How many times while you were growing up did people tell you, “Don’t be so sensitive” or “You’re being too sensitive”?
For all my growing up years, and some of my adulthood years as well, I heard comments like that far too often. This is why shows like Stranger Things are a breath of fresh air because while characters like Will Byers are breathing in air that is definitely not fresh in the Upside Down (and full of weird floaty things), they are making sensitivity a superpower at the same time.
This is quite an accomplishment for us highly sensitive people.
Some might assume that Will’s sensitivity was caused by his trauma of being stuck in the Upside Down during Season 1 of Stranger Things, but it becomes clear that Will Byers was a sensitive character even before that.
Now, if you’re caught up on the four seasons of Stranger Things to date, you know that there’s another character described as sensitive, and you know that high sensitivity is not necessarily a good thing.
But I don’t think this negates the fact showcasing sensitivity as a superpower in shows like Stranger Things. If the series shows any one thing throughout all its seasons (so far), it’s that one’s personality and character traits (and even extraordinary gifts) does not determine what kind of person they are going to be.
It is a matter of personal choice, and often one’s friends are also a helpful and determining factor in choosing the direction one will go.
Why Sensitivity as a Superpower?
But back to the idea of showing sensitivity as a superpower in shows like Stranger Things, the reason this is so important is that for so long, sensitivity was not the norm, especially for guys.
Although I’m too young to have lived through the eras of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood back in the day, and might have caught the tail end of the huge popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger, these characters still loomed larger than life when I was growing up.
Old westerns. Tough guys. Lots of muscles and very little heart. No room for sensitivity.
Their superpower was power.
This led to generations of “Boys will be boys” when they’re tough and even cruel but “Toughen up and don’t be a sissy” or “Boys don’t cry” when they’re sensitive.
The truth is, boys do cry. Men cry too. And when boys are raised to be men who do not feel comfortable crying or who have been teased out of it, we end up in a society where sensitivity is not normalized but ostracized and toughness is made all too important.
We end up in a society where the tough guy wins the day and there is no place for the highly sensitive person.
But the truth is, even if there are not as many of us, we are here, and the world needs us.
The world needs highly sensitive people to show that there is another way. The way of the peacemaker. The way of the non-aggressor.
Now I am no sociologist, but I find it interesting that a centuries-old worldwide movement that started out as the Way of a peacemaker who gave up his life and whose followers loved and forgave instead of fought—I find it disheartening that some of the loudest voices claiming to be part of this movement today are those promoting aggression, shoot-first, warring mentalities.
These people are completely ignoring some of the most stark and direct words of their movement’s original founder, along the lines of forgiving one’s enemies, praying for one’s persecutors, loving and caring for the poor, the widows, the orphans, the people in prisons.
The voices that need to grow louder in this movement (aka, Christianity) need to be the peacemakers, the sensitive, the gentle.
Not the ones who are pushing for political clout (aka power) but the ones who are on the ground doing the work that their founder and leader, their Christ, himself was known for doing.
Again, I’m no sociologist and I have no theology degree but right now I’m seeing shows like Stranger Things showing sensitivity as a superpower, along with things like sacrifice, loving one’s neighbor, and being willing to pay the ultimate price for one’s friends.
Characters that Show Sensitivity in Stranger Things
The thing is, although Will Byers is kind of the poster child for sensitivity in Stranger Things, he is not the only character that shows sensitivity throughout the show.
Think of his older brother, Jonathan Byers, whose sensitivity shows up throughout the seasons—most obviously toward the end of the fourth season when he connects with his brother and converses with him to show him that he’s there no matter what.
Or Mike Wheeler. Although he is a little bit of a thick head at times, he was described as the heart of the group in Stranger Things—and the heart is the home of the feelings, right? It is pretty special that someone who had a crush when he was just a kid is still holding on to that emotion, still dedicated to Eleven. (I’m hoping that in the next season we will see a little bit more heart from Mike but that’s just a side note.
And what about the sheriff, Jim Hopper? Your typical ’80s tough guy, smoker and all that, but he ends up being a complete softy when it comes to caring for and loving an orphan girl and taking her in.
This is the kind of sensitivity we need. Not someone who’s necessarily bawling all the time or can’t keep it their emotions in check but who isn’t afraid of that softer side, even if it doesn’t show up that often.
And just because I absolutely loved this character in season 4 of Stranger Things, I do have to mention him in regards to sensitivity: Eddie Munson.
In Stranger Things, he is juxtaposed against a total jerk who did not notice and could not accept that his girlfriend was struggling, was suffering, but who noticed this? Eddie Munson.
Maybe his actions weren’t perfect but he did what he could to cheer her up and try to take the edge off her suffering; this is the kind of sensitivity we need. And this is how we normalize sensitivity—a heavy metal guitar-playing dude who claims he is no hero but then when the crunch comes … well, let’s just say he was my favorite character.
Or Dustin Henderson, a little bit of a nerd. Okay a lot of nerd but again, in the end of season 4, his conversation with Eddie’s uncle was a beautiful scene that would not have happened if his character was not conveying sensitivity to that uncle’s suffering and isolation.
I know I’m focusing mainly on the male characters in Stranger Things and there’s a reason for it.
In the world today and for a very long time, it has been the woman, the mothers, who are the sensitive ones or who have permission to be sensitive and motherly and thoughtful.
But shows like Stranger Things indicate that it’s okay for guys to be sensitive, too.
There are a lot of other really interesting concepts in Stranger Things that make it a terrific show, but I don’t know if it has been highlighted enough just how refreshing it is that the writers and directors of the series are working to show sensitivity as its own kind of superpower and show just how important it can be in the work of saving the world.
The Highly Sensitive Introvert 