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REPEAT !

Explore the way that different groups of people are represented in Stranger things and D83

In ST we see countertypical representation of women (especially considering the 1980's setting) in that we see empowered, aggressive women. We see the social worker murder Benny, Eleven kills two men, and although Nancy inst aggressive , she does control the scene with her and Steve. It is an interesting subversion of stereotypes - the 1980's setting leads us to expect submissive, powerless women, but the 21st century construction transfers modern ideologies and values and empowers women. When we first meet the social worker, we view her from a high angle shot, from the point of view of Benny. This reinforces the patriarchal hegemony which tricks us into thinking that she is a typical submissive women. How ever, when she shoots Benny, she is elevated onto an equal level with the other government officials, and is even empowered through a low angle shot. This reinforced by the editing- the screen time she is given compared to the (silent and nameless) male officials is significantly greater, therefore empowering her. This shocks the audience, which is important for narrative, but the Duffer Brothers are also trying to highlight the everyday sexism in society- even though we are a modern audience, we fell into the trap of putting sexist assumptions onto the scene. 

Stranger Things Essay

In the first episode of Stranger things series 1 there are many social groups which are represented in many different ways, for instance, age is one of the main things in the entire series. But in series 1 episode 1 we first see age represented when the young group of boys are playing dungeons and dragons, this first shows that young teenagers are still childish keep wanting to play games.

When the boys are each at their houses talking over the walkie talkies age is represented well because instead of the boys doing nothing and carrying on with their lives and not entirely worrying and wanting to doing something shows real maturity within their group. In this scene there is a focus on childlike innocence with the continual use of walkie talkies instead of using a standard telephone because it was past their bedtime and they’re not allowed to be using the phone. Also to show age when the boys left their houses to go meet up and search for will, them going out at night time was a large stereotype for teenagers but a countertype for these boys themselves because they are nerds who do what they are told and listen to orders, this conveys the theme of rebelliousness. 

In this scene gender is also represented because the 3 boys, Mike, Lucas and Dustin are nerds which wouldn’t usually be out of their house and their element but because of how the show wants to show the boys as countertypes who don’t follow all the rules when their needs need to be met. Gender is also shown when the mike is leaving his house and see’s Steve trying to climb into Nancy’s room, this shows the difference with what the boys are looking for in the show; Mike looking for his friend and Steve going to a girl’s house. Mike then proceeds to put his bike away from the house with a look of disappointment on his face. This is to show that not all boys are childish and that some of them shows signs of maturity, unlike what Steve is showing while he tries to climb onto Nancy’s roof.

Gender is also represented in the next scene with Steve and Nancy, where it is show the difference with the older teenagers. The girl wanting to revise and do her study notes while the boy has he own personal wants. This represents older men in the show to be a lot more forward towards women who may want to do other things which is what it was like in the 80’s between men and women and the problems which were there. However, this is shown as a sign of immaturity because of how the older parents and men are in the show with them not being like this at all, still be respectful towards women and having knowledge of how needed they are instead of them just being objects which people in the 80’s would have seen them as.