{"id":2090,"date":"2022-10-27T22:28:31","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T02:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2090"},"modified":"2022-10-31T19:53:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T23:53:57","slug":"the-confession-of-will-byers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2022\/10\/27\/the-confession-of-will-byers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Confession of Will Byers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea of \u201cconfession\u201d is one that has been intrinsically tied to questions and expressions of sexuality for decades, if not centuries. Michel Foucault discusses this concept in \u201cThe History of Sexuality,\u201d discussing confession as a production of truth and a form of power, the holder of which can vary case by case. Confession exists, in a form, as one of the most important moments in a queer person\u2019s life\u2014coming out. <\/span><\/p>\n

As queer characters continue to frequent mainstream media, so do \u201ccoming out\u201d scenes. In recent years, there have been many famous \u201ccoming out\u201d moments: Santana Lopez and Kurt Hummel each have their own moments on <\/span>Glee<\/span><\/i>, Simon Spier emotionally told his parents he was gay in <\/span>Love, Simon<\/span><\/i>, and Nick Nelson came out to his mom out as bisexual in <\/span>Heartstopper<\/span><\/i>. These are all explicit in the sense that each character tells a loved one they are in love with someone of the same sex or explicitly state their sexuality. The \u201ccoming out\u201d scene I would like to examine through the lens of confession is from season four of <\/span>Stranger Thing<\/span><\/i>s. It is, unofficially, the coming out of Will Byers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Coming out can be a confession no matter what form it comes in, but in the case of Will Byers in season 4 of <\/span>Stranger Things<\/span><\/i>, there is a weight behind his words that adds to the feeling that he is truly confessing something. In episode 8, when Will\u2019s longtime best friend Mike Wheeler is letting his insecurities get toh him, Will reveals a painting to him that he had been trying to gift him all season long. Except, when he uses this painting (which depicts Mike as the leader of a medeival-dressed group, a heart emblazoned on his shield) as a way to boost Mike\u2019s confidence, he lies. He tells Mike that Mike\u2019s girlfriend and Will\u2019s adopted sister, Eleven, was the one who commissioned it. Will confesses that \u201cEl\u201d has been \u201cso lost\u201d without Mike, that she\u2019s \u201cso different from other people\u201d. Turning away from Mike, Will then says: \u201cWhen you\u2019re different, sometimes you feel like a mistake. But you make her feel like she\u2019s not a mistake at all.\u201d As he continues, he becomes more emotional, to the point where he\u2019s silently crying once he\u2019s said his piece.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, in this scene, Will is not actually talking about Eleven. From the first episode we learn that Will has been working obsessively on a painting, but El did not commission nor does she know what it depicts. She assumes it\u2019s for a girl that Will likes. Though it is made obvious through Will\u2019s subtle confession that he, not El, needs Mike and feels like a mistake for feeling that way, the writer and Will\u2019s actor have since confirmed that Will is queer and in love with Mike. This confession is of special note, because although Mike doesn\u2019t seem to realize, Will is confessing things that are hard for him to voice, hence why he can\u2019t admit he\u2019s the one behind the words. This, Foucault would say, is a “production of truth” (58). Though it’s not the real truth, Will is creating his own truth in this scene to protect himself. And, between Will\u2019s obvious distress and the 80s setting of Stranger Things<\/em>, the audience gets a real sense that Will is, to some degree, ashamed. He\u2019s coming to terms with his identity and his feelings at a time where it was not always safe to do so. Thus his confession is one made out of desperation for Mike to understand how needed he is, and perhaps for Will to finally release what he\u2019s been holding in without fully exposing himself before he\u2019s ready. This scene perfectly emulates \u201cconfession\u201d, especially in the context of queerness and coming out.<\/span><\/p>\n

link to scene:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/Pw6m-yWneNA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea of \u201cconfession\u201d is one that has been intrinsically tied to questions and expressions of sexuality for decades, if not centuries. Michel Foucault discusses this concept in \u201cThe History of Sexuality,\u201d discussing confession as a production of truth and a form of power, the holder of which can vary case by case. Confession exists, … Continue reading The Confession of Will Byers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5002,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}