Stranger Things is the lovechild of Spielberg-esque 80’s science fiction, classic horror film tropes, and suburbia. The intersection of ideas of monsters, the strange, and the duality of the real world and the Upside Down coupled with social commentary targeted at gendered issues creates a unique perspective on how the existence and ontology of oppression is understood. The concept of a hidden world superimposed and weaved within our own, especially one containing the terrors and monstrosities of the Upside Down, calls into question what atrocities lay beyond the scope of our own perceptions.
In Stranger Things, The Upside Down is used to parallel the hidden world of the oppressed, hidden from the sight of the privileged, tangible only to those trapped within its sphere and thus able to be disregarded by those lucky enough to live outside of it. Stranger Things uses archetypal dialogue and behavior to highlight the more subtle manifestations of sexism. Initially, when Will goes missing, Joyce frantically seeks help but is disregarded and belittled by strong male characters such as Hopper and Lonnie. This phenomenon, dubbed ’ man-splaining by contemporary feminists, functions as a commentary on multiple levels. First, it begins to display the passively sexist attitudes exhibited towards females. It explicitly focuses on actions which, on the surface, appear to be innocuous in nature, but at a deeper level represent an air of superiority and an intellectual diminution of Joyce, treating her as the
hysterical woman archetype that is disturbingly ubiquitous in the horror genre. Second, this suggests the hidden nature of oppression. Felt by those who experience it, but not by those who cause it, the mechanics and deeper effects of oppression are shielded from perception, swept under the carpet to be dealt with down the line. This behavior is more deeply emphasized when Nancy finds Barb missing and is taunted by Steve and his posse. While Steve is more than happy to comfort her, he fails to treat her as an equal and recognizes her panic as rational. Instead, he sees her as overly emotional and attempts to soothe her, seeing himself as the voice of reason that Nancy needs to understand the situation fully.
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The subtlety of this intellectual oppression is precisely what makes it so insidious — to the oppressors, it’s just an everyday conversation. While Stranger Things also highlights stereotypes targeting men, stereotypes, and bias form only half of the equation for oppression. When Hopper is addressing Joyce after Will goes missing, he exudes the type of calm demeanor that seems expected from a sheriff. However, upon closer thought, this demeanor seems more akin to an alpha male than anything else. This clearly indicates that societal bias binds men as well as women.
However, this bias is a far throw from systemic oppression. The commonly heard argument, ”Men are oppressed too! Society expects them to hide their emotions,” is born of this false equation. Clark expands on the fundamental difference between bias against men, and oppression aimed at women. Men as a group may be the victims of bias, bigotry, and hate, however, they are not oppressed, because societal systems and institutions do not conspire to enforce their mistreatment on a broad scale. Actually, it is quite the contrary; institutions are often tailored to cater to the needs and desires of some kinds of men who are beneficiaries of the dominant paradigmЮ
Furthermore, there is rarely any incentive to address or confront these unearned privileges, simply because being part of the privileged class does not require or encourage the recognition of oppressive structures, and how this influences the lives of the oppressed. This specific example can even be seen multiple times in Stranger Things. These manifestations of oppression are difficult to recognize because they aren’t simply blending in with what’s considered to be normal society, they actually are normal society. Extending this idea, the ontology of the Upside Down is more than just a random place on the other side of a portal. It represents a category of existence that is hidden from our sensory perception under most circumstances but has as much claim to factual basis as the mundane world which we call real.
Descartes discusses how our perceptions play a fundamental role in our understanding of what exists. In his first meditation specifically, he points out our difficulty separating perceptual beliefs from objectively reasoned fact. Our mind’s tendency to gravitate toward the prior and ignore evidence contrary to our beliefs compounds the evasiveness of oppression. Descartes observes, “My habitual opinions keep coming back, and despite my wishes, they capture my belief, which is as it was bound over them as a result of long occupation and the law of custom. Confronting the issue of hidden oppression is far more complex than simply informing society.
Rather, it is an issue of changing the paradigm with which we approach the existence of oppression. The plot arc within Stranger Things and the almost forced ‘happy ending’ parallels society’s insufficient attitude toward combating systemic racism. The season finale uses a multitude of television tropes to create a feel-good, loose end tied up, return to normalcy type of atmosphere. On the surface, this ending already exposes our inherent biases. An ‘everything back to normal’ ending is constituted of Joyce returning to her domesticated role, serving her children dinner. Further, there are moments that expose this air of safety as an illusion. During dinner, Will stands up to go to the bathroom and coughs up an identical slug-like substance to what he coughed up in Upside Down.
While the small town was victorious against this plague of the upside down, they falsely frame the Demagorgon as the root of the dangers in Upside Down, rather than simply a manifestation of them. As a result, the Upside Down is painted over by more pragmatic beliefs. The Upside Down, as far as they’re concerned, had been fought off. After all, it’s gone now, since they can’t see, touch, hear, smell, or, unless they’re Will Byers, taste it.
Similarly, history shows our battle against systemic oppression as a constant oscillation between progress and complacency. The Daily Mail reports that psychologists have studied changes in the representation of women over the past few decades. “Changes in the activities and representation of women and men in society have unquestionably occurred since the early 1980s, [ …… however], those changes apparently have not been sufficient to alter strongly held and seemingly functional beliefs about the basic social category of gender.” (Beall). Stranger Things specifically utilizes the 80’s suburbia to highlight what may seem like anachronistic gender roles, the paragon of which is Nancy’s mother, Karen.
On the surface, it appears to be a general commentary about the nature of sexism three decades ago. However, at a deeper level, it serves to provoke our false beliefs of progress regarding breaking down gender roles; we believe we’ve come a long way since then, but in reality we’ve barely moved. While society has had marginal success in stopping some manifestations of sexism, psychologists claim that our basic understanding of social roles has remained close to unchanged. This is a reflection of the relative ease of cutting off a head of the hydra, as opposed to even seeing that we’re fighting a hydra rather than a snake. An overwhelmingly topical example is bombarding us from all sides: the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.
While our society affirmed women’s rights to participate in politics a long time ago, our unreasoned understanding of the basic social order of gender creates a knee—jerk reaction towards a female president. This is evidenced by the numerous attacks on some of Clinton’s traits, such as being hawkish, unemotional, aggressive (more often ‘bitchy’), most of which are actually admired in male candidates. Rather than focusing on one manifestation of our bias and then patting ourselves on our backs for a few years, the deconstruction of systemic oppression requires a constant effort to reshape our belief structure. The reluctance of society to delve into the ‘dark’, ‘heavy’ world of oppression compounds the issue of ending systemic gendered oppression.
In Stranger Things, the duality of the Upside Down and mundane reality gives power to the symbolism of the various gates within Stranger Things. The visualization of the primary gate within the energy facility can only be described as grotesque, eerily paralleled by the demonization of the feminist movement. It suggests that venturing into the hidden world of systemic oppression is not only avoidable, but it’s undesirable. When rationally weighed against the harms of oppression (or in the case of Stranger Things, the harms of the Demagorgon and the like), venturing inside seems like the obvious choice. However, this reasoning only takes place when the harms are obvious, such as a lack of women’s suffrage.
When the other realm is quiet, much like after the Demagorgon is slain, the gate turns into a grotesque memory, shoved away until a crisis forces its use again. The eradication of systemic sexism is doomed to failure until we address the root cause and understand our misconception of the ontology of oppression and rely on our reasoning instead of our limited perception. The use of fiction and metaphor in Stranger Things is critical to widen the effort to deconstruct inherent societal biases.
While academic journals and research have their place in precisely explaining these issues in society, as well as their causes and effects, fiction is able to circumvent our mind’s inherent biases, such as the aforementioned reluctance to engage with gendered oppression. Unfortunately, although such works can help lead the horse to water, making it drink continues to be the most difficult step on the road to eliminating oppression. The audience must engage with these works, recognize the replication of their own biases, and actively work to think outside of them.
