Stranger Things Season 5 has attracted a lot of discourse online, with topics ranging from the incoherence of the plot, to the cliched dialogue, to the way it addresses social topics. All of these points have their merits, but I think that perhaps its worst fault is its handling of Jonathan and Nancy’s breakup.
Like many, I was rooting for them to remain together over the course of the show, and was inherently disappointed by the decision to separate them. However, what is perhaps so problematic about the writing isn’t so much the decision itself, but both the way it was depicted, and what the choice represents. What I think is particularly interesting is the Duffer brothers stated justification for the idea, both in the show itself, and in their interviews.
Nancy becomes ‘independent’; but we never get to see her exercise this independence in any narratively meaningful way.
Their reasoning? They wanted Nancy to be independent, and that the breakup was a mechanism by which to achieve that purpose. I have a few issues with this line of thinking, the most predominant of which is that I believe it constitutes a form of performative feminism. Nancy becomes ‘independent;’ but we never get to see her exercise this independence in any narratively meaningful way. We are seldom given any suggestion as to her career aspirations, or what her life generally looks like.
Indeed, most of the season very specifically focuses on her relationship with Jonathan, attempting to highlight its supposed dysfunctionality. The most we get in terms of insight into any other aspect of her life is a single line of dialogue in the finale indicating that she has dropped out of college to take up a job in journalism. This is not fleshed out, nor is it given space to breathe amid the myriad of other half-hearted character resolutions in the finale. It is treated as an afterthought to the main event, which is her breakup with Jonathan a couple of episodes earlier.
…Season 5 adopts the aesthetic of feminism without meaningfully or substantially engaging with it.
The Duffer brothers seem to believe that the very act of being single is intrinsically an indicator of independence. I do not think that this is true: needless to say there are women in relationships that are far more independent than those that are single, insofar as they have a complete life with deep friendships, a satisfying career, enjoyable hobbies, profound experiences etc. Nancy is not given this agency in Season 5, but is instead reduced to a prop whose independence is purely determined by her relationship status. In this way, Season 5 adopts the aesthetic of feminism without meaningfully or substantially engaging with it. This marks a firm contrast with earlier seasons, where Nancy battles against sexism in the workplace, achieves justice for her friend, and takes the lead in her relationship with Jonathan. All of these are more meaningful subversions of patriarchal norms than the simple act of being single.
I could critique the Jonathan and Nancy breakup on other grounds. I could complain about both of them acting remarkably out of character. I could cite the sloppiness of the Duffer brothers arbitrarily attempting to rebrand Jonathan and Nancy’s shared experiences in a negative way, or I could point out that many of the Duffer brothers stated reasons for the breakup contradict other aspects of their show. Not only that, I could highlight that the breakup actively squanders multiple seasons worth of development for both characters and their partnership with one another.
However, nothing strikes me as pertinent to the same extent as the criticism in this article. Nancy has been an excellent example of feminist writing for so many seasons, and I can think of no more disappointing a fate for her than to be reduced to yet another woman defined by the men she does or does not date.
“Natalia Dyer” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.