Stranger Things - Gender Representations

Representation of males in Stranger Things 

Authority figures: 

• Scientist in first scene: 
• Fearful, threatened, exposed, 
• Hopper: 
• Lazy, alcoholic,  
• Roles of authority are subverted 
• They are always behind events 
• Children always know more than them 

Children: 

• Confident, open-minded, curious 
• Children's role is to face and get over problems, which is something the authority should be doing 

Parents: 

• Bored, passive, disinterested 
• Weak parents make children look more powerful and important 

Misogyny: 

• Many male figures are slightly misogynistic 
• In the 80s it was more acceptable- is a way of developing the scene 

Hawkin's Lab: 

• Villains, strong, mysterious 
• The adults in town have no chance against them, so it's up to the children 

How are males represented in Stranger Things? 

The males in authority, such as the scientist and Hopper, are presented to be fearful and hopeless in Season One Episode One. The producers have done this to create an unsafe environment, where the people who should be in charge have no actual power. This makes the male children look more powerful, since children usually have connotations of vulnerability and powerlessness, but the roles have switched. The male parents shown in Episode One are represented as stereotypical fathers- clumsy, uninterested and passive. This again makes the children appear more powerful when they begin to solve the problem. The secretive men in suits of Hawkin's Laboratory are the only adults with authority, which creates a sense of mystery and fear. In the 1980's, people were fearful of what foreign nations like Russia and China, and so producers play on this to make the setting more realistic. The producers also use misogyny to make the scenes fit in more with the 1980's, where sexism was rife. 

Lizbet van Zoonen 

• In patriarchal culture, women's bodies are presented differently to men's 
• Women's bodies are seen as 'spectacles' 
• Gender is performative 
• Our ideas of masculinity and femininity are constructed in our performances of these roles 
• Gender is 'what we do' rather than 'what we are' 
• Gender is contextual 
• It's meaning changes with cultural and historical contexts 

How do the Duffer Brothers establish gender representations in Stranger Things Season 1 Episode 1? 

The male adults in episode one are presented as lazy, uninterested and somewhat bored. One of the first men to be seen by the audience is Mike's father, Mr Wheeler. When Mike asks for extra playing time, his father diverts the responsibility back to his wife. The audience learn that Mr Wheeler is uninterested in family life and has no real responsibilities or concerns. The next man the audience see is Hopper, waking from a beer and cigarette induced sleep on the couch. The Duffer Brothers only reveal that he is a police officer until the audience have made their judgments: that he's a lazy slob who has very little value for his health. The creators have presented the adult males in this way to make the children look more significant, as the audience can see that the stereotypical 'hero' males are incapable of holding any responsibility.  

The male children are presented as imaginative, curious and open-minded – everything the adults aren't. The audience first see the four boys playing Dungeons and Dragons, a game which almost perfectly foreshadows events to come. In the game, they are faced with the Demogorgon an all instinctively suggest what they think they should do to get rid of it. This reflects how the children react to issues throughout the series. The Duffer Brothers utilise the imaginations of the children to allow them to resolve the crisis, which aligns with the 80's genre and films such as The Goonies and E.T. The representation of the adult men allows the representation of the children to be enhanced, since they are polar opposites. the more lazy and bored the men are, the more curious and open-minded the children appear. 

The Duffer Brothers present both the adult men and the boys as slightly misogynistic. Mr Wheeler expects his wife to do all the housework and cooking, while he sits and watches television. This aligns with the archtypal "Homer Simpson" type character-the dad who is lazy and takes no real responsibility over his family. Both Mr Wheeler and Hopper are dismissive of vital women in their lives, Mrs Wheeler and the secretary, Flo.  Mr Wheeler does not appreciate his wife's work, and Hopper is not appreciative of Flo's support. The boys alos show signs of subtle misogyny, through off-hand remarks and exclamations, such as "Goodnight ladies". The Duffer Brothers have involved misogyny to make the scenes more true to 1980's America, when sexism was rife. It could also have been done to makes the women's roles more important later on in the season. 

The Duffer Brothers present the women to be overworked and stressed, and in episode one. Both Joyce and Mrs Wheeler are mothers who have to work had to keep their families secure. Joyce is shown to be in a lower class than the Wheelers, and so she has to work more to earn enough money for her family. Mrs Wheeler as three children to care for and gets no help from her husband, and so is always shown to be doing something around the house – she is the archetypal mother figure. The Duffer Brothers present the women in this way to show their power and how the family work is left to them with little input from the fathers.  

The teenagers in Stranger Things are split into very typical groups; the jocks, the nerds, the bullies and the outcasts. The Duffer Brothers have done this create a sense of nostalgia and to draw in an older generation. One of the male teenagers, Steve, is the archetypal 'jock', who lives around sport and girls. In episode one he is seen to be a bad influence on Nancy, his girlfriend, and so the audience assume that he won't be much help when trouble arises. The other male teenagers is the complete opposite-Jonathan is quiet and mysterious, and avoids contact with people, especially the jocks. The Duffer Brothers created the character of Jonathan as the person who the audience will sympathize with or hate. This adds to the nostalgia and makes the audience feel as though they are in high school again. The creators use the male teenagers as a sort of middle-ground between the adults and the children, so that characteristics of both ages show in the two males.  

The female teenagers are presented as academic, smart and slightly rebellious. Nancy, the lover of Steve, is shown only to be obsessing over boys, and so is the archetypal high school girl. Her best friend Barb, dressed in librarian's clothes, is seen as cautious of Steve, and prefers to obsess over grades than boys. Barb is the generic best-friend character, who is caring and only wants the best for Nancy. The Duffer Brothers have used the teenagers to create a sense of normality – high school is something everyone goes through and the use of different characters shows the different view-points of its.  

Overall, the Duffer Brothers have created archetypal representations of the characters in episode one to create a sense of nostalgia and normal life. Nostalgia marketing helps to bring in a larger audience and therefore more views and money. The creators use the characters speech and clothes as a way of presenting them in certain ways, linking every feature to the 80s genre. Some intertextuality is used to add nostalgia and to make the series unique to any other shows.