director's cut of a tumblr post from last week

[pocochina]

This a subject that I've  had so many thoughts about for so long that I could never quite figure out how to pin them all down into a structure. Then I spitballed a reblog on tumblr a while back and, because I was just intending to make a quick comment, ended up accidentally forcing myself into organization. So here is the greatly-expanded version

Comments

[pocochina]

It was so straightforwardly "don't worry your pretty head, honey" to me? And the STARK OFFENSE John, and later Dean, seem to take at Sam's intellect, because his willingness and ability to think things through for himself is a threat to his subjugation, and therefore their identity as the ~virile and virtuous protectors of Darling Little Sammy was....I've never seen it gendered in this particular way before?

But yes, one of the fandom shibboleths I found most jarring when I got into things a year and a half ago was the extent to which people really will parrot the rationalization that a years-long gaslighting campaign was "protecting" Sam. And I do think that fandom dynamic is skewed in a weird way by Sam being male? Because usually in fandoms you'll certainly have people saying that this particular kind of abuse is love, but you'll also have a pushing back against that which I don't see. I don't know if it's a self-selecting thing, that SPN chases off so many people who are practiced at breaking down this narrative, or if it really is like "Sam is a big strong strapping man and therefore he can't be a victim"? because if so that is really disturbing.

[lyryk]

or if it really is like "Sam is a big strong strapping man and therefore he can't be a victim"? because if so that is really disturbing.

Yeah, that's a bit worrying. I don't even know where a perception like that would come from, since the show constantly stresses that Sam is defintely capable of being hurt.

[pocochina]

I'd agree with that, but I do think there's a difference between the traditional "a male character can sustain manly injuries in a physical altercation between menfolk" and getting an audience to accept that "a male character is susceptible to intimate violations, relational aggression, and mind games, and therefore all the massive psychological damage those things cause." And (apparently) people can very much draw that arbitrary distinction, as we see with the different fan reaction to Sam in S7 and S8.