So this scene totally made me think of the blue & pink wall we saw in 10.05 when Dean and Sam were (not) discussing Destiel or Sastiel. (I’m sorry if peeps already talked about this but I’m behind on reading meta just like I’m behind on everything else in my life.)
The whole scene with Dean and the love spell just had a ton of blue & pink. Like it’s surrounding him in this shot when he’s trying to answer the question “Are you Dean Winchester?” Yup.That’s me, Dean Winchester Lover of the Ladies & the Fellas.
And all that blue disappears once Dean is completely under the spell. He comes back with the book and even though the girls are at the same spot and the little blue car is still in the scene, it’s blue color is barely even noticeable.
it’s completely obscured now. The ladies and their spell are blocking Dean from even seeing it at the moment.
And not to be that person but there is also the sign. Or rather lots of signs
Personally I’ve never seen so many Customer Parking Only signs in my life.Usually if there is more than one, they’re spaced out every couple of parking spaces, not in front of every single space because signs cost money. I’d probably put three signs on that wall, tops. Not more than ten! And then Jamie is lying in the only spot without one of those signs.
And would you look at that, the sign says Rays. You know, like the sun. … And of course ABC stands for All Bout Cas. But my favorite thing about them is Dean’s parked in front of one of these signs and he gets put under this love spell and kisses Jamie and all over this gigantic pink wall are signs yelling that he can’t stay there for more than 2 hours. There is a two hour maximum and I doubt Dean was under the love spell for even that long. Temporary temporary. He can’t stay there. He belongs somewhere else.
Dean “I was going to kiss him at the end of our date but I panicked because he looked so gorgeous so instead I ruffled his hair, did finger guns and ran” Winchester.
Aw, season 1 stuff 😀 I’ve noticed that line before in this context and I think I’ve also seen people talking about it, somewhere, and I’ll go look in a moment.
There’s some good meta out there about season 1 Sam’s queercoding via abstract magic powers contrasted with the very different form of queercoding for Dean via shit he says and does and circumstances and tropes etc. They both feel like freaks, which is said on screen for both of them by like 1×06, so you have Sam who is magically different from everyone else, and Dean who just feels socially ostracised and the metaphor works on a social level instead, which makes it more directly personal to his upbringing and why he doesn’t feel he connects just as a person. It’s part of the structural subtext of season 1 that lends to a bi!Dean reading (like I was recently snarking in the tags of this post about) 😀 So I don’t think there’s any reason not to think that some sort of early bi!Dean subtext is out there in a sort of structural way which to me validates every reading of him taken off random lines and actions. And Dean going around saying stuff like that in season 1 is part of it 😛
I… I just looked through my tag for the episode and couldn’t find anything, which is really weird because I *remember* having a conversation about it and/or reading good long meta about it. The only post I could find was this one which is not only one of 2 posts dealing with bi Dean stuff in this episode (aside from some slightly larger collections), I didn’t write much myself for this entire episode and the only reason it’s mentioned here is my tags snidely alluding to it:
I’m going to have to assume that this is such an obvious line we all just kinda don’t pay it any attention because like the one about him teasing Sam about the hotter psychic, you have to go through a few loops more than you need to with later subtext, even though it fully counts in a projection/anxiety way that Dean’s behaviour is quite predictable even by this point about in other ways.
Well I don’t think these are my own thoughts but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it talked about vis a vis Dean’s awareness of the concept and social commentary e.g. he’s calling Sam out for not wanting to talk about it because he is trying to say he’s NOT as unwelcoming as the military and would be supportive of Sam if he’d just talk to him normally about it instead of getting defensive. Especially since Sam brushes it off as weird vibes and dreams, when he previously, in Home, was much more certain he was having premonitions and was visibly distressed and beating himself up about having predicted Jess’s death. Dean’s not stupid, he’d have been waiting to find out what Sam was hiding since 1×04 and he knew Bloody Mary’s MO so of course he knows that to Sam this is more than “just” weird vibes and dreams, but he’s having some serious plot-arc, thing-that-killed-Mom-and-Jess weirdness going on right now. Sam blows him off talking about it and Dean snarks at him that fine keep your secrets if you think I’m going to – well, dishonourably discharge you from the family for the truth, to finish the parallel.
Obviously Dean using the term critically means a level of social awareness to make the parallel and to use it as a negative concept. And then there’s the reflecting onto Sam, because the term obviously is *only* about being gay in the military as the first and only read you need to make of it in this context. And he barbs at Sam a lot for being feminine or gay or whatever in the early seasons, which is the negative side of the performing Dean thing: establishing that strength is one thing, that Dean doesn’t approve of these things, and that Sammy is instead, because obviously Dean’s the big manly older brother who’s never worn women’s underwear ever. Which just makes us go “oh hon” to Dean and try and steer him away from all these toxic masculinity related ideas of what he should be or not be.
But anyway the projection and anxiety that you get with Dean is he says stuff but secretly he’s afraid of it and how it applies to him, and ribbing Sam like that is a fast way to reassert himself to the top of the masculinity ladder, but it turns pretty much everything he insults Sam with into an I’m rubber and you’re glue situation. Because at the heart of it Dean’s biggest issues are he’s scared and doesn’t have full control of the situation, and most of the first MotW episodes in season 1 have something or other where they absolutely expose Dean’s layers. There’s some good recent comments from @wherethewildthingswerent who watching for performing!Dean rather than bi!Dean stuff and found a whole bunch of examples in the early episodes which prove that Dean NEVER had the facade for the audience. I think 1×03 or 1×04 pretty much immediately set us up to question Dean’s act anyways, like, the first 2 episodes are the only ones which are mostly about setting up the playing field and letting us know how this all works, and as soon as we are getting the idea of it, take it all away from Dean 😛
I suppose the conclusion would be that Dean fears as much as what he’s jabbing at Sam about fearing – that would his family disown HIM for his queerness if they knew and from Sam’s POV almost the entire episode is Dean acting like John and following orders. Being HIS soldier and trying to do what John would want and earn his approval. John as their drill sergeant is something he eventually confirms to them in his own words, so the military references to how their family works, especially with John as an ex-Marine, are really important.
That entire episode has John looming over it because he sends them to the case and Sam spends the first quarter expecting to meet John there, and then realises it’s been a distraction to send them away, while Dean is determined to work the case because John wants them to, and push Sam to do it no matter what as well. Hence the big outburst, and this episode leading directly into Scarecrow where they fall out completely for Dean not having a mind of his own and Sam wanting to get revenge instead of save people blah blah… Point being the idea about Dean there is he’s completely absorbed his own personality, wants and desires into being John, which isn’t even really called out and addressed until 3×10 when Dean’s demon!Dean dream self calls him out, and it takes further long years for any serious improvements to be made on Dean expressing himself, even if he’s begun to think for himself more after mentally grappling John’s ghost all of season 2, struggling with the orders, and finally being freed from that burden when they see his ghost move on in the sense of not being *directly under orders* any more, so he’s left to figure out the rest of his life how to be his own person or scuttle back into the safety of being John (and the timing of demon!Dean calling him out on that is pretty much because it’s season 3, John is dead and ALSO gone (which were 2 different events :P) and Dean’s still stuck in these things from back in season 1…)
It’s usually time to stop when the next paragraph would be summarising the rest of the show while making anguished Dean!girl noises. 😀
—-
And although tbh this was badly stocked for this episode, if you’re wondering about bi Dean stuff in the show, I have collected this shockingly large collection of posts that you can start with – you can use the search function to skip to episodes:
If I’m ever THAT bored for some reason I kinda want to change the links to descriptions of the meta but that is not currently something I am bored enough to do 😀
This kind of stuff is absolutely my jam and I’ve probably have many posts about it written by me or someone else in my blog but I am also unable to tag things decently so only thing I found was this post by f-ckyeahfutbol.
But yeah season 1 (and beyond lol) was about their different flavors of ‘freak’, which have been paralleled all along. I’ve been saying that the show has been paralleling Sam-and-the-supernatural and Dean-and-queerness (in a wide sense) throughout its course, and their endgames must be connected to that.
This is another one of those what’s happening if it’s not Dean flirting scenes for me. I mean, Sam freaking clears his throat to get them to stop making smirky head bobby, head tilty staring faces at each other. Dean’s little bounce as he holds the morgue guy’s attention. And the morgue guy’s little whoa, was I just lost in this FBI dude’s eyes shit. Dean’s let me just look over here at the dead body while Sam gives him the classic seriously, Dean, right now? We’re working. {7.13}
Flirting? I don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s not like less than one minute later Dean talks about having a job with crazy hours and good benefits with a woman
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 😛
I daydreamed this up at work whilst evidently not working and wanted to share it with you… If only I could pitch it to Andrew Dabb…
Okay so picture the scene. A generic MOTW episode with Sam and Dean and no Cas because he is off hunting Lucifer apparently (though since this is MY episode idea instead I am gonna say that the only reason Cas is sitting this one out is because he is currently visiting Claire and Jody for some R&R and the bros are stopping off to deal with this very minor hunt on the way to meet him and the girls. So THERE BOB SINGER.)
Anyway. The hunt is pretty straightforward, its either a Vamp, a standard salt and burn or I dunno, a Rugaru whatever you feel like. The monster isn’t important. What is important is that this is a DEAN centric episode.They roll up into this sleepy little mountain town somewhere in Colorado (or wherever, location isn’t important either) and go to interview the first witness.
The first witness is a guy in his late thirties who clearly used to be a looker but the years have been hard on him. He can be anyone you wanna imagine. (preferably for me I’d say he’s dark haired and blue eyed but that’s my own preference *wink wink*.) the guy immediately recognises Dean. There goes the FBI cover story. Dean is completely taken back by this guy and gets kinda goofy around him much to Sam’s surprise and amusement. The guy (we’ll call him Jake) is really happy to see Dean and starts talking about how long it’s been and how he thought he’d never see him again after Dean left town. There is clearly a back story here hence why we get a nice close up shot of Dean’s face looking all sad and reminiscing before we cut to…
Young Dean, about 17 years old (played by Dylan Everett of course) is in the town with his dad and Sam whilst his dad deals with another hunt and he is skipping school. Through some consequence or another, Dean meets the younger version of Jake and they become friends.
Throughout the episode, the story skips between the past and the present showing just how close Dean and Jake became as teenagers, though the subtext is obvious, the audience is still completely oblivious and thinks they are just friends. In the present time, Dean is obviously awkward around Jake and Sam continuously teases him and tries to get more info out of him about him and Jake’s past, since Dean never mentioned him to Sam. Jake outs himself as gay/bi pretty early in the episode in a similar way to how Jenna did in 11×02. It is never focused on, just mentioned in a passing comment about his “ex boyfriend” or something. No one even raises an eyebrow of course.
Jake either already knows they are hunters (maybe his family were the victims of whatever John was hunting in the past) or maybe he only found out now because he was a witness to the present day monster (or maybe the two monsters are connected who knows) but Jake is determined to help the boys in the case in present day. This leads to him getting hurt bad (maybe he dies but I hate that trope with a passion so since this is my story and not Bucklemmings the gay guy LIVES.) Dean is pretty broken up about it. He goes on about never bringing people with them into the hunt and how dangerous their lives are and this is why they can’t have relationships. Sam raises his eyebrows but doesn’t say anything. The Drs confirm that Jake will be okay but he is sleeping and Dean can’t deal with it. He leaves the hospital with Sam on his heel and gets into the Impala.
Sam asks why they are leaving? doesn’t Dean wanna say goodbye to his friend?
Dean just shakes his head. They ganked the monster but someone got hurt once again. Its best if Jake just forgets he ever met Dean Winchester.
We cut back to the past. Dean is upset that he has to leave another town, another school, because his dad is taking him away again. Jake comes running up to him asking him whats wrong? that its okay because they can just meet up again? He can get a bus and visit Dean where he is moving to. But Jake of course doesn’t understand Dean’s life and it just makes him more upset. The two boys hug and when they pull apart Dean takes the initiative. He kisses him. There is no ambiguity about it. It is innocent and sweet and in no way platonic. The boys relationship was more than friendship all along. When they pull apart Dean tells Jake he will miss him and then he leaves. Young Jake is left watching as young Dean walks away from him.
We cut back to present day Dean. Sitting behind the wheel of the impala clenching his jaw. He doesn’t say anything but Sam just looks at him with a sort of pity. Sam may not know the details of what happened between them like we as the audience do, but he knows something, because Sam always knows. The impala drives off into the night and we cut to credits.
In the next episode everything is exactly has it always has been, Cas is in the next episode and acts as he always does. Nothing else is different, but suddenly the audience has a different perspective on everything they see. Because you see, Dean Winchester kissed a boy when he was 17, and therefore Dean Winchester has been bisexual all along. Nothing has changed, and yet everything has.
Tumblr backup 