#thankyou for keeping all of us fed with the good gay content

[duskdrawings]

Kind-Of Rant About ST Queerbaiting

I know it may seem silly to get so worked up over fictional characters and relationships but, honestly, this whole queerbaiting bullshit with volume 2 of Stranger Things season 4 has really thrown me. And it's not just a problem with this specific show by any means and I do love Stranger Things a lot and I always will - but I just feel that so much potential was lost and it could have been so much better.

I wasn't expecting all of our beloved gay ships to become canon and everyone to come out and ride down a rainbow together but we literally didn't get ANYTHING of substance (Besides some bare-bones last minute attempt with Vickie and Robin, which felt rather lazy to me, especially in comparison to all of the other pairings in the show that seemed to get plenty of airtime).

I've experienced plenty of queerbaiting in the past with other shows but after so much of it, it just gets to the point where I almost feel like, is this all we'll ever get? I feel like we deserve so much better than this. How wonderful could things have been if such a huge mainstream show really said "fuck the str8s for one second" and gave us Byler or Ronance or Steddie or even just a proper coming out scene for Will or Robin (as literally only Steve knows about her being gay) or someone else.

Why is it that a character could be so strongly implied to be gay but so many people still deny it and say it's wrong? (Heck, even after Robin literally saying she likes girls and NOT Steve, plenty of people STILL try and pair her up with Steve). Why do we always have to strongly justify gay pairings when so many straight pairings have been thrown together for literally no reason, besides the fact that they are a man and woman and know each other in some form. The amount of times I've sat through films and watched a man and a woman get together and have had NO IDEA why and the amount of times I've seen two people of the same gender have amazing chemistry and potential but then get sidelined for some straight coupling that came out of nowhere.

And why should we have to be happy and grateful for literal crumbs. The emotional scene with Will talking to Mike and basically saying how he felt about Mile but framing it as if this was El, I already know plenty of people will take that and say we are reaching, whilst others will say we should be happy that we even got that. Why should we be happy when a big chunk of the audience can't even tell that the meaning behind it was gay?

Also there's that whole "we need more healthy friendships between two guys/two girls", which I understand to a certain degree but also that's literally MOST of what we have anyway. Most shows revolve around the girls sticking together, the guys sticking together and anytime a girl or guy interact then they MUST want each other.

Whilst queer fictional characters don't HAVE to have a storyline surrounding them being queer, I just feel like there should be at least some kind of canon recognition of the fact that they are queer in some way? We shouldn't have to come out but with where we are at the moment, we still have a long way to go with representation and I feel like it's a bit different with fictional characters. It doesn't even have to be anything big and loud and ground-breaking, just give us SOMETHING. And when we do get something, there's always people saying that it wasn't necessary and questioning why we need LGBTQ+ representation? Which I don't even have the time to go into all the reasons why we clearly need it!

And I know people are saying that something could happen in season 5, but why must we always have to keep sticking around and just hoping that these writers will throw us a bone right at the end of their shows? Whenever we do get LGBTQ+ representation it often has to get thrown in right at the very end, so we often barely get to see much actually come of it, or the LGBTQ+ characters end up dying at the end anyway. Is it too much to ask to see a group of 80s outcasts being rainbowy together?

But my Ronance heart will forever stand strong, regardless of what the Duffer Brother's do! And it honestly makes me so happy and proud of our LGBTQ+ community to see everyone rallying together and wanting to create content to fix all the problems the show had, so our favourite characters and ships can thrive. Now that's truly something special! So, to end on a happier note, FUCK queerbaiting and all of your favourite characters are alive and LGBTQ+ and all of your favourite ships are canon! Why? Because we say so! 🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️