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 😛
Now I know why the knocking on the door bugged me so much.
Did you feel uncomfortable when “Donatello” knocked on the door, before Sam told him to come in? Did something itch under your skin?
That’s because the knock was a call and response, and Asmodeus didn’t finish the response.
Anybody remember Roger Rabbit? There’s a scene in it where the bad guy finds Roger, who’s hiding, by rapping shave and a haircut on the bar, because a Toon is physically incapable of leaving that call unanswered. I guess a more modern example is the Red Robin jingle– REEEEEEEED Robin! (Yum!)
You hear the first part, the call, and your brain supplies the response automatically. When you don’t hear it, or it’s incomplete, as the knock on the door was in this episode, something feels off, even if you don’t know what it is.
That’s exactly what this was– silent storyelling (well, not silent, but yannowutimeen) is letting us know that something isn’t right here.
Dunno if that was scripted or a directing decision or what, but it was BRILLIANT.
I noticed when I rewatched this scene yesterday that Donasmodeus does eventually give the correct “two knocks” response… AFTER he gets the information he’d been fishing for from Sam, he knocks twice on the table. There was your two bits.
Also, @gyhldeptis looked this actor up and realized he’s been in everything. I didn’t even recognize him as Holtz from Angel. Or Varric’s brother from DA2.
The bottle dangles in one hand, the knife in the other, and Dean
stalks down the hall, heading back to the kitchen. He should tell Sam, let him
know the stupid kid’s gone all stab-happy-Bukowski. Then Sam can rush in with
his Dr Phil crap and smother the kid in stupid platitudes about rock bottom and getting through it. The two of them will probably have a good cry,
listen to some fucking Enya, then start moving
on, in all the ways that Dean can’t.
There’s nothing to move on to. Dean’s future is lost in gritty, greasy, black smoke.
Dean stops, braces a hand on the cold, stone wall, and chugs
the last of the bottle. Screw telling Sam. He’ll figure it out. Kid wears his
damn heart on his sleeve, like an idiot.
He’ll learn.
The beer’s gone now, and Dean’s already had four, but they’re
not really doing anything. Big surprise. He’ll have to make a detour to his stash
in the library on his way to his room.
Mercifully, there’s an unopened bottle on the little table in
the corner. It’s cheap-ass whiskey, and it’s probably not gonna do much either,
but it’s what he’s got. He grabs the bottle by the neck and turns to go, but
the corner of the table catches his eye.
Two sets of initials, carved with a pocketknife, only a few
weeks ago. Feels like a decade.
The bottle thunks down on the table and Dean pulls back a
chair. He collapses, slumps back, and then realizes he’s still holding the
knife.
There’s a lot of things he could do with the knife. But he’s
a coward – always has been – so he drops it on the table and starts sucking
down the whiskey.
Gotta give Jack props on that score. He at least tried –
just went for it.
Given the option though, Dean will always choose the slow
suicide.
He swallows, swig after swig, 40-proof burning the back of
his throat like the acrid smoke of the pyre.
He’d wanted to fling himself onto it. How fitting it would’ve
been, to end their story the way it had begun: one of them diving headfirst
into fire, searching for the other.
But he hadn’t moved, couldn’t summon the energy. And before
he knew it Sam was there, using the same tone he always used with grieving
widows, the bastard.
It’s been a half hour and the bottle’s half-empty. He tries
to focus back in on the table, but his vision’s a little blurry. He can’t
decide if it’s his head or his eyes that are swimming.
Probably both. Score one for the slow suicide.
Dean’s always played it slow, though. Always assumed there’d
be time.
Time to talk, work it all out together. Time to finally spit
out the words, instead of making a dumbass mixtape and hoping Cas has a decoder
ring for Dean’s cryptic fucking feelings. Time for Cas to carve his own initial
into the table next to Dean’s.
The knife’s in his hand in he next instant, the point
digging into the wood. It’s too large, unwieldy, and it’s still covered in Jack’s
drying blood.
Dean only gets halfway through a squarish-looking ‘C’ before
it slips, slicing into the meat of his palm.
“Fuck.” His hand
flies to his mouth and he sucks on the cut. But it’s not too deep, and the
booze is dulling the pain, so he just leans across the table and yanks a few
tissues from the box. He crumples them in his fist, squeezing tight, then looks
up at the library’s high ceiling.
“You can’t hear me. I know you can’t. ‘M not trying to
pretend.” Dean’s keeping his voice low, but in this space, it still sounds too
loud. “‘Kay, maybe I am.”
He takes another pull from the bottle, then picks the knife
back up to keep carving.
“But I prayed to God, to Chuck, and that was stupid. When
has he ever actually answered one of our goddamn prayers? I shoulda prayed to you. You always hear me.”
The ‘C’ is finished now. Dean didn’t do a good job; the
lines are jagged and rough. He probably should’ve waited until he was sober.
“I need you to come home. I can’t do this. I’m trying, and I
can’t. I just – I can’t. So come back to me.”
The knife drops from his hand again, clattering against the
table. He’d gotten halfway through the ‘W’ without even realizing what he was
doing.
He stands abruptly and reaches for the bottle, but it’s empty
now. Maybe this suicide’s not that slow after all.
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