Hopper's body issues and the subversion of tropes in Stranger Things
Hello lovely peopleee. Let's talk about Hopper and his overarching arc, mainly from s2 to 4, about his confidence, his body issues, and his relationship with food.
(I know this is a difficult topic for many, and I also know my opinion on this is a little controversial, as I've seen many people viewing Hop's situation in a writers-fault-no-meaning-fatphobia way, and I disagree wholeheartedly. There's discussion of disordered eating and body issues. Dead dove etc)
Firstly, the character of Hopper as he is established in s1 is this hardcore, scary cop that has a tragic backstory and actually cares about Joyce, about Benny, about finding Will, but his exterior to people that don't know him is guarded and a bit of a facade. He is our manly tm man for sure, but he also has a loving and sensitive side. However, we get to see that unfold more in subsequent seasons, especially through his relationships with El.
What we also get to touch on Hop's letting go of himself : he's drinking a lot as stated by his ex-wife asking if he's been drinking, he's smoking a lot. We also get to hear more of this later on.
When we find Hop in s2, there's an interesting addition to his mental health struggles : a fixation on food, eating , weight , health and his appearance. When we first see Hop in s1, he's eating a donut : classic cop-on-tv stuff, a trope. It's interesting that in s2, we get the same, but this time the lady takes out his donut (like she did with his cigarette in s1) to give him an apple. There's been a change; food is now introduced as something others see as harmful to him.
Soon after that, we get many scenes with dialogue that is absolutely indicative of disordered eating, a fixation on it , an eating disorder. This sort of dialogue is non existent for men in fiction, with very few exceptions; the tough guy with the guns and the badassery has all the textbook signs of an ed.
So much of his dialogue is used to indicate a negative body image, association of food with guilt, association of food with gaining weight and being unhealthy, and in general. It's not a "mocking/for laughs" kind of coding as I've seen discussed. If it had been a very skinny girl saying these exact words, there would be nobody doubting her ed coding (more on Chrissy later). This isn't a case of the writing being fatphobic, but in another manifestation of self hatred from a character already shown to use a number of different ways to numb his own pain.
In fact , the writing gives us a pretty distinct look into the fact that Hop has a bad relationship with food, tightly interwoven into his mental health declining (and the idea of restriction=good, indulgence=bad) :
This could be a funny moment. It is not. Hop is still using food and the indulge/restrict cycle directly to soothe his anxiety over the idea of having to keep El hidden and the danger she's in. He might as well have reached for a drink or a cigarette. This is presented to us as is, but it is in the discretion of the viewer to piece together the information. Will they though? Will they understand that the fat manly badass man has disordered eating patterns? Will they think it's a funny joke, or a barely hidden truth?
Season 3
Season 3 definitely poses on this regard, to show us another one of Hop's vices ; alcoholism. He is presented as a drunk, and again, because of the funny premise of some of the scenes (and frankly, the massive change in tone when it comes to everything in the show in s3) it slips through the cracks again. Not much to say other than that.
Season 4
Season 4 is extremely interesting because it essentially puts EDs on the map as a very valid response to trauma. It also does this in an easily digestible way by anyone; of course the skinny white miss perfect cheerleader has an ed! No one would have to be convinced of that; she's the demographic of EDs in most people's eyes. But ST isn't about the obvious and the ordinary. Chrissy is the decoder key in many ways through her parallels to other characters. And when it comes to EDs specifically, there's 2 characters she parallels closely; Hopper...and Mike (but that one I'm not touching as much here because @aemiron-main will say it at some point better than i ever could, but it's there, undeniably so. sorry<3)
Chrissy's body issues and ED, presumably bulimia, are closely linked and are both part of Vecna's tormenting of her. The word choices for Chrissy are interesting, because the writing matches words used for Hopper,and symbolism around the characters is VERY similar :
(oh hi Mike. Also, the name Chrissy is literally said in the first scene.)
There's many meta-narrative links between them. We first see Chrissy in the toilet, throwing up , something that afair the only character we've seen consistently do throughout the series is Hop (sparing you the screenshots for that one lol)
And then there is of course the full table of food :
Same position, same lighting, Enzo's "Is this real, or am i dreaming?" providing a connection to Chrissy's vision, that has been described as dreaming yada yada the girlies that get get it
Also, before the camera focuses on the table, it focuses on this pig head, that is then positioned right next to Hopper, as it is a word associated with him,and as of now, Chrissy:
In this scene, Hopper proceeds to never eat a single thing , and in fact we get interesting dialogue, as his lack of eating is called wrong, and we are TOLD that he should be told to eat; attention is drawn in his not eating.
Not only that, but throughout the Russia Plotline, food is a huge part of Hop's arc. The scene of him offering his food to the prisoner to help him starts like this
(wet sound effects often used to signify something disgusting, such as Vecna's tentacles, but is also used when the Russian prisoners devour the food in the table; food consumption/ food is linked to disgust here) RIGHT AFTER Joyce looks at her airplane food consisting of something with pees with disgust (Hop's speech to El in s2 about eating the pees although they're mushy and gross...)
Hopper's trauma and guilt
Season 4 gives us a piece of information about Hop's trauma that definitely fits with the theme of the season. He's not only devastated that his daughter died. He is rotting with guilt over the fact that he was the reason why that happened; his use of chemicals in a past job was the reason why Sarah got cancer. And not only that, but he knew that happened to other people, and he chose to hide the truth from his wife, resulting in a death. (Reminds you of anyone? Whatshisname? Anyway lol). His self hatred is immense, his guilt over his mistakes and failing to protect the people he loves make him feel like he is the curse. The conscious nature of his involvement in his loved ones torment adds a more devastating tone to his self hatred (working with chemicals, sending the letter to Joyce).
Accepting himself and others' love symbolised by love of food again (+showcasing that the writing/characters are not fatphobic)
Hop defaulting to negative weight talk to distract from his pain and anguish is never encouraged by his loved ones, who instead focus on him and his well being. Only person that is the first to comment on Hopper's weight (again) is Mike. Gee. Probably a production error!
In fact, we get the meta narrative of Hopper slowly getting over his diet of Chrissy-vision-food-symbolising-EDs (bad mental health, isolation , emotional pain) to dreaming about lasagna at Enzo's (Joyce's love, his family that he built, forgiving himself for his past mistake).
Conclusion
Hopper's arc of self acceptance in both an in universe body image sense and in a meta forgiveness of self and moving on is very much tied to his relationship with food. Putting him in a forced starvation narrative all but solidifies this motif as a powerful way to enforce the message that everyone could fall victim to this specific situation. Hopper must learn to accept himself in whatever shape he comes in, because to his loved ones, it never was an issue; in a meta sense, Hop leaving behind his guilt and self hatred is essential to his character, and is something we're already seeing start to happen by the time he's reunited with Joyce.
Hopper's inner turmoil presented through an 80s lense, with being sensitive considered queer, and unacceptable, and reaching out for help not even being an option, is a very heartbreaking aspect of his character. It's very human for him to try and keep everything in arm's length so as not to hurt the people he loves,trying to fiercely protect them only because he sees himself as an innate problem in their lives. The outcome of his Russian plotline is that it was in fact ok to ask for help, and I bet that in s5 we'll see Hopper in his original weight, and with no calorie obsession/ weight fixation / alcohol to be found.
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i cannot begin to overstate how much being stuck in a body that i tried so hard to love but couldn't because it wasn't the "right" body was killing me. and i do mean that in a literal sense.
i spend well over 10 years of my life starving myself to near death at points because my body didn't feel like my body and i didn't know what else to do to "fix" it.
i have multiple suicide attempts in my medical file because i couldn't bear the thought of living in my body. my first attempt was at 16. my last attempt was at 26. i have a very dark anniversary this month from where i very nearly succeeded at 18. and again at 24.
i have lived with suicidal ideation since i was 14 (when i first became aware that the body i was growing into was going through oestrogen-based puberty). living with that voice that tells you to just kill yourself all the time is exhausting. i do not wish it on anyone.
therapy and anti-depressants only got me so far but starting testosterone saved my fucking life. being on the waitlist for the welsh gender clinic saved my life.
gender affirming care is life saving. or at least it has been in my experience. so fuck anyone and everyone who bangs on about the irreversible changes or "damage" hrt does to someone.
being dead at 16, at 18, at 20, at 22, at 24 and at 26 is irreversible too.
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Researching for my hazbin fic (A Cannibal's Guide on Living Comfortably) has also made me realize that my adoptive family (and me in relation to my birth family) actually suffer from cultural loss. And this ties to my adoptive family being half french like Alastor.
This is sort of a personal ramble about my experiences and how it relates to cultural loss. Just thoughts I've been having that's making me rethink a lot of things from my life.
(Technically I'm not but that's a whole other thing. I was found as a kid and never allowed to learn about my birth family or heritage so yeah. I'm just whatever people say I am. Means I have double the cultural loss, both from the people that raised me and my own! Yippee! <- sarcastic)
Both my parents are half french and grew up in small communities where there was very very high English vs French tensions. Both of my parents parent's decided that it would be best to give their children the easiest life they could so they raised them as English as possible.
They weren't allowed to learn french and were punished if they tried (both by family and the community. It was a lot worse where my mother grew up), and weren't allowed to continue any traditions, songs, or anything culturally French. Assimilation was the best chance at a future, but meant that they lost all ties to culture that wasn't acceptably English/colonial.
They were born a long time ago, so this was during the era of corporal punishment in school, my mother wasn't allowed to wear pants, my father was punished repeatedly for using his left hand, etc. They were also forced into churches because that's what The Good English Do, even though neither are religious now nor would they have been forced to if the hatred against the french hadn't been so strong.
The small town my mom grew up in had a segregated neighbourhood for the french, and her family fought to cut all ties. Her mother was french but was forced to only speak English and cut all ties to her family.
I don't know as much for my father, but it was his father that refused to teach or share anything French because of the hardships he went through growing up (he also ran away and lied about his age to fight in the war too young, so he likely faced heavy trauma too)
While neither of my parents are half english, they were able to pass as english at the expense of their cultural identity and connection to their family. I've spoken to my mother about it and she says white culture is genocide, but I don't know if she realizes how it hurt her too (not to say the french did nothing wrong. They were colonialists and took part in genocide as well)
It's weird to realize. I was put in french immersion and while my french isn't great, I've realized that my parents did that to give me the only opportunity I could have to learn about their lost culture. They learned a bit from me and would use french words and sometimes share translation quirks their parents had caused by learning english after french.
I grew up thinking that because I don't know anyone I'm related to that i had no culture. I've realized that part of the reason it feels that way is because anything non-English was forced out of people. The more you could pass as english the heavier the assimilation is. To join the oppressors is to sacrifice culture, history, and family, but that's a choice both my parents parent's made and it's one we all struggle with.
As far as I go, I don't know my precise ancestry, but I do know my birth grandparents fled from a country that was dealing with fighting for independence and a highly struggling economy. I'm not supposed to know that or know anything more, but from what I can guess and based on what people have said I look like (closest thing I got) my ancestors dealt with fighting against being colonized for centuries, their culture and history actively being destroyed and demonized, and the language borderline dead because of it (isnt the british imperialism great? <- sarcasm). A bit over a century ago it would have been the cause of much prejudice and hatred, but like my adoptive parents parent's they traded culture for assimilation.
It's.... weird. There's not much I can change nor not much I can do with this information movie forwards. It has helped me connect my experiences more with that of cultural loss, especially those felt by others who don't know any birth family. Because I pass as white (I do not know my genetics, so I'd rather say that than call myself white. Especially because what ancestry I do know I have weren't historically called white and faced discrimination by white folks) I previously thought these experiences could not apply to me.
As a side note, I do hold the belief that orphans like me, or others that lacked any family for much of their lives are part of a "hidden" minority. I faced a lot of extra difficulties, social pushback, and was treated worse than my peers because I am an orphan, as did different foster siblings I had over the years. Adoption means either never speaking about my life to pass as "normal" or speak about it and face the consequences. Every person's experiences are different when it comes to this, but it really changed the expectations adults had on me and forced me to be more mature, resilient, perfectionistic and less reactive to my peers. The expectation was if you acted bad you didn't appreciate having a home and therefore didn't deserve it. What others kids could get away with can be what loses your home when you grow up an orphan.
Anywho, circling back to my fic I'll be adding some elements of my experiences in there too. Not as the main focus, mind you, but some of the struggles of adapting/assimilating to the majority to avoid discrimination will be present (as well as some French (more focused on Creole French history. It was something a few of my french teachers focused a lot on) ). Just background info, I'm as of yet undecided on how much of a character study it will all be, but if it does go into it more then these themes will be present
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