Reconstructing the '80s Man: Nostalgic Masculinities in Stranger Things

Abstract

Stranger Things capitalizes on a recent revival of 80s pop culture, recycling aesthetics and cultural references of this bygone era. Looking backwards, however, provides opportunities for critical reflection, which Stranger Things demonstrates in its interrogation of traditional gender ideals. Netflix’s hit show revises the hard-headed, hard-bodied 80s man embodied by cultural icons like the Terminator and Rambo. It instead champions the father figure and the nerd, as represented by Chief Jim Hopper and the young boys Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, who reject macho individualism and instead celebrate collaboration with females, paving pathways for feminist heroes.

In contradistinction to reactionary politics of the Reagan era, Stranger Things thus applies a nostalgic approach to masculinity, hybridizing past masculine archetypes with contemporary feminist values. This “nostalgic masculinity” allows men with decidedly non-athletic “dad-bods” and young, unpopular nerds to become protagonists. Their admiration of women like Joyce Byers and Eleven delineate the heroes from the villains. In the case of the show’s gender representation, where conformity fails, stranger things prevail.

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Reconstructing the ’80s Man: Nostalgic
Masculinities in Stranger Things
Feb 26, 2019 | Television, Volume 31
Amy S. Li
Abstract:
Abstract: Stranger Thingscapitalizes on a recent revival of 80s pop culture, recycling aesthetics
and cultural references of this bygone era. Looking backwards, however, provides
opportunities for critical reection, which Stranger Thingsdemonstrates in its interrogation of
traditional gender ideals. Netix’s hit show revises the hard-headed, hard-bodied 80s man
embodied by cultural icons like the Terminator and Rambo. It instead champions the father
gure and the nerd, as represented by Chief Jim Hopper and the young boys Mike, Dustin, and
Lucas, who reject macho individualism and instead celebrate collaboration with females,
paving pathways for feminist heroes.
In contradistinction to reactionary politics of the Reagan era, Stranger Thingsthusapplies a
nostalgic approach to masculinity, hybridizing past masculine archetypes with contemporary
feminist values. This “nostalgic masculinity” allows men with decidedly non-athletic “dad-bods”
and young, unpopular nerds to become protagonists. Their admiration of women like Joyce
Byers and Eleven delineate the heroes from the villains. In the case of the show’s gender
representation, where conformity fails, stranger things prevail.
Introduction

“That’s what I love about you. You punch back” (2.03). In this quiet moment of dialogue
fromStranger Things(Netix 2016-present), Bob “the Brain” Newby (Sean Astin) tells Joyce Byers
(Winona Ryder) that he has always admired her ghting spirit. He confesses that he doesn’t quite
know what to do around Joyce, because he likes her so much—and not only her, but her family
too, the wonderful sons she has raised. Bob admits that he “was never really one to put up a
ght,” unlike Joyce. Like Joyce’s youngest son, Will (Noah Schnapp), Bob struggled with bullies as a
kid, possessing neither the physical nor mental strength to resist their intimidating tactics. His
past has not limited his happiness, however, nor his success in life. After conding in Joyce, his
face brightens as he proclaims, “But hey. Look at me now: I get to date Joyce Byers. Ha!” (2.03).
Both Joyce and Bob are heartened by this exchange, and the moment becomes an origin point in
Bob’s evolution into a heroic gure.
Figure 1: Bob solves the mystery of Will’s drawings (2.05). Copyright: Netix.
This scene exemplies an important dynamic inStranger Things: heroism that is predicated not
only on the male characters’ own actions, but also on their recognition of the strong women that
help them achieve protagonist status. In contradistinction to reactionary politics of the Reagan
era,Stranger Thingstakes a revisionist (or nostalgic) approach to the 1980s. The show takes
inspiration from cultural icons of past cinema but demonstrates that modern masculinity need
not be threatened by women, because a proper appreciation for feminine strengths allows men
with decidedly non-athletic “dad-bods” like Hopper (David Harbour) and young, non-jock,
unpopular nerds like Mike(Finn Wolfhard), Dustin(Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas(Caleb
McLaughlin)to be protagonists. In fact,Stranger Thingsdelineates its heroes from the villains in
part by presenting male protagonists’ willingness to revise their opinions about women, and their
admiration contributes to their own character development.
This subversion of the 1980s “man” rehabilitates the father gure and the nerd, who both reject
macho individualism and instead celebrate collaboration with females, valuing feminine traits
such as sensitivity and vulnerability. Because of the show’s “badass” women, as actor David
Harbour (Chief Hopper) comments, the male characters are allowed to explore more complex

masculinities than the narrow-minded 1980s archetype. By unlinking heroism from the
hypermasculine “hard body” that permeated action lms and political rhetoric of the era, the
show constructs a more feminist approach to gender representation.Stranger Thingsconcludes
that masculine strength stems not from separating males from females, but from building
productive coalitions between the two. Consequently, the expansion of gender roles for female
characters like Joyce and Eleven accommodates and even benets male character growth
inStranger Things: Hopper becomes a positive father gure and the boys partner up with their
“crazy” superpowered friend to fulll their Dungeons & Dragons dream of defeating the monster
and getting the girl.Stranger Thingsthus constructs models of what I call “nostalgic masculinity,”
which hybridize past masculine ideals with more contemporary approaches to gender
representation, revising the wrongs of past gender ideals and builds pathways for feminist
heroes.
Leading Men: Embodying Nostalgic Masculinity
Nostalgia is a longing for the past—a bygone feeling, time, or place—that often entails
romanticization; looking backwards also provides opportunities for critical reection, however,
whichStranger Thingsdemonstrates with regard to 1980s gender ideals. Although some scholars
lament nostalgia as a “retreat into a private, apolitical space,” others like Jilly Boyce Kay, Cat
Mahoney, and Caitlin Shaw suggest that nostalgia might also hold progressive potential (Becker
242). WhileStranger Thingscapitalizes on the aesthetics and cultural references of the 1980s, the
show indicates changing opinions of feminism through its portrayals of masculinity. This nostalgic
masculinity rejects an anti-woman stance and instead encourages male admiration of strong
women.
The male character who most embodiesStranger Things’nostalgic masculinity is Police Chief Jim
Hopper, who oers a revision of the cold, individualistic, militaristic, and macho leading men of
the 1980s.As Harbour commented at a panel during the Phoenix Comicon Fanfest, strong female
characters allow for more complex male characters, who simultaneously recall but resist the
masculine “leading man of the seventies and eighties” like Indiana Jones and Han Solo. Hopper
indeed possesses some of the gru, individualistic mannerisms of such action heroes, but he
signicantly diers from the masculine ideal of the 1980s. Susan Jeords calls this archetype the
hard-bodied, hard-headed male, a mythical gure that bolstered Reagan’s public image and harsh
foreign policies (13).Stranger Thingsinvokes yet revises this prototype of the militant and macho
male protagonist, thus decoupling masculinity from the anti-feminist men’s movement and
instead nostalgically constructing a feminist leading man for contemporary times.
Robert Bly’s book,Iron John: A Book About Men, provides the basis for Jeords’ cultural history of
masculine ideals that culminated in the 1980s hard body. Bly was a leader of the mythopoetic
men’s movement, which sought to take back masculine strength from a society that had recently
undergone eects of second-wave feminism. Believers of this men’s movement argued that too
much interaction with women prohibited males from realizing their true masculinity. Bly traced
the so-called decline of man, writing that the “fties male” was a model of work eciency and
responsibility, a family man who valued discipline and aggressiveness. The “sixties male” was,
however, a product of the women’s movement and the Vietnam War, who advocated for
nonviolence and sought to “learn about the ‘feminine side’ within him and to treat women

dierently” (Jeords 6). Bly admits that this man was more thoughtful and less isolated than the
fties male but he criticizes the sixties male for wasting energy in pleasing the women in his life,
thus leading to the “soft” seventies male, who was nurturing but lacked vigor in both domestic
and foreign aairs. Men had become divorced from one another in the workplace and at home,
forced to separate themselves from fathers in favor of their mothers.
The Reagan Revolution (1980-1988), during whichStranger Thingsis set, oered a model of
masculinity that was dened against the “soft” feminine seventies man, represented by the
former president Jimmy Carter, who solicited advice from women like his wife, Rosalyn Carter. The
80s hard-bodied ideal was promoted by male Hollywood archetypes like the Terminator (Arnold
Schwarzenegger) and Rambo (Sylvester Stallone). These men embodied hypermasculinity—
visually signaled by muscular, bodybuilder physiques—and often resorted to violent means to
fend o foreign attacks. These actions were presented as heroic acts of individualism and
machismo. While the hard body was only one model of masculine comportment, this archetype
soon became the hegemonic ideal, especially in mainstream science-ction cinema.
Stranger Things’construction of Hopper recalls but does not reproduce these archetypes. Like the
hard bodied-male, Hopper’s character initially seems unemotional, and he occasionally uses
violent force to get the results he needs. Although he attempts to rst talk his way out of
situations, he punches the corrupt state ocial who faked Will’s death report, and also knocks out
the men when he breaks into Hawkins Laboratory. Hopper’s rst scene shows him as a lone
gure, and as per masculine standards for leading men of the era, he remains stoically silent as
he performs basic tasks and dons his police uniform. Before he departs for work, he grabs his hat,
which throughout the series becomes a sign that connects him to the seventies masculine gure,
Indiana Jones. Preferring to work alone in the rst half of Season One, Hopper summons
comparisons to the aforementioned action hero (roguishly portrayed by Harrison Ford) as well as
the iconic vigilante cop of the era, Dirty Harry (played by Clint Eastwood). As Hopper’s
characterization attests, these models of individualistic heroism left legacies that lingered into the
1980s and later decades of cinema.
On the other hand, Chief Hopper’s body—and thereby personality—literally exceeds the bounds
of the 1980s hard-bodied model and other masculine archetypes that dened previous eras.
Hopper is seen shirtless in the same introductory scene, but the body he displays is decidedly un-
Schwarzenegger-like. A beer belly extends over the waistband of his white underwear, revealed by
unbuttoned jeans. His predilection for smoking makes him appear not as invincible, like the suave
leading men of lm noir, but anxious: another sign of the unhealthy habits he has developed over
time. This introduction to Hopper thus shows that the police chief embodies some but not all
aspects of the decades’ archetypes. Through his characterization,Stranger Thingssuggests that
masculinity lies somewhere beyond the narrow and binaristic denitions that led to the
construction of the 1980s man.
It is in fact by virtue of his failure to embody the hard-bodied ideal that Hopper develops into a
fully-edged protagonist. David Harbour has commented that one aspect he loves most about
Hopper is that he’s more “beat up” than Indiana Jones and Han Solo (Phoenix Comicon Fanfest).
He references the fact that Hopper must “take medication for depression” and struggles with
parenthood. Harbour concludes that Hopper is “very masculine in a certain way, but […] deeply

sensitive as well” (Phoenix Comicon Fanfest). To him, what makes the police chief a compelling
leading man is not hard-headedness, but instead his emotional vulnerability. These very qualities,
which make Hopper’s characterization antithetical to the masculine hard-body ideal, form an
essential part ofStranger Things’ nostalgic masculinity.
Hopper thus ushers in a uniquely contemporary ideal of the leading man who is a nurturing
father gure, as represented by his “dad-bod.” Ina 2017 tweet from Merriam-Webster’s Twitter
account, the dictionary presents the recently-coined term “dad-bod” alongside a GIF of Hopper as
visual example of this body type. “Dad-bod” refers to a male body type that lies somewhere
between muscular and slightly overweight, thus a cross between the supposed “hard bodies” and
“soft bodies” of the eighties and seventies respectively. The dad-bod speaks to changing
expectations of the patriarchal gure and suggests that the less-muscular man cares more about
others’ wellbeing than his own physical appearance. Where the man with a dad-bod lacks in
athletic physique, he makes up for in compassion, and this sensitive side becomes a masculine
strength. InStranger Things, dad-bodded Hopper rises to the occasion where other male
characters have callously fallen short.
Figure 2: Hopper’s ‘dad bod’ (1.01). Copyright: Netix.
Hopper’s example of a paternal, but not paternalistic, masculinity starkly contrasts failed father
gures such as Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine). In contrast to Hopper’s sensitivity,
Brenner’s actions t the hard-headed model of the Reagan Revolution, taking a hard line against
foreign threat and invasion. The experiments at Hawkins Laboratory—a continuation of Project
MKUltra—are justied as measures against the shadowy Russian menace during the Cold War-
era. In taking up austere measures against this perceived danger, however, Dr. Brenner fails his
parental responsibilities. Instead of being a proud and protective father gure to Eleven, who calls
him Papa, he is instead a prideful and manipulative patriarch who exploits the young female’s
abilities for his own needs. Brenner’s relationship to Eleven is devoid of empathy or aection. She
is instead perceived of as property, a tool to be used against foreign invasion. His lack of
emotional intelligence comes to be his ironic downfall, as he pushes Eleven past a breaking point,

and he dies at the hands of the monster he has unwittingly unleashed through such unfeeling
ignorance.
Hopper contrastingly becomes a heroic gure because he embraces the type sensitivity that men
like Brenner lack; moreover, Hopper aligns himself with the show’s powerful matriarch, Joyce,
whose supernaturally-strong emotional awareness drives his own character development. In
contrast to Lonnie Byers (Ross Partridge), another failed father gure who attempts to convince
Joyce of her insanity, Hopper admits that he was wrong to have dismissed Joyce’s concerns on the
basis of perceived hysteria. In the fourth episode of Season One, “The Body,” Hopper discovers
that Will’s body in the morgue is in fact a fake, as Joyce had passionately proclaimed. After this
investigation causes his home to be bugged by the government operatives of Hawkins Laboratory,
Hopper tells Joyce: “You were right. This whole time, you were right” (1.05). Joyce’s persistence
once seemed a sign of insanity in a woman gone mad with grief. Now though, Hopper realizes the
positive nature of Joyce’s toughness. When he begins to properly accept her insights, her maternal
sensibilities become a valuable source of help.
For Hopper to admit his mistake in judgment constitutes not a fall from grace, but rather an
important moment of character growth. His example of masculinity thus refutes male anxieties
that seeking help from women would make men less courageous. In fact, teaming up with Joyce
allows Hopper to uncover the truth of Hawkins Laboratory and ultimately save Will from the
Upside Down. Hopper’s willingness to listen to Joyce subverts normative gender roles, and
juxtaposing this behavior against those of Brenner and Lonnie further proves that the failed
father gure results not from women rising to power, but is instead due to a lack of compassion
in men. The form of masculinity promoted by Hopper andStranger Thingsis subsequently
nostalgic in nature, because it borrows from past cultural images of masculine heroism but
signicantly revises them to reect the lessons learned from contemporary culture, media, and
politics. Hopper’s character is not an invincible patriarch like the popular image of Ronald Reagan
or other hard-headed and hard bodied-men. The man of action is therefore not synonymous with
an authoritarian, militaristic man who dominates his woman and country.
The masculine model that Hopper embodies recognizes the value of emotions, even though
emotionality is traditionally associated with femininity. A masculinity that embraces sensitivity
or emotional vulnerability makes gender subversion possible, because it suggests that such
character traits are not innate nor exclusive to any one gender. Harbour says that he loves playing
“guys [like Hopper] that are very broken men on the surface,” and he explicitly connects this
positive vulnerability to the show’s strong female characters: “What’s really interesting about this
show, I have to say…is that I think that the women characters on the show are so badass”
(Phoenix Comicon Fanfest). He explains that because the women are action heroines in their own
right, it allows like characters like Hopper “to be as masculine as we want” (Phoenix Comicon
Fanfest). A key component of Hopper’s masculinity is thus his acceptance of female strength, an
acknowledgment that allows him to be unthreatened by these women. When the males are no
longer required to act on their own, the show opens up space for masculinity to incorporate
vulnerability—or “softness”—without making the male characters seem weak. As Joyce tells
Jonathan: “This is not yours to x alone. You act like you’re all alone out there in the world, but
you’re not: you’re not alone” (1.07).Stranger Thingsproves the possibility of having both leading
men and leading ladies, who work together to perform heroic deeds.
[1]
[2]

Revenge of the Nerds: Nerd Heroism and Science Fiction Legacy
Nowhere is this sense of comradery more apparent than in the bond between Mike, Dustin,
Lucas, and Eleven. The nostalgia ofStranger Thingsallows for a revisionist portrayal of not only the
father gure, but also celebrates other mists who fall outside the male “hard body” paradigm.
Firstly, the show’s rejection of 1980s hypermasculine ideals allows nerds to become viable male
protagonists, incorporating this once-belittled identity into its portrayal of nostalgic masculinity.
The boys attain leading male-status by virtue of their admiration for extraordinary heroines like
Eleven, who is reminiscent of cult science ction icons like Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).
Although Eleven recalls Ripley’s androgynous appearance, her interactions with the boys also
illuminate the diculties of attaining heroine status as a young girl. “El” is forced to learn
traditional gender comportment in order to t in, before she can nally come into her own
powers. Her ability to alter the performance of material objects, like compasses, initially causes
apprehension in some of the boys; but, as they learn to accept Eleven, their superhero fantasies
come to life in their quest to save Will and defeat the monster. Mike and El even fall in love, a plot
decision that validates both nerdy males and unconventional females.
Although traditional male ideals would typically relegate theStranger Thingsboys to the margins,
the show rehabilitates their mist status in its reformation of masculinity. In the rst episode of
Season One— “The Vanishing of Will Byers”—we witness the three boys being bullied at the
schoolyard. Their antagonists call them a “freakshow” and individually name them “Frogface”
(Mike), “Midnight,” (Lucas, in reference to his skin color), and “Toothless” (Dustin, due to his
cleidocranial dysplasia). The boys are treated by their classmates as outcasts, and thus become
victims of abuse because of their apparent weakness in contrast to their male peers.
The show quickly establishes the boys’ strong friendship as a strength, however, and their
compassion for each other and passion for comic book superheroes set them apart from their
antagonists. Though they are low on the middle school hierarchy, Mike reassures Dustin that he is
like Mister Fantastic: that his malleable body makes him special in a good way. His non-normative
embodiment fails to match the hypermasculine model of a “hard” body, but the boys do not
subscribe to this narrow depiction of male heroes. Their idols are instead intelligent mutants like
Mister Fantastic, who not only possess non-normative embodiment but also extraordinary
intelligence.Stranger Thingsvalidates his nerdy personality and his insatiable curiosity for highly
specic interests like X-Men comics and A.V. Club: interests that consequently bond the group
together.
This aspect of the boys’ masculinity initially seems to actualize a tenet of the mythopoetic men’s
movement, which was a glorication of masculinity through male bonding. On the other hand,
this men’s movement, argued that celebrating masculinity was only possible in all-male
spaces;Stranger Thingsrejects this hypothesis, demonstrating that the boys are stronger for
having accepted Eleven into their group. Although they—especially the rational-minded Lucas—
initially blame Eleven for using her powers against them, they realize that she only does so for
their protection. When she returns to save Mike and Dustin from school bullies, Dustin gleefully
shouts that she’s their friend, “and she’s crazy!” (1.06). Eleven protects the boys from other, more
toxic, males.

Lucas assumes that her presence in the party makes them weak; it is when he is forced to
reconsider his position, however, that the group full solidies. His eventual acceptance of Eleven’s
position in the group drives his character development in Season One. Lucas apologizes to Eleven
and accepts Mike’s apology in turn, allowing the group to work in harmony to rescue Will. Rather
than attempting to exploit Eleven’s abilities like Brenner did, the boys gain access to her powers
through accepting her as a true friend. This approach proves more sustainable than the
authoritarian method.
Where the show revises masculinity,Stranger Thingsalso reboots and updates the female heroine,
building on an existing legacy of feminist characters. Ultimately, the boys are primed to accept
Eleven because of their appreciation for characters like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men—directly
referenced in the show—and other countercultural gures in 1980s science ction like Ellen
Ripley, who challenge normative assumptions about identity and embodiment. As a Ripley-like
gure, Eleven contributes to the show’s subversion of gender ideals.
Amid science ction’s simultaneous prescription of “hard bodies” for male characters of 1980s
cinema,Stranger Things’veiled allusions toAlien (Scott, 1979) guide the show’s interventions
into traditional representations of gender. Ripley inaugurated a female archetype known as the
action heroine, a “transgressive character” who opens up discussions “about the uidity of
gendered identities and changing popular cinematic representations of women” (Hills 38). Such
heroines “confound binaristic logic in a number of ways, for they access a range of emotions,
skills, and abilities which have traditionally been dened as either ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’” (38).
Ripley’s androgyny challenged the dominance of male heroism at the same time that it
destabilized limiting representations of femininity. Like Hopper, she dees dichotomous
archetypes prescribed on the basis of gender.
Ripley’s lean body is an ironic take on the “hard body,” because while she is muscular, she does
not typify the macho mentality that the 80s male archetype endorses. On the one hand, she
resists the emotional hysterics represented by theNostromo’s other female member, Joan
Lambert (Veronica Cartwright). Then again, her situational awareness exceeds that of the macho
men who work alongside her, as demonstrated inAliens(Cameron, 1986), where Ripley’s maternal
qualities and emotional awareness become tools that allow her to save Rebecca “Newt” Jordan
(Carrie Henn).Her determination to save the orphaned girl from the Xenomorph queen— “Get
away from her, you bitch!”—proves that courage is not exclusive to male heroes, and that
emotional investment in other humans’ wellbeing trumps macho individualism.
While Joyce Byers inherits Ripley’s maternal erceness, Eleven isStranger Things’ action
heroinepar excellence. Like Ripley, she is not “simpering,” and her androgynous appearance dees
normative assumptions of feminine presentation (Bell-Metereau 210). One of the boys’ bullies
calls Eleven a “freak” who “doesn’t even look like a girl,” but she proves that her lack of traditional
femininity proves no hindrance to heroism (1.07). Although society around her prescribes narrow
criteria for girlhood, Eleven eventually exerts agency over her gender performance, helping the
people around her to also achieve heroic deeds.
[3]
[4]
[5]

Figure 3: Eleven saving the world (2.09). Copyright: Netix.
UnlikeAlien,Stranger Things’multiple episodes and Eleven’s youth allow the show to explore her
process of developing into a subversive action heroine; specically, her adventures with the boys
help illuminate that gender is a performance of norms. Part of Eleven’s
femalebildungsromanentails learning the trappings of gender before she can consciously reject
them, her growth into her powers coinciding with her passage through girlhood. The boys are
shocked when Eleven fails to understand “proper” gender conduct, as she attempts to strip o her
tee-shirt in full view of them. She is divested of her naivete, forced to realize that she is dierent
from the boys by virtue of her sex. The boys, already aware of such gender standards, at rst call
her “mental” (1.02). They later teach her how to look like a girl, dressing Eleven up in Nancy’s
rued pink dress and blonde wig to sneak her into Hawkins Middle School. These clothes fail to
dene her, however, as both the boys and the television audience see through this outward
appearance for what it is: a mere performance of normative gender.
The boys learn to see past her sex and appreciate her all the more for her strangeness: in fact,
Eleven’s androgynous look soon becomes synonymous with her heroism. Mike rst calls her
“pretty” when she puts on the pink dress and blonde wig. When, in the process of saving Mike, she
returns without the wig, Mike nevertheless remains enchanted by her. He and the other boys
come to realize that, even though Eleven continues to wear the dress throughout Season One,
she is not dened by her clothing: she is instead marked by the extraordinary skills that she
possesses, and her willingness to use those powers to help their friends and family. In the end,
the bullies get their comeuppance, and the party vanquishes the alien threat. Where conformity
fails, stranger things prevail.
Critiques and Concluding Thoughts
Stranger Thingsprovides a reinterpretation of masculinity by rejecting the 1980s “hard body” and
instead establishing a nostalgic masculinity that embraces tough female characters and male
sensitivity.The show does not entirely revolutionize gender relations, however, especially with
regard to the relationships between female characters inStranger Things.Championing nostalgic

masculinity and exploring the young boys’ homosocial bonds often comes at the expense of
femininity and female friendships, causingStranger Thingsto mostly fail the Bechdel Test. The
female characters rarely have moments alone with each other, and all of the women’s character
arcs involve being a male character’s romantic interest. Scenes like those between Joyce and
Eleven in the Season One nale are far and few between, despite being among the most
emotionally moving and compelling moments. Other interactions end all too soon: for example,
recall the quick “fridging” of Barb, who is the only female friend of Nancy’s that the show
features.Stranger Thingsrequires Barb to be a sacricial lamb to the story’s advancement. The
show’s lack of emphasis on female bonding even pits females against each other, as is the case of
Maxine “MADMAX” Mayeld (Sadie Sink) versus Eleven in Season Two. Despite their possible
similarities, Eleven sees Max as a romantic rival. Mike further excludes Max because Eleven
seems to be the only exception he is willing to make, in terms of new party members (especially
ones who are girls). Subsequently, Eleven’s dislike of Max demonstrates that despite being an
action heroine, her characterization still falls within heteronormative narratives that divide
females against one other because of a male character.
Although the show fails to oer up a signicant female friendship between Eleven and Max,
Eleven’s newly-discovered sister Kali (Linnea Berthelsen)provides a unique opportunity to further
interrogate gender norms in future seasons.While many critics and audience members cite the
seventh episode as Season Two’s weak point, I nd Kali interesting for the show’s development in
several ways. Where Eleven only taps into her rage in desperate occasions, Kali presents a female
gure still coping with the aftermath of her trauma, and her anger lends complexity to Kali’s
character arc. Highlighting such complex female characters—who at times fail and learn from
their mistakes, like the men of the show—could yield radical feminist potential.
In its second season, the show has continued to challenge gender norms with regard to
masculinity.Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) represents a transformation from toxic masculinity to
another type altogether, unique from the masculine archetypes that I have discussed in the scope
of this essay. Although he diverges from Hopper’s dad-bod image and the boys’ nostalgic nerd
masculinity, Steve proves that even a popular jock can reject the rigidity of traditional gender
roles. Steve’s development into babysitter-extraordinaire challenges normative gender roles in
which women are the primary caretakers. Steve is not presented as feminine for having taken on
this responsibility; rather, his protectiveness over the kids and ensuing actions make him a hero.
In combination with Hopper’s budding relationship with Eleven and Jonathan’s protectiveness
over Will, Steve’s adventures in babysitting demonstrate the importance of dismantling traditional
gender roles for the betterment of both genders. Sharing in the task of kinship benets everyone
involved, and the relationships that ensue provide intriguing avenues for the show to explore.
As Hopper tells Eleven in Season Two, “Nothing is gonna go back to the way that it was” (2.02).
Although part of nostalgia’s appeal lies in escaping to bygone days,Stranger Thingsproves that
successful stories can revisit the past to revise their shortcomings. This logic applies not only to
the ctional characters of Hawkins, who readily admit when they’ve been wrong, but also to
cultural formations and critiques of existing power systems. To paraphrase Jonathan Byers: “You
shouldn’t follow traditions just because people tell you you’re supposed to.” Looking ahead, I hope
thatStranger Things’future seasons continue to provide new and interesting—or perhaps strange
and subversive—approaches to gender.
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Works Cited
Aliens. Directed by James Cameron, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1986.
Becker, Tobias. “The Meanings of Nostalgia: Genealogy and Critique.”History and Theory, vol. 57,
no. 2, 2018, pp. 234–250.
Bell-Metereau, Rebecca.Hollywood Androgyny. Columbia University Press, 1985.
Hills, Elizabeth. “From ‘Figurative Males’ to Action Heroines: Further Thoughts on Active Women in
the Cinema.”Screen, vol. 40, no. 1, 1999, pp. 38–50.
“In ‘Dad Bod,’ the Word ‘Dad’ Is Technically Still a Noun. ‘Daddest Bod,’ However, Would Make It an
Adjective.https://t.co/m7CyzRLgnHpic.twitter.com/2LnmL1SBnT.”Twitter, Merriam-Webster, 8
December 2017,www.twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/938976554889170946.
Irigaray, Luce.The Sex Which Is Not One. Translated by Catherine Porter and Carolyn Burke, Cornell
University Press, 1985.
Jeords, Susan.Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era. Rutgers University Press,
1994.
—. “‘The Battle of the Big Mamas’: Feminism and the Alienation of Women.”The Journal of
American Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, 1987, pp. 73–84.
Lutz, Catherine. “Emotions and Feminist Theories.”Querelles: Jahrbuch für Frauenforschung, edited
by Ingrid Kasten, Gesa Stedman, & Margarete Zimmermann, J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 2002, pp. 104-
121.
“Stranger Things Millie Bobby Brown & David Harbour Panel Phoenix Comicon Fanfest.” Filmed by
Nai Wang,YouTube, YouTube, 22 Oct. 2016,www.youtube.com/watch?v=78vX75XiGbA.
Stranger Things.Created by Matt and Ross Duer, Netix, 2016-present.
Biographical Note:
Amy S. Li is currently a doctoral candidate in English at Emory University. She holds an M.A.
from Emory University in English, as well as a B.A. in English and a B.A. in Feminist, Gender, &
Sexuality Studies from Cornell University. Her research focuses on representations of
embodiment in science ction literature and media, including specic emphases on gender,
disability, and race/ethnicity. Her dissertation project analyzes the connections between
science, monstrosity, feminism, and disability studies in such works as Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein, William Gibson’s cyberpunk short stories, and science ction media such as
Orphan Black, Ex Machinaand Black Mirror.
Ancient Greeks believed “hysteria” to be the result of a wandering womb, and therefore classed
hysteria as an inherently female condition. Feminist theorist Luce Irigaray writes that in the
psychoanalytic tradition, hysteria was often located in women’s bodies, even though Freud did not
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diagnose it as a pathology exclusive to females. Nevertheless, Irigaray argues that hysterical
symptoms communicate that which cannot be spoken. Ineability was the situation of females
under conditions of patriarchy: to be female was to be unable to speak, because patriarchal
society refused to listen to women properly. Therefore, hysterical symptoms might be a way of
“speaking (as) woman” (137). Hopper initially mistakes Joyce’s emotionally-driven search for Will’s
real body as a hysterical reaction. Subsequently, both when he and Jonathan agree that Joyce is
“tough,” their admiration for the Byers matriarch is undercut by their perception of her as crazy.
As Catherine Lutz writes in “Emotions and Feminist Theories,” women have long been assumed
to be the “emotional gender” and emotion has “generally been pathologized” (107). She notes,
however, that feminist scholars like Alison Jaggar have described emotion instead as an
“epistemic resource,” a tool that allows its possessors to develop more critical perspectives on the
world (110).
Although the show unquestioningly celebrates Eleven’s extraordinary abilities, her status as a
strong female character does become slightly problematic when we consider the source of those
powers: Dr. Brenner. Eleven’s superhuman abilities result from experiments over which she could
not express consent and which caused her considerable pain. Each use of her abilities causes her
to bleed from the nose and grow physically weak, susceptible to the “bad men” like Brenner.
Furthermore, to access the Upside-Down she must recreate the circumstances of her captivity,
deprived of her ordinary senses in a water tank. AlthoughStranger Thingsfocuses on Eleven’s
strength, the show’s plot seems to simultaneously demand Eleven’s periodical return to a place of
trauma. Despite the problematic origin of her abilities, however, Eleven nevertheless refuses to let
victimhood dene her or prevent her from performing great deeds.
The dark and eerily blue-lit Upside Down carries strong resonances of the Xenomorphs’
cavernous lair explored by the crew of theNostromo. This reference toAlienis even more obvious
in the nale of Season 1 when Hopper and Joyce enter the Upside Down. They look remarkably
like the spacesuit-cladNostromoteam, as the duo walks in Hazmat suits with faces lit beneath
their helmets. Hopper sees a large egg, already hatched and adhered to the ground of the Upside
Down, like the colony of eggs inAlien.
Rebecca Bell-Metereau champions Ripley as “a prototype for a new female lead…because she is
not stunning, stunned, or simpering” (210).
Also known as the Bechdel-Wallace test (credited by Alison Bechdel to her friend Liz Wallace),
this criteria for ctional representations of women asks whether or not a work includes more than
one female character, and if so, whether or not those women speak to each other about a subject
other than men.Stranger Thingsalso fails a similar media test known as the Mako Mori test, which
requires a work to include at least one female character, who has her own narrative arc that is not
about supporting a male character’s story.
Like Eleven, Max is tomboy-ish and possesses skills that the boys nd extraordinary (her
prociency at Dig Dug). A further point of similarity between the two girls are the abusive father
gures in their lives: Dr. Brenner and Neil Hargrove.
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