. He prioritizes others' comfort and safety consistently. He takes other accusations fairly lightly and focuses back onto the person making them and their emotions. And yet, what does he say in those instances and only those instances?

"SHUT. UP."

"You lying piece of shit. You're crazy!"

"It's not my fault you don't like girls!"

"He's just some crazy old man"

"You're conspiring against me!"

"We're friends! We're friends!"

"You're being ridiculous. What is this?"

People who say his character has gotten worse are stating it under the idea that he is always like this. The entire discovery so many people, including myself, had that he's queer was because we noticed that his outbursts were consistent. People think he's random and angry because they think the situations are random: Lucas, Hopper, Will, Max, El. But they're forgetting to note what each of those people questioned about him right before.

The biggest proof is that he doesn't ever talk like this outside of these situations. It's lighthearted debates and empathetic conversations.

Mike Wheeler is a kind person. If he said "You're being ridiculous. What is this?" it is not just because he's scared of vulnerability or commitment.

[bonskidin64]

I like how most of these are just asking Will if he’s okay or snapping him out his trances

[imsonormalipromise]

As always, I'm currently thinking about Mike's 'one way' sign pointing to his open closet...

For me this is so big because it was so deliberate!! It was fixed on the wall...right next to his OPEN closet... pointing towards the closet...which has light shining down from it...there's ZERO heterosexual explanation for it!! Mike is closeted!!!

Any time I experience any Byler doubt or queer Mike doubt I just think about this and it all disappears, because genuinely why is it there if not to be a hint.

[reo-bylerwagon]

the girl who asked will to dance having a rainbow hair clip, and rainbow-striped blouse is accepted as associated symbolism for will being gay, right?

so when i say the couple holding hands behind mike and will in rink o mania, with the girl wearing a similar rainbow-striped shirt resembles the same thing, only this time for both will and mike, it’s suddenly crazy?

[thatkeira9000]

I will genuinely eat my socks if this loser isn't gay

[lunabug2004]

If Byler isn’t endgame i’mma need Michael to explain his face 🤨

Like if I was Will… I’d be asking what we are every hour we spend in slight proximity to one another (Bc Michael always be staring if he has the chance)

[kyle-txt]

I am late to the trend but cmon.. it’s lesbyler.

[star-41306]

Megan in "But I'm a Cheerleader" having pics of women in short shorts and bras put up in her locker... Mike Wheeler is giving Miss main character with his s4 bedroom posters. The fricking duffer brothers... God. I'm all for Bi Mike since his sexuality is up for debate, but I know in my heart that boy is GAY.

[evilbookworm]

Trust that Mike Wheeler got literal chills from that touch.

[mrincrediblyblind]

imagine if they met

gay, judgy, sassy, need i say more?

[gayofthefae]

Pushed to get back together with her by Lucas and now he's sitting as far as he possible can from her in that tiny chair. She's the one mad at him. And he sat down on the opposite edge of that chair. You aren't the one who's supposed to not want this, Mike.

[bonskidin64]

the things you kept under the covers

[imsonormalipromise]

Mike hiding El in his closet

I saw this post about Mike and closets by @sara-yuna and it got me thinking about and remembering other moments where Mike has closeted subtext, particularly the entire scene where Mike hides El in his closet. I know some people have talked about this before (like in this post by @wheelercurse) but I haven't seen a more detailed analysis (it doesn't help that Tumblr's search function isn't top notch) so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Obviously, on the surface, Mike is hiding El because his mother came home and doesn't know about El. But because he hides her in his closet (and as well as other things I'll be mentioning below), it really points to the idea that Mike is closeted and has been ever since season 1 (whether he was consciously aware of it at the time or not).

(I am not trying to take anything away from El's trauma or disregard it, this is just an added layer to the scene).

What I find backs this up is that the outfit El wears when she's hiding in the closet is almost exactly the same outfit Mike wore the day Will went missing:

They are both wearing grey sweatpants and a dark blue jumper. I believe it's the same jumper, it's just that in some shots the way it's fitted on her looks like it has more of a V-neck shape, but the colour and style is definitely the same.

Obviously El had to borrow some clothes because she didn't have others with her, so it's not simply the fact she's wearing Mike's clothes that's damning. It's the choice to have her wear an outfit we've seen Mike wearing before...especially one that can be associated with Will...

So this means that, to some extent, El resembles Mike whilst hiding in his closet. I mean, come on...that has to point to Mike being closeted!! In addition, whilst El is hiding in Mike's closet (looking like Mike), Mike and his mother have a queer coded conversation at the same time: "Michael. ["Yeah?"] I'm not mad at you. ["No?"] No, of course not. All this that's been going on, with Will. I can't imagine what it's been like for you. I just, I want you to feel like you can talk to me. I never want you to feel like you have to hide something from me. I'm here for you, okay?"

Karen believes Mike is hiding or keeping something from her regarding Will. She would understand Mike feeling lost or scared or sad because his best friend just went missing. But from her wording, it seems that there's something more to it that he's not sharing, and that she's open to listening to and understanding whatever it is. She may be aware of or have suspicions about Mike's sexuality, and if so, it points to her being inevitably accepting.

This conversation is recontextualised in season 4 as it is quite similar to the one Will and Jonathan have, where Jonathan expresses his wish for Will to talk to him more ("I miss talking to you. I, like, really miss it. And I think, right now, we need to talk more than ever") and where he expresses that he'll always be there for Will ("I just, I don't want you to forget that I'm here. And I'll always be here. No matter what"). It's quite obvious that Jonathan was making reference to Will's sexuality here, so it's not a stretch to believe the same could be true for Karen and Mike.

So, to reiterate my point: El is hiding in the closet, wearing the same outfit Mike did prior. And at the same time, Karen and Mike have a queer coded conversation about his feelings concerning Will. Thus, El could represent Mike being closeted.

It's significant that this is from season 1, too, because many people argue that "Mike isn't gay/queer" or that if he was, it "would have come out of nowhere", but this is one of the many hints that it was written into his character from the very beginning. Him being queer and reciprocating Will's feelings would not be because of "fan-service" or for the "woke audience", it would be good writing planned from the beginning! (or, because of the uncertainty of the show's reception and of how many seasons there'd be, at the very least there would've been "seeds planted" about Mike's sexuality so that the idea could be developed in later seasons).

[reo-bylerwagon]

the butterfly being by mike's head despite the shut curtains while he sings along to these lyrics:

he's stuck.

[thatkeira9000]

me pulling out my 45 minutes long power point when someone says Mike is straight