argumentsagainstbideansuck made a post recently about Dean Winchester being a lying liar who lies, mentioning that every time Dean claims not to be into dudes, it’s actually some of the strongest evidence to the contrary. I’ve been keeping a list of the no homo -moments in Supernatural, so I thought I would review the writers of the episodes that featured these moments, and take a few moments to evaluate how their characterization of Dean Winchester has affected the over-all characterization across ten years.
The no homo -moments (many of them specifically delivered in baseball metaphors) are in episodes:
2.09 John Shiban (writer of 9 episodes and also the dude who was brought in to get the show off the ground in the first place) 3.05 Cathryn Humphris (writer of 7 episodes)
3.12, 4.17 (adding 6.12 with its “I was too busy having sex. With Women”) Sera Gamble (writer of 29 episodes, show-runner)
4.12 Julie Siege (writer of 6 episodes)
2.11 Matt Witten (writer of 2 episodes) 6.05 Brett Matthews (writer of 3 episodes)
Matt and Brett wrote too few episodes for there to be an identifiable pattern, or for their characterization to have much impact on Dean’s over-all characterization on the show.
Julie wrote enough episodes to establish a style, but Dean Winchester’s sexuality didn’t play a big part in her episodes. The episodes 4.12 (Criss Angel is a Douchbag – Dean pings the gaydar of cold-reading magicians) and 5.17 (99 Problems – effects of the death of gay-coded bartender on Dean) may tip her over as having conceived of Dean Winchester as bisexual, but it wasn’t a big thematic in her writing.
Shiban and Humphris wrote Dean as a bisexual character. They are some of the biggest sources of subtext in the first seasons.
What it comes down to is Sera Gamble, who has both most no homo moments in her episodes and most episodes under her belt, inarguably having had the most influence on Dean’s characterization. The question is, did she write the character as bisexual and did she write the character as straight?
I can’t answer you that. My own personal frustration with Sera Gamble’s episodes over the years comes from her treating Dean Winchester – and the sexuality of Dean Winchester – as a bit of a joke. She had very good ideas for episodes, she had a talent for plot and composition (sometimes needed help with dialogue), but characterization was not her strong suit. There is no doubt, however, that her writing of the character of Dean Winchester hasn’t had a huge impact on his characterization. Maybe she thought Dean was straight. Maybe she didn’t.
Now, here’s the important part: none of these writers are writing for the show anymore.
So let me list you some writers that have written Dean Winchester as a bisexual character in the past: Jeremy Carver, Andrew Dabb, Ross-Lemming/Buckner, Robbie Thompson, Robert Berens, Jenny Klein, and Charmelo/Snyder.
Since so many people seem to have trouble with their Dean Winchester-to-English translations recently, I thought I’d offer my services in the form of a small dictionary.
Dean Winchester is known to use projection as a psychological defense mechanism. Projection is a means of relieving psychological tension by projecting unwanted characteristics of oneself to others – most often on his brother. Dean Winchester has displayed a propensity for projection ever since the Pilot episode. It is one of his most enduring characteristics.
No chick flick moments! = I’m insecure about my masculinity Dude, could you be more gay? = I’m insecure about my sexuality You’re a red-headed woman = I’m insecure about my masculinity You’re Lois Lane = I’m Lois Lane Angelina Jolie? Brad Pitt? = I would so do Brad Pitt, dude Sam wears women’s underwear = I have tried on Rhonda Hurley’s underwear Is this [bra] yours? = I wear women’s underwear Sam Winchester cries his way through sex = I totally get emotional during sex Sam Winchester takes keeps a ruler by the bed… = I feel insecure about my masculinity I was too busy having sex with women = I am such a nerd Let’s not go all geek on this stuff, okay? = I am such a nerd We’ll braid Sam’s hair = I’m insecure about my masculinity because I’m in love with you Or, hey, how about what you did to Penny Markle in the sixth grade? = I did something real shitty to Penny Markle in sixth grade You’re awkward and weird = I feel awkward and weird Real men don’t drink from cups this small = I feel insecure about my masculinity For the ladies. Or the fellas. I don’t judge = You’re a bisexual douchebag = I’m a bisexual douchebag Well? Come to apologize? = I really hurt you and I don’t even know how to begin apologizing
this isn’t fandom making this up the narrative goes out of its way as early as episode three to say this
True that. And Carver and Dabb’s episodes especially have taken it seriously as a psychological condition, not just used it for gags.
Of all the Dean-is-hetero!!1! arguments running around the world/fandom, the one that continues to frustrate and baffle me the most BY FAR is the he-said-he’s-straight-therefore-it-must-be-true argument.
Like…do these people even watch the show? At all?
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They bang on and on and on and ON about what an emotionally repressed liar Dean is.
Dean Winchester is NOT a reliable narrator of his own feelings. If you even watch the show casually, you should know this. They aren’t subtle about it. And it’s been a fairly consistent character trait for the show’s entire run.
I know I’ve said this all before, but sometimes I feel the need to reiterate because this is SO easy to refute as a textual claim. I am always just utterly amazed when people pull out the “I don’t swing that way” line like it’s some kind of trump card. I’m like, do you not understand that’s actually one of your WEAKEST lines of argumentation? By that logic I can reasonably assert Dean isn’t a fan of Dr. Sexy, because he said he’s not.
Even though he, ya know, CLEARLY IS.
Characters lie. Dean lies more than most characters. Hello. Get a clue. “He said it” ISN’T A GOOD REASON TO BELIEVE HIM.
Projection as a self-defense mechanism of the psyche is a feature of Borderline personality disorder, so we should explore the possibility that Dean’s on-going trauma might have triggered it in him. There appears to be a connection between Borderline personality and PTSD, a childhood trauma and loss of caregivers in early childhood serving as contributing factors in the development of the disorder (“There is a strong correlation between child abuse, especially child sexual abuse, and development of BPD. Many individuals with BPD report a history of abuse and neglect as young children”).
Symptoms of BPD feature a pattern of impulsivity and instability of behaviours (“Impulsive behavior is common, including substance or alcohol abuse, eating disorders, unprotected sex or indiscriminate sex with multiple partners, reckless spending, and reckless driving”), interpersonal relationships and self-image (“difficulty knowing what they value, believe, prefer, and enjoy”), intense fear of abadonment, anger and irritability, both idealization (”He doesn’t have relationships. He has applications for sainthood”) and devalution of other people, sensitivity to rejection and criticism, all of which is classic Dean. Substance abuse is also commonly found in association with the condition.
Interesting is also that problem solving, using the brain’s executive functions (working cases) seems to alleviate the symptoms.
“Specifically, those with borderline personality disorder are more likely to exhibit greater sexual preoccupation, have earlier sexual exposure, engage in casual sexual relationships, report a greater number of different sexual partners as well as promiscuity, and engage in homosexual experiences.”
“these authors emphasized the phenomenon of “pan-sexuality” (i.e.,
all-embracing sexuality), which encompassed promiscuity, “polymorphous
perverse sexual practices,” and heterosexual/homosexual vacillation.“
Subjects with BPD were significantly more likely than comparison
subjects to report homosexual or bisexual orientation and intimate
same-sex relationships. There were no significant differences between
male and female borderline subjects in prevalence of reported homosexual
or bisexual orientation or in prevalence of reported same-sex
relationships. … Results of this study suggest that same-gender
attraction and/or intimate relationship choice may be an important
interpersonal issue for approximately one-third of both men and women
with BPD.
“Though it hasn’t been studied, there is a sense among doctors that many
patients tend to be attractive, which can trigger a vicious cycle. Being beautiful induces the world
to treat you like an object, which naturally gives rise to questions
about whether you are loveable, which in turn makes you long for
confirmation.“
Granted, Dean Winchester is a character, and a composite of many authors at that, but all in all his characterization seems to offer us a rather holistic picture of someone suffering from borderline personality due to childhood trauma. Also, Dean is bisexual. It’s science.
EHEHEHEHEHE! Yes, there were. In “Heaven Can’t Wait,” Cas uses Steve as an alias when he’s working in the Gas ‘n’ Sip.
Dean and Sam pose as Agents Stark and Banner in “Devil May Care,” and since Dean is the one performing introductions, he’s probably using the Stark alias.
So, yeah. Cas poses as Steve, and Dean poses as Tony.
Hmm,
actually, I think the whole ‘Dean mostly being paired with other males’ thing
is very interesting, but also very understandable. I think it isn’t limited to
Destiel though, and doesn’t have to do with Dean as a character per se, but
also with the kind of show that Supernatural is.
(Only keep
reading if you don’t get uncomfortable at the sight of ships other than Destiel,
even though I don’t ship any of these ships, but merely use them as an example.)
The thing
with shipping in general is, that we’re looking for a story that speaks to us. We’re
looking for something ground breaking on that TV show that we enjoy, something
epic, something that for the most part doesn’t simply happen in real life.
So when we’re
looking at Dean in particular (because this is what your ask was about), we’re
looking for interesting relationships between him and potential partners. But
the problem is; pretty much all women that were potential love interests, either
didn’t get to stick around, or didn’t get a chance to play a part in the epic
love story that most viewers are looking for.
Characters
like Cassie, Robin, and Ann Marie never got more than one single episode, so
they barely count. There are several other one night stands, but none of them
get a chance to explore any kind of bond with Dean that’s visible to the
audience. No slow build love story that the viewers will get invested in. The
same goes for Lisa; there’s an episode where we get to meet her/Ben, but after
that, it goes from 1 to 100 in a second, and suddenly they’re together, playing
house. That unusual love story that people are looking for, wasn’t there. She
was nice, she was kind, she was safe. But their relationship as told on the show,
was nothing spectacular, or unexpected in the good way.
I’d say
that the only love story for Dean that actually had potential, was Dean/Jo.
Personally, I didn’t ship it, but she was around long enough for the writers to
make something of it, and her personality could’ve contributed to a love story
that wasn’t solely based around her ‘being a love interest’. But she got killed
off, so the opportunity was never properly explored.
So keeping
all of this in mind… then there is Dean and the fellas. And the thing is, these are all white men, meaning they got
to stick around for a while. Meaning they actually got a chance to ‘write a
story’ with Dean, and meaning that he could actually build a relationship with
them.
We see Dean
getting into this unlikely long-term relationship with an angel, even though he
never had faith before this one angel. (Destiel) We see Dean getting into this
unlikely long-term relationship with a vampire, even though he’s never seen them
as anything other than horrible blood suckers before this one vampire.
(Dean/Benny). And we see Dean getting into this unlikely relationship with a
demon, even though demons were supposed to be his worst enemy, before this one
demon. (Dean/Crowley, because whether you like it or not, that friendship got
oddly romantic, especially from Crowley’s side.)
So this
kind of thing peaks our interest, because we have the combination of
human/immortal being, and we get the slow burn that we like in order to see these
relationships (whether you view them as romantic or platonic) bloom.
And that is
the point. All of these males get the opportunity to build up a decent
relationship with Dean Winchester, because unlike pretty much all women on the
show, they get the screen time to do it. Dean and all of them share an
interesting history, whereas Dean and all of these women (except for Jo, a
little) simply don’t. It’s not their fault, they just never got a real chance
to compete, because the writers don’t give them a story that allows them to.
Which brings
us to another thing; When we find a new ship/love story that we enjoy, it often
takes us by surprise. It’s the story and natural chemistry between two
characters that compels us to ‘ship it’. But the problem is, we’re often not
interested when we’re ‘artificially’ forced to ship something. Meaning; Let’s say
they’d introduce some random new female in season 11 or 12 (which are most
likely the final seasons). She’s white, she’s straight, she’s Dean’s age. We’d
all know why she’s here; she’s here to be Dean’s love interest. She’s merely
designed to easily slide into Dean’s life, and fit there perfectly. And that is
where the problem lies. Because this is the point where we already lose
interest; we’re not surprised, we’re not witnessing anything ground breaking.
They lose our attention the second she’s introduced, because there is no
challenge there, we know that she was ‘made for Dean’, whereas with others with
whom he got a chance to form a bond (and all of those happen to be males
because all the females left or got killed off before their time), there is the
exciting ‘whoa will they or won’t they’ factor.
So on top of all that, at this point, whomever
they introduce, Dean already has a more impressive and compelling relationship
with at least three males on the show, building for seasons and seasons, deeper
than he will EVER have with this random new chick, because he and her didn’t get the time back when it was necessary, and it’s simply too late.
Not to
mention, aside from all that, there is Wincest. Because no random female that
ever stumbles in, is going to succeed at making Dean put her before Sam. And realistically,
no woman is going to put up with that in the long run.
So the
women are definitely not the problem, and if you really think about it, neither
is the audience. We’re looking for stories that lure us in, and whoever is part
of that story, we usually don’t really care whether they’re male/female/a
poltergeist/a llama. But on Supernatural we mostly have to make do with males,
and so that (naturally), is what this fandom does.
I haven’t written anything for Queer Dean Month yet, which is a crying shame. So I thought I’d talk about the tilt scan, which many have noted with regard to the famous shot in A Little Slice of Kevin, in a little more detail.
The tilt is a technique in cinematography that is instantly recognizable to most consumers of visual media whether they consciously know it or not. In a tilting shot the camera remains stationary while rotating on a vertical axis called the tilting plane. It is often used to indicate the sexiness of the female body as an object. The first gif in Google image search for a ‘sexy body’ is a tilting scan of a half-naked female body.
Dean Winchester is not a germ freak. He said so. He said so himself. There is no way that Dean Winchester could have a phobia of germs. The proof is right there.
Dean Winchester actually thinks of himself as not a germ freak.
#isn’t this a gorgeous post #I’M NOT IN LOVE WITH GERMS SAMMY I DON’T EVEN LIKE THEM THAT WAY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT #I DO NOT CHECK OUT GERMS’ ASSES OKAY #WOULD YOU SHUT UP ABOUT THE GERMS I DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT THEM THAT MUCH OR THINK THEY HAVE BEAUTIFUL EYES OR SOFT LIPS OR SEX HAIR OR OR #I DON’T CARE ABOUT GERMS SAMMY #dean #dean is bisexual #meta #q (via livebloggingmydescentintomadness)
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