Stranger Things - Writing Queer Characters
Stranger things part 5 spoilers … kinda
I found Will’s coming out scene in Stranger Things to be one of the best pieces of television I had seen in a while. Importantly, it was one of the best pieces of queer representation in television I’ve seen in a while. It pains me to see people tweeting that it was forced or part of the Duffer Brothers’ woke agenda when this is a perfect example of how to do representation in storytelling (with ensemble casts).
Say they went in another direction and made Will a ‘queer character’, as I like to term it: a walking stereotype, flamboyantly dressed and dropping sassy one-liners at every opportunity. Think Jack McFarland or Kurt Hummel from early Glee. The issue I find with these characters is they are only skin deep. They don’t have experiences, fears, emotions or stories, their whole character is defined by their otherness.
Or they could have made Will ‘a character who happened to be queer’, someone who is treated completely normally, written with a well-fleshed-out story, who just happens to be queer – often with the audience being informed of this outside of the show itself. The worst example of this may have been J.K. Rowling saying Dumbledore was gay after the release of the last book. And while I can see the merit in some of these, with authors trying to normalise queer characters, they often fail to capture the true life experiences of people dealing with otherness, as well as the stigma and fear that many queer people still face.
So what the Duffer Brothers did, and what I want to commend them for, is making Will a ‘character who is queer’. He is queer, and they have made him that way since season 1, but that doesn’t define his character. He has done so much in the show not related to his queerness, but at the same time, they haven’t shied away from exploring what it means to be gay in 1980s America. His unrequited love for Mike, his relationship with Robyn, his fear of losing his friends, his coming out. All powerful story beats that would ultimately be lost from his character if they were cut.
Stranger Things has set a high bar for queer storytelling – embracing the full complexity of queer characters not only enriches the narrative, but also asks the audience to see the world through new eyes. Perhaps it is precisely this authenticity that has generated backlash from some viewers, uncomfortable with stories that reflect real queer experiences rather than simple stereotypes or token mentions. Yet by refusing to shy away from honest representation, Stranger Things challenges both its audience and the wider media landscape to move past tired debates over “woke agendas,” and instead seek understanding, empathy, and truth in the stories we tell.