when anyone begrudges adam his pride i really have to wonder if they have any idea what adam has been through? because abuse is fucking humiliating. it is degrading and dehumanizing and it takes and it takes and it takes until all you have left is this voice in your head saying the people who are biologically inclined to love you think you are a worthless piece of shit, so who are you to think any better of yourself?
sometimes abuse means groveling and begging and pleading for forgiveness for things that you didn’t do, or that you don’t understand the cause of. sometimes abuse means being told that you aren’t wanted over and over until you internalize that. none of that leaves room for pride, for dignity.
adam’s pride is all he has and he probably clings to it so strongly outside of his family home in part because he doesn’t get to have it inside. he doesn’t get to have dignity or humanity or pride when his father is near him in that house. he needs to have control over his situation with gansey and ronan; he needs to put up those boundaries; he needs to know that he can make it without them. leave the kid alone, honestly.
i think a huge part of the problem here is that child stars generally perform in shows for children, and they’re styled as children, and they do interviews that are meant to be read and viewed by children. and stranger things is not a children’s television show. it’s hardly even “family entertainment.” it certainly has a kind of broad, all-ages appeal, but netflix is running the machine like any other prestige television series. and that means instead of wearing converse high tops to the teen choice awards and filming bumpers for the disney channel, these kids are walking down the red carpet at the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards in gucci and prada, and doing sit-down cover interviews for variety and the hollywood reporter. those are all very Adult Spaces, and it’s in netflix’s financial interest to maintain access to those Adult Spaces so as to solidify stranger things’ cultural standing as Prestige Television. which means packaging the kids as sophisticated and stylish little adults in all public appearances. like, compare this picture of the stars of disney’s andi mack at a film premiere to a picture of the stranger things kids at their own premiere:
the above picture is plainly kids in kids’ formalwear – bright colours, fun patterns, a t-shirt under a too-big blazer – whereas the stranger things’ kids outfits are functionally indistinguishable from something an adult might wear to a red carpet event. like, they just aren’t letting these kids be kids – which has especially dire consequences for the girls involved, as they’re being sexualized to a high degree. obviously, this is affecting the boys in the cast, too – 14-year-old finn wolfhard is having to deal with adult women saying, “call me in four years” and then having both that comment and his own reaction to it broadcast in the international press. but i think it’s coming down hardest on the girls involved. look at these photos of millie bobby brown at the season 1 premiere and the season 2 premiere.
she’s 13 on the left and 12 on the right.
like, it’s not… it’s not okay. let these kids be kids. let them present themselves as kids. you can still have your prestige tv show and win awards and preserve your serious, critically acclaimed brand without making the children in your cast vulnerable to sexualization and predation. end rant!
why did shipping turn into a contest of “most accurate” or “most likely to be canon” why do i have to get a 40-slide powerpoint, three defense lawyers, a fortune teller, and a background check of myself and my whole immediate family to say i want two ppl to have sloppy makeouts in a car
Also: when did shipping turn into a ‘which relationship is the most healthiest in real life terms.’ I mean I ship people because I think their story is interesting, not to get relationship advice.
I ship people because I think their story is interesting, not to get relationship advice.
radical islam ≠ islam BOI how are they muslim when they don’t follow the basics of islam?? if i call myself a vegan and eat meat then u wouldn’t consider me a vegan until i started acting like one yet ur dumb ass would be in my inbox saying “farha called herself a vegan so she’s vegan which means all vegans eat meat (VEGAN = Vmeat Eat Good A Nutrition) (FARHA = Feast A Real Hmeat Always = vegan)
Nothing but My Aching Soul 