Your entire thread is just SO RIGHT, 100% agree on every take, wow I'm right there with you ✨️ I'm following you right now !

But to be fair, it's not just about you - it's more of a comment on the ST fandom, and even fandom in general, where critics are way more acidic toward female than male characters. A man dating multiple women is a player at worse, a woman dating two guys is a bitch, yk?

Thank you for explaining in details why you dislike Nancy, it's more palatable than just "she's a cheater" (we're not stuck on Steve the bully in s1, let's not get stuck on Nancy the cheater in s1). I'm not saying criticism of Nancy is sexism, but moreso the amount of it compared to male characters.

I don't disagree at all with you: it's her character flaw. That's also what makes her interesting. Steve had a good enough (if rushed) redemption arc and then got stuck in the same "mama bear" role - it's less interesting to me. And that's fine to prefer one or the other.

2/ but what I'm interested about is the writing and how characters are perceived by the audience: and I see too much leniency for male characters like Steve and way too little of it for female characters like Nancy. Steve is a bully and a player, Nancy is a cheater, Jonathan is a creep... ok and?

1/ Not particularly a Steve hater. Not a Steve lover either. Just a Steve neutral I guess? I'm just a bit annoyed with people being so lenient with his character, while being really critical of Nancy - sounds a bit fishy (sexist). Fictional characters are allowed to be messy (it's more interesting)

I can agree that the Duffers are bad writers for multiple reasons, that's for sure.

And let's not reduce the entirety of Robin's character to Steve pls. She had misconceptions about Nancy before meeting her, but they actually do get along in s4. Besides, Steve is the one coming back to Nancy like a moron - why wouldn't Robin be ok with the cheating, if Steve himself is ok with it?

Oh, poor Steve... the guy who was written as a bully/asshole for the entirety of s1 (and only rewritten as a "good guy" at the end, per Joe Keery's insistance) got cheated on? Nancy had just lost Barb, let's cut her some slack pls. Not excusing her cheating, but let's not forget the context either

The incest aspect bothered me a bit, but I could get along with it. Same with Maru/Kiruko: it's weird to go from siblings to love interests, but they're cute enough. Same with the weird amount of "sexual" scenes for 14/15 yo. I thought there would be a point - but no. The SA scene shows that.

Yep, just finished the anime, and... well, the story overall is really good, but the SA scene (and the "plot twist" aspect and aftermath) felt really tone-deaf, even insulting to SA victims? like, can they show some consideration - even respect - for SA victims? It pushed me out of the story, tbh