The Concept of “My Tammy” on ‘Stranger Things’
...who??
A coming-of-age story that acknowledges the value of someone not liking you back? Let’s talk about the pros and cons of Robin (Maya Hawke) and Will’s (Noah Schnapp) “Tammy” metaphor on Stranger Things.
In the first and second volume of the final season, Robin became a sort of gay sherpa for Will. After observing Will’s unrequited* crush on Mike (Finn Wolfhard), she told him about her unrequited crush on Tammy Thompson. She explains that once Tammy started dating Steve (Joe Keery) and the fantasy she built popped, she was devastated at first. Then she realized she was pinning her dreams and future and identity on this crush. But finding yourself is about yourself, not who you’re crushing on.
Will then uses “my Tammy” as a shorthand when coming out as gay to the entire town of Hawkins his friends and family, their respective plus ones, and Murray. He hurriedly refers to Mike as “his Tammy,” just in case Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) decides to out his feelings for his best friend before he can come clean on his own terms. (However… to be fair, he didn’t say Mike by name. Should have thought that one through! He was nervous.)
In the week since the penultimate episode’s release, I’ve seen a few folks on social media use this to give pep talks to other fictional characters. stemming from a post that claims Elphaba was Glinda’s Tammy in Wicked. Cute! Fun! Maybe a joke? Anyway…
It is kind of a good life lesson in general.
As clumsy as some aspects of Will’s coming out scene definitely are, I do really like to see a young adult series recognize that sometimes an unrequited crush just gets you where you need to go in life. And that’s okay! It’s corny, but helpful, and weirdly mature. Don’t beat yourself up, or blame the other person. Identify “your Tammy” and move on. Sometimes having the hots for someone is about the journey, not the destination.
Because shows like this have to tell a complete story about young teenagers with a beginning, middle, and end, you sometimes see a lot of romantic relationships with “happily ever afters” that are totally unrealistic. It’s not that high school sweethearts don’t exist, especially in towns like Hawkins, but come on! Not everyone marries their junior prom date. Most of the time, those big hormonal feelings you feel at 15 aren’t reciprocated. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something about yourself and/or learn how to not seek validation from other people. They’re important, not all-important.
Unfortunately, Will failed to read the room.
The only problem is that while “my Tammy” may be a lovely metaphor for Stranger Things and the human race, 90 percent of Will’s audience don’t know who she is. They don’t know how or why a girl named Tammy applies to this situation. Thank goodness they don’t, because it would mean that Will outed Robin to a room full of people as well. He really didn’t think that part through either. Again, he was nervous. You have to imagine that, in the background, Nancy passes a note Steve that says “is he talking about Tammy Thompson” and Steve does a kill hand gesture like don’t… don’t worry about it.
*As of Season 5, Episode 7. Settle…
(featured image: Netflix)
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