I think this is an interesting analysis, but I do hope you watch the season, because I can't help but think your reading is very incomplete as you haven't seen the full context. I'm always wary of meta from people who say they haven't watched, and though you're very insightful in many ways here and have picked up on a lot, I'd really wonder what your opinion would be if you did watch the entirety.
For instance, the first half of the season contained quite a lot of subtext implying that Dean was raped in hell, not to mention the subtext of his getting turned into a vampire was played like a sexual assault, and reading your analysis here I can't help but keep that in mind, given his reactions to Cas. (sorry wanted to add that I wrote about the rape subtext here, if you're interested: http://amonitrate.livejournal.com/540562.html)
So I guess I don't see it quite as simple as you're laying it out here, though I do agree that the show is making quite a lot of this subtext practically canon, or as canon as they're going to.
Totally fair call. It is weird to write meta about a season I haven't watched, and I'm not surprised some of my analysis is off.
I find your points about Dean really interesting -- I plan to read your essay once I've girded my loins.
I wish I didn't have to be so careful about watching shows now, but when I'm emotionally invested in the characters, I tend to be easily triggered. It's frustrating. Actually, given what you've said about Dean, I may not be able to watch season 6 anyway. We'll see what my alpha watcher says once she's done.
I totally, totally understand your being careful! That said, I do think it might add a different facet to your analysis of Dean and Cas's interactions. I was also thinking of the exchange in 5.18, when Dean makes another couple of derogatory sexual jokes to Cas when he's lashing out at everyone.
I guess I'm saying I think you're on to something but I'm just not so sure I agree with your ultimate conclusions. Possibly this is because I do read Dean as pretty bi, in that he is interested in women and men but has major issues with his interest in men? So I don't necessarily get the feeling that Dean's reactions are show POV towards gay relationships. If that makes any kind of sense.
It does make sense. And to be fair, I don't think the show had much of a coherent point of view on gay relationships until this season, and only does now because they decided to use the Dean/Castiel relationship to foreshadow and further the Castiel plot-arc.
I wouldn't even ascribe the showrunners deliberate homophobia. Given the construction they've created, that's how it ends up reading to me, but it's entirely possible to create something homophobic unintentionally.
I agree with you about Dean's bisexuality too. That whole sequence with the siren -- how else do you read that? I do think he's conflicted about the gay side of his sexuality, though. Whether that's because in Castiel's case it would be more than a one-night-stand, or because he's non-human, or some other reason, I haven't decided. I could much more easily read him as casually bi last season; the angst seems too closely linked to him repressing gay desire this season. You've seen it though, and I haven't, so I'm hardly going to argue with your reading!
One of the things I love about meta is that it's a chance to test my own conclusions. I often refine them during discussion, and come to a deeper understanding. So go ahead and test them out. I'd be interested to see how else this reading can be used.
I totally agree with your reading of Dean's homophobia, in that I'm pretty sure every vaguely homophobic joke has been Dean's, basically, and some of them aren't jokes so much as Dean just being weirded out either about himself being assumed to be gay or about other gay pairings. So in that sense to me it feels deliberate on the show's part, if not necessarily planned. I mean, doesn't this kind of reaction go back to Dean in what, season 2, when people mistake him and Sam as a couple? It feels pretty consistent, is what I'm saying.
I didn't read Sam's refusal to hug Cas as in any kind of homophobic or sexual way. I think there's a bunch more going on in that scene, namely Sam has just been resouled and everyone is lying to him about what happened, and it feels much more related to that than to anything remotely sexual, to me. Also probably to the fact that Cas isn't exactly known for hugging anyone.
I'm not entirely sure Dean's fully aware of his interest in dudes, if he is bi. His crush on Dr. Sexy for example seems really adolescent, his reaction to the Siren was complicated by his missing Sam being his little brother, his relationship with Cas is all kinds of complicated by everything else between them. And given how Dean was raised in this hyper-masculine environment, the way he adopts that kind of persona to cover all his fears and insecurities, basically cosplaying as a Heterosexual Action Hero to get himself through the day since high school or earlier, I get the impression he's never quite come to any kind of terms with any possible bisexuality. Mostly I think Dean is one confused dude.
He did start making explicitly sexual remarks to Cas in 5.18 though, so he seems to have caught on a little.
Anyway, my personal D/C headcanon is that Dean is mostly freaking the fuck out because he has many, many issues. And Cas's issues are more of the replacing-God-with-Dean variety.
Really enjoying this conversation, but I'm falling asleep. I'll try to come back to it tomorrow after work, as you make a couple of points I'm interested in discussing further.
Really, the queer-denial theory explains pretty much everything about the weird tension this season. It explains everyone acting in ethically dubious ways and somewhat out of character.
Oh, just an addition: I guess one part I do disagree with you on is that anyone has acted out of character this season? I see them all as tragically horribly in character, given the context.
I also disagree with your reading of Bobby. Because I do approach Dean as bi, I think his wish for a life with Lisa and Ben is legit (by which I mean not due to just repression), and that Bobby's motivation is almost entirely the need to get Dean out of the hunting life, period. There's an exchange in the season premiere to this effect:
Bobby: Because you got out, Dean! You walked away from the life. And I was so damn grateful, you got no idea.
Dean: Do you have any clue what walking away meant for me?
Bobby: Yeah -- a woman and a kid and not getting your guts ripped out at age 30. That's what it meant.
So to me it had far less to do with any kind of repressed sexuality than it did for Bobby wishing to not see someone he loves dead so young, influenced by the fact that Bobby couldn't save Dean in season 3 any more than Sam could.
"And Cas's issues are more of the replacing-God-with-Dean variety."
This is an awesome idea! Although, could it be that Cas is replacing God with Dean because that is the only way he knows how to deal with intense love? Whether that is platonic, brotherly, or sexual love who can say, but it is only a reaction to feelings he doesn't comprehend.
Sorry I didn't reply last night, it was a crazy day at work and I was too tired to be thinky.
I'm not entirely sure Dean's fully aware of his interest in dudes, if he is bi.
I agree, and I think he's afraid/horrified whenever something makes him self-aware enough that he suspects it.
The siren episode really fascinates me (I have seen that one). As you say, the motivations and plot add enough confusion that you can't read it as a straight (so to speak :) commentary on Dean's sexuality. I really liked the gender inversion, it was an enjoyable twist, and used to comment on Sam and Dean's relationship in a clever way.
That said, the very fact that sirens work on the premise of fulfilling a person's deepest desire, it does say something pretty telling that Dean's deepest desire wears a man's face. Given that sirens are seducers, and the way they are typically represented outside of Supernatural, and that the other victims in the ep were all het couples, you can't help but read a sexual element in there, especially as the siren makes Sam and Dean fight over him. Fights often stand in for sex on tv shows too (the classic being Spock's pon farr episode).
I tend to read Dean's emotional investment in Sam as due to many motivations (actually, I read many motivations into just about all actions by all the characters, but I also see larger patterns emerging from them), which include the way they were raised, geuine love, social isolation, and so on. But it also does seem to me that Sam is a "safe" man to love. You're allowed to love your brother in a way you can't love other men without being seen as gay.
I like your personal headcanon. :)
And Cas's issues are more of the replacing-God-with-Dean variety.
I saw that reading much more in season 5. From what I've picked up from s6, that element is still there, but Castiel has been on more of a journey of finding other ways to deal without God. One of my favourite current out-there "what ifs" is this one: http://saucery.livejournal.com/14123.html
That's clever and amusing. It's like God is the Dread Pirate Roberts. LOL. "And the previous God, he wasn't God either," explains Godstiel. "He's retired and living it up with rebel cherubs in outer Zion."
I'm actually not convinced that Castiel has sexual feelings for anyone, but I so think he's been exploring whether or not he does, in an attempt to understand humans (Dean) better. So I'm hapy to read stories in which he takes that exploration to obvious end points, but I'm also happy with friendship romances. It's not either/or for me, you know?
Yeah, I'd say the replacing God with Dean thing was for sure more prevalent in season 5. I think season 6 Cas is possibly a reaction to slamming up against the reminder that Dean is, after all, just a fragile man (especially in 5.18, when Dean tried to commit suicide-via-archangel). I think a lot of Cas's motivations in keeping Dean and Sam out of the war in heaven in season 6 might have to do with that, and I think that plays out especially in the last three episodes of the season, if you ever watch them!
The Dread Pirate Roberts! That's kind of how I've been looking at it too, to be perfectly honest, I love that idea. I don't know if that's where they'll go with it.
It's not either/or for me either. I'm mostly a gen/friendship girl at heart.
Obviously, I can't comment on such a close reading until after (hopefully) I've seen the eps, but you make a compelling case, and it certainly ties in to the kind of horrors one imagines hell would be full of.
You know what, though, I can actually see how your reading of torture and especially rape "jokes" fits in with my argument that Dean is in queer denial. It fits the shape of his PTSD.
I also feel newly conflicted about the ethical shape of the show. In some ways, they built ethical complexity in interesting ways, especially in terms of peope being redeemable after making terrible decisions (I like tht a lot), while still being responsible for those decisions (I like that a lot too -- I hate the reset button with a passion). But the more I read meta and think about the elements the show regularly fails at (misogyny, in particular, despite their well-realised female characters), the more I wonder how intrinsically flawed this milieu of storytelling is in terms of being able to engage meaningfully with ethical issues.
What I mean is, when the mainstream pressures of a capitalist network means showrunners nearly always have to treat certain themes through subtext, jokes and allusion, with the weight of the issue mostly being just outside of focus of the story, that is itself commentary on how valid those issues are. And it becomes problematic in itself.
Post-traumatic stress disorder for instance. It's clear Dean has it -- he has nearly all the classic symptoms, even though the show has even gone with the less well-known type (so he doesn't get the shakes and flashbacks etc). As you say, I think the way they use this can be read as a questioning of the hegemonic construction of masculinity in the west, and how damaging those stereotypical expectations can be. But at the same time, by never addressing it head-on (even the asylum episode ends up stepping back from and eliding the issues), Dean is left without help or resources with which to recuperate in a healthy way. And while that's great in terms of deconstrucing masculinity and questioning the damage caused by the status quo, it leaves actual men who are struggling with their own self-identity and mental health issues with one more unhelpful role-model.
It gets us nowhere useful. And I'm tired of texts that take me down endless emotionally wrenching dead-ends without ever giving me useful ideas or strategies in return for the journey. I want stories to do more work than that, if I invest the time and emotion in them. I know other people's mileage varies on that, and they find value in seeing the tragedies. Fine. I can choose not to watch, which I do and have.
But I still want stories that give an alternative to the same old messages, that take the path less travelled, but more useful.
*stares at rant*
Sorry about that. In short, I enjoyed your meta and it made me thinky. :)
Thanks for the rant! I have many thoughts, but I probably won't be able to get to them until tomorrow, if you don't mind the delay. Thanks for reading the meta, I'm glad it was interesting!
For instance, the first half of the season contained quite a lot of subtext implying that Dean was raped in hell, not to mention the subtext of his getting turned into a vampire was played like a sexual assault, and reading your analysis here I can't help but keep that in mind, given his reactions to Cas. (sorry wanted to add that I wrote about the rape subtext here, if you're interested: http://amonitrate.livejournal.com/540562.html)
So I guess I don't see it quite as simple as you're laying it out here, though I do agree that the show is making quite a lot of this subtext practically canon, or as canon as they're going to.
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I find your points about Dean really interesting -- I plan to read your essay once I've girded my loins.
I wish I didn't have to be so careful about watching shows now, but when I'm emotionally invested in the characters, I tend to be easily triggered. It's frustrating. Actually, given what you've said about Dean, I may not be able to watch season 6 anyway. We'll see what my alpha watcher says once she's done.
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I guess I'm saying I think you're on to something but I'm just not so sure I agree with your ultimate conclusions. Possibly this is because I do read Dean as pretty bi, in that he is interested in women and men but has major issues with his interest in men? So I don't necessarily get the feeling that Dean's reactions are show POV towards gay relationships. If that makes any kind of sense.
(edited because i clearly need coffee)
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I wouldn't even ascribe the showrunners deliberate homophobia. Given the construction they've created, that's how it ends up reading to me, but it's entirely possible to create something homophobic unintentionally.
I agree with you about Dean's bisexuality too. That whole sequence with the siren -- how else do you read that? I do think he's conflicted about the gay side of his sexuality, though. Whether that's because in Castiel's case it would be more than a one-night-stand, or because he's non-human, or some other reason, I haven't decided. I could much more easily read him as casually bi last season; the angst seems too closely linked to him repressing gay desire this season. You've seen it though, and I haven't, so I'm hardly going to argue with your reading!
One of the things I love about meta is that it's a chance to test my own conclusions. I often refine them during discussion, and come to a deeper understanding. So go ahead and test them out. I'd be interested to see how else this reading can be used.
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I didn't read Sam's refusal to hug Cas as in any kind of homophobic or sexual way. I think there's a bunch more going on in that scene, namely Sam has just been resouled and everyone is lying to him about what happened, and it feels much more related to that than to anything remotely sexual, to me. Also probably to the fact that Cas isn't exactly known for hugging anyone.
I'm not entirely sure Dean's fully aware of his interest in dudes, if he is bi. His crush on Dr. Sexy for example seems really adolescent, his reaction to the Siren was complicated by his missing Sam being his little brother, his relationship with Cas is all kinds of complicated by everything else between them. And given how Dean was raised in this hyper-masculine environment, the way he adopts that kind of persona to cover all his fears and insecurities, basically cosplaying as a Heterosexual Action Hero to get himself through the day since high school or earlier, I get the impression he's never quite come to any kind of terms with any possible bisexuality. Mostly I think Dean is one confused dude.
He did start making explicitly sexual remarks to Cas in 5.18 though, so he seems to have caught on a little.
Anyway, my personal D/C headcanon is that Dean is mostly freaking the fuck out because he has many, many issues. And Cas's issues are more of the replacing-God-with-Dean variety.
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Oh, just an addition: I guess one part I do disagree with you on is that anyone has acted out of character this season? I see them all as tragically horribly in character, given the context.
I also disagree with your reading of Bobby. Because I do approach Dean as bi, I think his wish for a life with Lisa and Ben is legit (by which I mean not due to just repression), and that Bobby's motivation is almost entirely the need to get Dean out of the hunting life, period. There's an exchange in the season premiere to this effect:
Bobby: Because you got out, Dean! You walked away from the life. And I was so damn grateful, you got no idea.
Dean: Do you have any clue what walking away meant for me?
Bobby: Yeah -- a woman and a kid and not getting your guts ripped out at age 30. That's what it meant.
So to me it had far less to do with any kind of repressed sexuality than it did for Bobby wishing to not see someone he loves dead so young, influenced by the fact that Bobby couldn't save Dean in season 3 any more than Sam could.
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Dude. This makes so much sense.
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This is an awesome idea! Although, could it be that Cas is replacing God with Dean because that is the only way he knows how to deal with intense love? Whether that is platonic, brotherly, or sexual love who can say, but it is only a reaction to feelings he doesn't comprehend.
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I'm not entirely sure Dean's fully aware of his interest in dudes, if he is bi.
I agree, and I think he's afraid/horrified whenever something makes him self-aware enough that he suspects it.
The siren episode really fascinates me (I have seen that one). As you say, the motivations and plot add enough confusion that you can't read it as a straight (so to speak :) commentary on Dean's sexuality. I really liked the gender inversion, it was an enjoyable twist, and used to comment on Sam and Dean's relationship in a clever way.
That said, the very fact that sirens work on the premise of fulfilling a person's deepest desire, it does say something pretty telling that Dean's deepest desire wears a man's face. Given that sirens are seducers, and the way they are typically represented outside of Supernatural, and that the other victims in the ep were all het couples, you can't help but read a sexual element in there, especially as the siren makes Sam and Dean fight over him. Fights often stand in for sex on tv shows too (the classic being Spock's pon farr episode).
I tend to read Dean's emotional investment in Sam as due to many motivations (actually, I read many motivations into just about all actions by all the characters, but I also see larger patterns emerging from them), which include the way they were raised, geuine love, social isolation, and so on. But it also does seem to me that Sam is a "safe" man to love. You're allowed to love your brother in a way you can't love other men without being seen as gay.
I like your personal headcanon. :)
And Cas's issues are more of the replacing-God-with-Dean variety.
I saw that reading much more in season 5. From what I've picked up from s6, that element is still there, but Castiel has been on more of a journey of finding other ways to deal without God. One of my favourite current out-there "what ifs" is this one: http://saucery.livejournal.com/14123.html
That's clever and amusing. It's like God is the Dread Pirate Roberts. LOL. "And the previous God, he wasn't God either," explains Godstiel. "He's retired and living it up with rebel cherubs in outer Zion."
I'm actually not convinced that Castiel has sexual feelings for anyone, but I so think he's been exploring whether or not he does, in an attempt to understand humans (Dean) better. So I'm hapy to read stories in which he takes that exploration to obvious end points, but I'm also happy with friendship romances. It's not either/or for me, you know?
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The Dread Pirate Roberts! That's kind of how I've been looking at it too, to be perfectly honest, I love that idea. I don't know if that's where they'll go with it.
It's not either/or for me either. I'm mostly a gen/friendship girl at heart.
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Obviously, I can't comment on such a close reading until after (hopefully) I've seen the eps, but you make a compelling case, and it certainly ties in to the kind of horrors one imagines hell would be full of.
You know what, though, I can actually see how your reading of torture and especially rape "jokes" fits in with my argument that Dean is in queer denial. It fits the shape of his PTSD.
I also feel newly conflicted about the ethical shape of the show. In some ways, they built ethical complexity in interesting ways, especially in terms of peope being redeemable after making terrible decisions (I like tht a lot), while still being responsible for those decisions (I like that a lot too -- I hate the reset button with a passion). But the more I read meta and think about the elements the show regularly fails at (misogyny, in particular, despite their well-realised female characters), the more I wonder how intrinsically flawed this milieu of storytelling is in terms of being able to engage meaningfully with ethical issues.
What I mean is, when the mainstream pressures of a capitalist network means showrunners nearly always have to treat certain themes through subtext, jokes and allusion, with the weight of the issue mostly being just outside of focus of the story, that is itself commentary on how valid those issues are. And it becomes problematic in itself.
Post-traumatic stress disorder for instance. It's clear Dean has it -- he has nearly all the classic symptoms, even though the show has even gone with the less well-known type (so he doesn't get the shakes and flashbacks etc). As you say, I think the way they use this can be read as a questioning of the hegemonic construction of masculinity in the west, and how damaging those stereotypical expectations can be. But at the same time, by never addressing it head-on (even the asylum episode ends up stepping back from and eliding the issues), Dean is left without help or resources with which to recuperate in a healthy way. And while that's great in terms of deconstrucing masculinity and questioning the damage caused by the status quo, it leaves actual men who are struggling with their own self-identity and mental health issues with one more unhelpful role-model.
It gets us nowhere useful. And I'm tired of texts that take me down endless emotionally wrenching dead-ends without ever giving me useful ideas or strategies in return for the journey. I want stories to do more work than that, if I invest the time and emotion in them. I know other people's mileage varies on that, and they find value in seeing the tragedies. Fine. I can choose not to watch, which I do and have.
But I still want stories that give an alternative to the same old messages, that take the path less travelled, but more useful.
*stares at rant*
Sorry about that. In short, I enjoyed your meta and it made me thinky. :)
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