So. 13×02. Was it just me or did that scene where Dean fights the demon in the hotel room for a while until Sam runs in and saves him just feel kinda rapey? Dean seemed really shook too. That demon was hella aggressive and inappropriate – more than usual for trying to kill a guy on this show. And the fight choreography – jeez. What was that about? Can I count this as the must-have-but-no-one-wants Bucklemming questionable consent moment / rape moment? What did I just witness? My poor Dean. WTH?
So yes this scene stood out to me for a lot of reasons, but I don’t actually see it as a negative moment nor equate it with Bucklemmings standard moments of dubious consent (that honour went to Mary and the rapey hunter dude – thanks Bucklemming).
I was gonna write about this in my review. My review which remains in draft form as I write this because I cannot focus long enough to sort out everything I wanna say. *sobs at own inadequacy*
So yes this scene. So you may not have heard but SPN has a new stunt and fight co-ordinator for season 13. So the fight scenes so far have indeed seemed more brutal than previously. Personally I think they have all been awesome. But this one does indeed stand out, and you are right that it seems kinda rapey. Why is that?
Remember when we talked about 12×11 and Dean’s infamous ride on Larry? How the whole thing was framed to be sexual – look out for @margarittet meta on this scene compared to the movie Urban Cowboy for more info because it is eye opening.
Something SPN does extremely well is utilise standard filming techniques for the ‘male gaze’ but focused on Dean. Dean is quite regularly now framed in a way that would usually be used for a sexy female and it is so very interesting to me that they do this. It is extremely rare for mainstream film and TV to use these filming techniques on male actors. But Dean constantly gets the female treatment. There is an excellent slightly NSFW meta post going around about how Dean is always the character who gets holy water ‘facials’ and the sexual implications of filming said ‘facials’ in a certain way. Note how Dean is also always the character filmed shoving things into his mouth. These filming techniques are never used on Sam.
Back to this fight scene, and the same techniques are used here. This fight scene was difficult to watch because it was incredibly suggestive, and sexualised. This gigantic beast of a male demon throws Dean down, gets him on the table with his legs up in the air and spread out, then proceeds to pick him up so his face is basically in Dean’s groin, to throw him down on the bed.At which point Dean cowers whilst Sam stabs him through the back.
The moment on the table is bad enough. He is literally lying there with his legs spread while this guy goes at him.
and bends forward over him – effectively forcing Dean’s legs up and back like that common position you see in porn where you wonder how often those dudes have to stretch out their hamstrings cos jeez… at least we now know Jensen’s range of flexibility >_>
Then look at this:
I beg anyone to find me a scene in any action movie where this same choreography has been used for the male hero before. I would be very interested in watching it. You know where it HAS been used though?
Here.
In fact in the majority of black widow fights, she ends up with her legs wrapped around the enemy. Interesting right?
However when women use this type of fight style, the character usually has the upper hand. This is because women tend to be stronger in their legs and thighs than their arms. Men however have all sorts of sensitive dangly bits that makes this position extremely uncomfortable and vulnerable for them, so its just not ever done. Its still always framed as sexual though. Women fight this way because it appeals to the male gaze. “Ooh I’d like her to wrap her legs around me like that *wink wink nudge nudge*”.
Ignoring the glaringly obvious sexual undertones of the scene for a moment though, I have to ask why the new stunt coordinator would choose to put Dean in this position at all? Especially when it is then followed by this shot:
Dean, thrown on the bed, pushing himself back and away from his attacker, until Sam turns up at the last minute and saves the day.
Dean is extremely vulnerable throughout the entire fight. He’s not on form at all. This entire fight is showing just how off his game Dean is right now. He’s at rock bottom with his grief weighing on him heavily. Hence the demon gets the upper hand practically straight away. The fight appears sexualised and rapey because it is supposed to be that way. We are supposed to feel uncomfortable watching this scene and it is supposed to signify just how wrong Dean is at the moment. His grief has really wrecked him.
This isn’t the first time we have had shots of Dean in precarious positions however:
So it isn’t a new thing at all. This shot was from 10×18, when Dean was slowly succumbing to the Mark of Cain and was also in a vulnerable position. Another gigantic beast of a man comes towards him and it took something like 8 shots to the chest to take him down. There was genuine fear on Dean’s face in this scene. Dean got the upper hand eventually but the entire scene was framed with an air of discomfort for the audience. Especially since Mr Jacob Stein was leering at him in an overtly sexual manner the entire time his beastly accomplice had Dean pinned.
Two scenes reeking of sexual undertones, both where Dean is put on his back with his legs spread. Its supposed to feel rapey, its supposed to make him vulnerable. Both the 10×18 scene and the 13×02 scene are during times when Dean is travelling down a very dark path towards his own destruction. Whether through the Mark, or through his own heavy hearted grief.
So there are two reasons why Dean was put in this position. The main reason being to express vulnerability.
The other reason is to sexualise him and to suggest to the audience just how easily Dean fits into a certain type of sexual role. Of course with the first reason being dominant here the audience is left uneasy and wondering what on earth just happened. But Dean being sexualised and objectified is a pretty constant theme throughout the show. Especially by men and for men. Its part of his bisexual coding. It’s something we never see with Sam – or Cas for that matter.
Or maybe they just thought spreading Dean’s legs for a huge beast of a man on camera for a second would go down well with fandom.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Can I add, Mittens has a post about 9×16 going around right now, about Cuthbert’s rapey vibes, and again that’s something which I don’t think falls exactly under the misused dub con that Buckleming is famous for – the acting and directing play a large part in selling the reading, and it’s thematically appropriate for what is going on… The problem is when the tropes are used thoughtlessly, or not even really examined at all by the story, while in these cases it adds to the mood of what the story is telling us anyway.
Although the 10×18 one I remember got a lot of laughter from some of us because of Dean shooting like that from between his legs. He was down but he wasn’t exactly impotent or helpless there, so he gets to do some phallic shooting from the crotch-ish area while in this position. He’s physically dominated by these guys but he’s still stronger (more “virile”) than them and can empty his gun into them and take them down. In 10×22 he goes on to slaughter the entire family, after again they capture him and briefly seem to have the upper hand while he’s helplessly tied to a table… He knows the entire time that if they kill him, he’s only going to come back MORE dangerous and pissed off, so he’s never once actually threatened by them, and even sort of goading them to kill him just so he can come back as demon and wreck their shit 😛
In 13×02 he has no such advantage and he’s not even got a weapon… It reminds me more of 10×15 where Cole physically overpowers him because Dean doesn’t want to hurt him, and if he had wanted to, he probably could have torn Cole to shreds, but it was in the part of the story where they were trying to sell hope that Dean could overcome the Mark etc, so he just kinda waits it out and beats the monster inside Cole with a cure… But the sell on their fight scene was that Dean was very much outmatched and the phallic worm in Cole wanted to go in his mouth and Cole had him pinned on a table or something in a similar way to the table moment in this scene…
Anyway, yeah. Basically just agreeing with your post, though. I remember there was a sort of analysis of the show waaaaay back (like, when I was nosing around missing joining fandom in season 6 by a hairs’ breadth) that Sam and Dean were both generally objectified and treated like objects for titilation, mostly focussing on how much they were captured and tied up/tied onto things for our amusement. I think that broadly does apply to the both of them, but Dean has an entire extra level of implications about male violence towards him that’s followed him for a very long time. Whatever I was reading was much more about the female fan gaze rather than analysing what it all means about the character, but I mean, season 6 had Dean reference rape/being raped/in a rape allegorical situation like 4 episodes in close proximity… I think it’s 6×05 and the vampire attack, 6×09 and Oberon & the “grabby incadescent douchebags” and Sam’s “safe space” handling of it (like “i don’t have a soul and i can see this is fucked up and dean needs careful treatment”) and then some comments he made in the weird dog episode and caged heat, never mind Meg assaulting him one more time for the road in that episode >.> I mean – ugh, I seem to be focusing on season 6 and it was tonally similar to season 10, and that had Dean’s story about getting roofied at the club in 10×09 as well. Basically confirming what everyone’s always wondered about Dean and him identifying roofies and such in a “how do you not know” way, and wondering how he ever grew up in their rough environment. I mean even Jensen has wondered aloud if Dean turned tricks, and given the environment they grew up in that’s all kinds of horrifying for what may have happened to him in his past >.>
Sorry this is just rambling into all sorts of terrible places now. I am a whole bundle of emotions about Dean. I really don’t think any of this suggestive fight is queer subtext, as much as it is specifically characterising this about Dean and I suppose reminding us of his issues with this sort of thing – the overall picture of acting defensively straight, of equating male interest with assault and weakness and powerlessness with femininity… These are issues he’s actively addressed at times (via the cucumber water sort of safe space type things), but they don’t live a good life for him to feel comfortably queer… Which is ironic because I have written at other times how I think in many cases the more nuanced bad seductions are portrayed in such a way they use it as a weakness… I will always go back to the siren episode as a way to just blind side Dean when he’s expecting a female siren. Or more subtly, Crowley’s season 9 seduction… But on the other hand! 12×14 and Ketch trying the same things on Dean meets a solid defence, even with the “inclinations” thing or whatever queercoded word he poked and prodded at Dean’s defences with. And Mary ended up being the one to fall for it instead, and that loops us right back to 13×02 and how Dean’s fight scene was paralleled with Mary being attacked by the douchey rapist.
As usual, it’s an ongoing saga and Dean’s a work in progress 😛
Lizzy you know I love you rambling all over my posts.
I do think you’ve touched on so many good points though and many that I’ve missed. I don’t think I really explained WHY I thought that this scene among others falls under the general bracket of dean’s ‘bisexual coding’ and I didn’t mean for it to be taken as a positive. I guess it’s just another way for the viewer to associate Dean sexually with men. Same as the siren and the various other times when his bisexuality has been used as a weakness leading him to fall for the seduction.
But yeah basically I totally agree with all of this. It’s an ongoing trend throughout the show. Though it is interesting that in season 12 he was clear headed enough to reject Ketch witch could be interpreted as him becoming more accepting of himself and therefore more on guard about people using a previously highly repressed side of him as a weakness.
I wonder if Dean encountered a male siren now he would recognise it straight away. Or another creature like an incubus for example that he doesn’t have the prior knowledge about. I don’t think he would be fooled now just cos it was in male form because he has grown enough to accept that part of himself. But perhaps that’s a meta for another time.
I still have urgent questions about that off-screen siren in 12×15, especially since we had the reminder in 12×11 they’re not all hot chicks 😛
Tumblr backup 