Stranger Things finally makes room for girlhood nostalgia — kinda

Stranger Things revels in the nostalgia and the aesthetic of the 1980s — but that nostalgia is presented in a very limited scope. Throughout its four seasons, the Netflix show celebrates what little boys who grew up in predominantly white suburbs in the ’80s loved, and not much else. The creators of the Netflix show were all young boys at that time. The Duffer brothers have been open about their influences and all the references in the show, which have translated into the main characters’ passions: Ghostbusters, Dungeons & Dragons, and Dig DugTo name but a few,

None of those things are blatantly anti-girl, but they’re still tailored overwhelmingly to boys. And yes, there are plenty of ’80s hallmarks in the show that are more universal concepts, like mega-malls and New Coke. But Stranger Things has a distinct lack of ’80s pop culture elements that girls specifically would have enjoyed. Are there fashion plates? It is the Jem and The HologramsOr Barbie dolls Sweet Valley High’s books stocks? The stock of Sweet Valley High books? This speaks to the culture of elevating girlhood interests above boyhood.

But with the introduction of Lucas’ sister, Erica (Priah Ferguson), as a main character last season and an expansion of Max’s interests this season, Stranger Thingsgradually started to realize that girl things were worth keeping in mind. Well, kinda.

[Ed. note: This essay contains some spoilers for Stranger Things season 4 part 1.]

nancy and robin in the dark

Image courtesy of Netflix

When we speak about nostalgia, what do we mean?

Stranger Things, to its credit, doesn’t outright dismiss girly interests from 40 years ago; it just barely includes them. This is a major oversight in a show that relies so heavily on nostalgia references. While there is a fair amount of female characters in the series, it’s rare to hear much about their hobbies and interests. They’ve all been presented to be “Not Like Other Girls” — even if the show hardly has any girly girls to compare them to — or “Cool Girls,” which are both tropes that focus on female characters who can keep up with the boys and also reject traditional feminine interests. In this case, it’s less of a rejection and more like those things don’t even exist.

Eleven, Millie Bobby Brown’s daughter, grew up in a research center. She has no interest and everything she loves comes from Mike. When Max was first introduced in season 2, the boys could hardly believe that she was a cool skateboarder who beat Dustin’s high scores at the arcade. The older women don’t really have interests beyond romance, school, work, or being a mom (in Joyce’s case). In fact, after four seasons, we don’t even know what Nancy (Natalia Dyer) likes to do beyond school and work (except this season, we learn that she has a Tom Cruise poster in her room, so that’s something). We don’t know what we Do know about Nancy — the most stereotypically feminine of all the girls — is that she is “different” than the popular girls that Steve hangs out with.

max playing dig dug

Image courtesy of Netflix

Eleven, Max, Robin, and even Dustin’s hacker GF, Suzie, are the type of cool girls that boys in middle school and high school want to hang out with — their interests either mesh perfectly with the boys’, or they can be taught to love the same things that the boys do. They aren’t loud about their own interests, and even though they like the same things the boys do, they always do it in a very acceptable, boy-friendly manner. Yes, there are certainly girls out there who check all these boxes; but when it’s every girl in the show, it makes a statement about what type of girls are worthy of inclusion in shows. Stranger ThingsThis is one of Netflix’s most popular series, so it has a greater audience than shows that feature more complex portrayals of women characters. Julie and the Phantoms, Teenage Bounty HuntersAnd Baby-Sitters ClubThey were dropped after one or more seasons.

It’s not that girls can’t enjoy boy things; they can and they should! To be honest, male characters are in Stranger Things don’t gatekeep their interest from the girls in the way that sadly happens in real life. It’s more so the fact that the boy interests are the ones that society deems worth remembering, making shows about, and rebooting time and time again. Even if girls CanThese boyish things are great, and we try to include them in these stories. GhostbustersYou will be met by mobs on the internet which push them back, whether it’s Rey using a lightsaber or (2016). Girl things aren’t worth remembering, and adding girls to boy things ruins their “sacredness.” The fact that Stranger Things The majority of the boy stuff is defended, and almost all girls are not mentioned. It only highlights this double standard. This is most likely a mistake and not intentional. It is possible that the. Stranger ThingsAlthough the writing room has a fairly equal number of women and men, eight of the 34 episodes feature a female writer.

(Token) Girl Power

Metatextually, I would add that the first couple of seasons of Stranger ThingsAnother annoying stereotypicality about 1980s media was the Token Girl. Granted, the trope of having one girl in a group of boys isn’t something that is going away soon, but it definitely was even more common in the ’80s. That’s slowly rectified on Stranger ThingsThe series was expanded by the addition of more girls, though they’ve only recently started to actually get along and consider each other friends. Erica was the one who changed those dynamics most, particularly when it came down to how Erica got along with her boys and what Erica liked.

In a sea of female characters who mostly care about boy things (or don’t really care about anything), Erica is a breath of fresh air. She was a key character in the third season, but her love for mathematics, capitalism and My Little Pony put her against the rest. Her interests aren’t dismissed, and Dustin even argues that her love of My Little Pony is actually nerdy (which, within the show, is him basically telling her it’s cool and worthy). There’s even an official Stranger Things Erica, My Little Pony

erica joining the dnd group

Image courtesy of Netflix

At the end of the third season, Will leaves her his D&D stuff, and by the time season 4 kicks off, she’s fully embraced her nerdy side. However, she doesn’t leave her girly interests behind. She fills in for her brother when he can’t make the D&D club’s final campaign due to his championship basketball game. She responds to Eddie, Hellfire Club leader and Dungeon master Eddie’s questions about her character by revealing that Lady Applejack is a half-elf rebel.

Do you sound familiar? Applejack was a My Little Pony character from the very first generation and was also the star of the original My Little Pony movie. Midnight Castle Rescue. Erica may like boy things too now, but she’s brought her love of a girlhood toy to that traditionally boy-dominated (especially at the time) game. And she’s not letting anyone tell her she can’t.

But Erica isn’t the only example of embracing more feminine interests. Max sees more of the season and Max’s relationship with Kate Bush is a key plot point. After her stepbrother’s death, she’s more or less isolated herself from her friends and now obsessively listens to Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” on her Walkman. “Running Up That Hill” is the lead single on Bush’s 1985 album Love your HoundsOne of her most beloved songs and, incidentally, one about gender differences. Kate Bush It is a popular artist, and she certainly was back in 1985 — but she still dealt with her share of misogyny, with many male music critics at the time put off by her unabashed femininity and dismissing her as a privileged young woman making pop music. Young female artists are often dismissed by male music critics (and those that young women love).

max sitting next to billy’s grave

Image courtesy of Netflix

Max finds solace in Kate Bush’s music, and while her friends are giving her space because of her own brooding, they don’t dismiss that passion of hers. And Kate Bush ends up saving her life from Vecna’s curse, the synth notes of “Running Up That Hill” snapping her out of the monster’s nightmare realm in one of the best sequences of this season. Later on, Lucas says that he’s now a mega-fan of Kate Bush because she saved Max’s life. It’s one of the few — if only — instances of a boy in the show saying he’s now into a thing one of the girls likes.

For nostalgia-fests: Stranger Things There is nothing It’s time to turn redThe show’s unapologetic embrace of every detail of girlhood joy is a highlight. There are still a lot of references to boys-tailored media. In the big scheme of things, these two small nods might get overlooked. But they’re at least Something, which is a far cry from the nothing in the show’s first two seasons. Considering there’s only two episodes left in the season, it’s unlikely that the characters will save the day by channeling the power of She-Ra or Rainbow Brite — but at least we have the irrefutable fact that Kate Bush’s music has magical power.

Stranger ThingsNetflix has season 4, part 1.

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