and a bitch ain't one
"On a good day you get to kill a whore."
HOW IS THAT A GOOD DAY?
I'm not even going to touch the whole serial killers and sex workers dynamic this flagrantly rolls around in, because I get the feeling that the term whore is used pretty loosely here. Are you a woman? Chances are you're a whore, because there's a slim shot in hell you're a Madonna. I'm sorry, did you want to point out the shades of gray and whatever else between the two? YOU DON'T GET TO DO THAT. You're a whore, and Supernatural would like to kill you and call that a good day.
No, really.
My thoughts on the motivations here are muddled (I am a woman, after all, and my thought process is simplistic due to my tiny brain, woe), but I find it interesting that the deeper this show delves into the mythology of the apocalypse, the more crazy rabid it gets toward killing every female it finds written into the script. This time it's the Whore of Babylon, who of course is not an actual figure but more of an allegorical figure for Rome. Or any institution (usually a country) typically associated with evil, but it's pretty specifically geared toward Rome with the seven hills and all that shit. Just like how 666 as the mark of the Beast is typically associated with all those Roman emperors who liked to kill Christians (even more specifically: Nero, because for a time there people were afraid that he'd somehow escaped and would return with an army). Most of the time it all boils down to Nero and Caligula, because I'm pretty sure you can't out crazy them. That said, they're freaking allegories. BE MORE CREATIVE, SHOW. Just whipping up another traitorous bitch storyline where someone gets to say, "Yay, it's whore killing time!" is actually less inspired than the Bible.
Anyway. The more this season gets weighed down with this insane Revelations crap, the more misogynistic it gets. This doesn't surprise me at all. Sometimes I wonder if it's intentional, but I have a feeling it's more Supernatural playing with its majorly female fanbase more than it usually does and that the creator has some very frightening issues that need to be addressed. This was just... I've seen a few horribly misogynistic (also: stupid) cut scenes that, when compared to this episode, make me wonder what in the hell they were thinking. A good day to kill a whore, huh? Are we going to be that insensitive to violence toward women in general?
It's not just this that's been bothering me. 99 Problems (And a bitch ain't one! Oh, show, you suck so hard) not only had the Whore of Babylon, it made sure the main unwitting right hand woman of the Whore of Babylon was going to hell. Why? Because she believed what the Whore was dishing out about seeing her dead son during the paradise on earth portion of the apocalypse. Shocked, the woman asks no one in particular what's going to happen to that whole paradise thing after Dean has basically staked the Whore (all sexy-like), and Dean tells her pretty bluntly that he thinks she's going to hell. It had to be the woman, right? It couldn't be her husband, who was right there with her for the majority of those right hand decisions. Nope, the woman is definitely going to hell. It was probably her and her nasty feelings that dragged that poor man onto the side of evil to begin with.
And what good whore episode isn't complete without a Madonna? Enter Lisa, the girl who was a whore but somehow hasn't been killed because she slept with Dean and maybe gave birth to his kid, representing the pinnacle of what men apparently want in this series: a vessel. You know Lisa's important only because she gave birth to a kid that may or may not be Dean's. Regardless of if Ben is actually Dean's, he represents the son he could choose to have if he wants him. Lisa is a bonus who happens to be around to serve beer (I will go ahead and cite 99 Problems on that one.)
(Interestingly, I was skimming A World Without Women: the Christian Clerical Culture of Western Science several weeks ago that goes into how scientists all originated in the church, after women got kicked out of the fold, and how that male-dominated culture seemed very preoccupied with painting women as the devil. And then there was this disturbing side trip into in vitro and how fantastic some people seem to think it would be if we only had artificial wombs to take care of the messy subject of reproducing. Then there would be no more women and men could just, I don't know, really enjoy homosexual sex and bestiality. Morons.)
I think I'm breaking up with Supernatural, because this episode made me want to scratch out my eyes.
HOW IS THAT A GOOD DAY?
I'm not even going to touch the whole serial killers and sex workers dynamic this flagrantly rolls around in, because I get the feeling that the term whore is used pretty loosely here. Are you a woman? Chances are you're a whore, because there's a slim shot in hell you're a Madonna. I'm sorry, did you want to point out the shades of gray and whatever else between the two? YOU DON'T GET TO DO THAT. You're a whore, and Supernatural would like to kill you and call that a good day.
No, really.
My thoughts on the motivations here are muddled (I am a woman, after all, and my thought process is simplistic due to my tiny brain, woe), but I find it interesting that the deeper this show delves into the mythology of the apocalypse, the more crazy rabid it gets toward killing every female it finds written into the script. This time it's the Whore of Babylon, who of course is not an actual figure but more of an allegorical figure for Rome. Or any institution (usually a country) typically associated with evil, but it's pretty specifically geared toward Rome with the seven hills and all that shit. Just like how 666 as the mark of the Beast is typically associated with all those Roman emperors who liked to kill Christians (even more specifically: Nero, because for a time there people were afraid that he'd somehow escaped and would return with an army). Most of the time it all boils down to Nero and Caligula, because I'm pretty sure you can't out crazy them. That said, they're freaking allegories. BE MORE CREATIVE, SHOW. Just whipping up another traitorous bitch storyline where someone gets to say, "Yay, it's whore killing time!" is actually less inspired than the Bible.
Anyway. The more this season gets weighed down with this insane Revelations crap, the more misogynistic it gets. This doesn't surprise me at all. Sometimes I wonder if it's intentional, but I have a feeling it's more Supernatural playing with its majorly female fanbase more than it usually does and that the creator has some very frightening issues that need to be addressed. This was just... I've seen a few horribly misogynistic (also: stupid) cut scenes that, when compared to this episode, make me wonder what in the hell they were thinking. A good day to kill a whore, huh? Are we going to be that insensitive to violence toward women in general?
It's not just this that's been bothering me. 99 Problems (And a bitch ain't one! Oh, show, you suck so hard) not only had the Whore of Babylon, it made sure the main unwitting right hand woman of the Whore of Babylon was going to hell. Why? Because she believed what the Whore was dishing out about seeing her dead son during the paradise on earth portion of the apocalypse. Shocked, the woman asks no one in particular what's going to happen to that whole paradise thing after Dean has basically staked the Whore (all sexy-like), and Dean tells her pretty bluntly that he thinks she's going to hell. It had to be the woman, right? It couldn't be her husband, who was right there with her for the majority of those right hand decisions. Nope, the woman is definitely going to hell. It was probably her and her nasty feelings that dragged that poor man onto the side of evil to begin with.
And what good whore episode isn't complete without a Madonna? Enter Lisa, the girl who was a whore but somehow hasn't been killed because she slept with Dean and maybe gave birth to his kid, representing the pinnacle of what men apparently want in this series: a vessel. You know Lisa's important only because she gave birth to a kid that may or may not be Dean's. Regardless of if Ben is actually Dean's, he represents the son he could choose to have if he wants him. Lisa is a bonus who happens to be around to serve beer (I will go ahead and cite 99 Problems on that one.)
(Interestingly, I was skimming A World Without Women: the Christian Clerical Culture of Western Science several weeks ago that goes into how scientists all originated in the church, after women got kicked out of the fold, and how that male-dominated culture seemed very preoccupied with painting women as the devil. And then there was this disturbing side trip into in vitro and how fantastic some people seem to think it would be if we only had artificial wombs to take care of the messy subject of reproducing. Then there would be no more women and men could just, I don't know, really enjoy homosexual sex and bestiality. Morons.)
I think I'm breaking up with Supernatural, because this episode made me want to scratch out my eyes.