every time someone posts shit like “byler becoming canon wouldn’t be that significant” or “byler isn’t adequate queer representation” or “it’s not that deep” in reference to the extent of their impact i want everyone to remember that not even a month ago japan officially criminalised same sex marriage. i want everyone to remember that american legislators were just as recently debating taking similar action and i want everyone to remember that the parliament of the united kingdom has been enacting laws to erase the english trans community in its entirety. slowly but surely the most culturally and fiscally progressive countries in the world are beginning to repeal rights for queer individuals and it’s becoming increasingly more dangerous to exist as queer anywhere in this political climate so i don’t want a single person to claim that canonising byler would be anything less than monumental for us. maybe byler isn’t perfect representation and maybe stranger things isn’t a perfect show, but mainstream television rarely is, and the fact of the matter here is that the biggest show in the world— a statistic which includes countries that still criminalise homosexuality and same sex marriage— is currently setting up a developmental arc which could end in two of its pivotal main characters finding love in one another and expressing their queerness on a global stage, and that is so immensely important right now. film is an art, and art is irrevocably political— you cannot take the social politics out of stranger things. you cannot take the cultural politics out of a dynamic like byler. and you cannot deny that for what is presently the most popular and influential show in the world to so openly promote a queer relationship wouldn’t be of titanic significance— in the same way, you can’t deny that for them to strip their only central queer character of any happiness and conclude his story with the mantra that queer individuals can only find love and solace in themselves would be terrible and abusive writing, especially right now.
it’s always that deep.
