No, but they're not victims, either. They have agency. Sexualizing Sam and Dean (which the show absolutely does) operates differently than sexualizing the victims. When you sexualize the victims, you sexualize their victimhood.

Agreed. (Which, actually, is why I disagree with Nutty about Jo in No Exit. Jo had agency in the episode.)

Jo had agency in the episode.

She did, ill-advised and ill-informed as it was, but that scene totally wigged me out. Made it interesting to write about it, and still gives me the chills thinking about it.

Jo had agency in the episode

In the episode, yes. Which is why that one shot is so disorienting and offputting.

She did, ill-advised and ill-informed as it was, but that scene totally wigged me out. Made it interesting to write about it, and still gives me the chills thinking about it.

It was viscerally disturbing.

OK, so I'll come out of the closet as the Worst Feminist Ever, but...

The perpetrator in No Exit was known for violence against women. A violence which was sexualized by the perp. Why would his violence not manifest that way against our protagonist?

I see it when people point it out, but this kind of stuff just doesn't ping me at all. I'm going to feminist Hell, but oh well.

Why would his violence not manifest that way against our protagonist?

It's a perspective thing. There are ways to show that same concept in a way that doesn't invite the viewer to participate. I felt, when watching that shot, that I was being invited to enjoy Jo's fear, not that I was being invited to identify with her. Just a few moments earlier, as she fumbled for her flashlight, that was ID with her. That shot, she was suddenly transformed into an object for my putative pleasure.

Needless to say, pleasure was not had.

that I was being invited to enjoy Jo's fear

Well, this shows that audiences come from all angles.

That creeped the shit out of me. It reminded me that evil people (often men) perpetrate violence. I empathized with Jo, I felt her fear. I didn't enjoy it at all, and I didn't feel like I was supposed to. I felt like I was supposed to have the crap scared out of me.

I didn't think it was sexy that she was being attacked. Maybe that's because I have breasts.

Just a few moments earlier, as she fumbled for her flashlight, that was ID with her. That shot, she was suddenly transformed into an object for my putative pleasure.

I'm with Ailleann. All I felt was what Jo felt. I still identified with her in that moment.

Just a few moments earlier, as she fumbled for her flashlight, that was ID with her. That shot, she was suddenly transformed into an object for my putative pleasure.

I'm with Ailleann. All I felt was what Jo felt. I still identified with her in that moment.

I'm still of that opinion as well. I took it as a moment I didn't want to watch, not one that I was meant to enjoy.

I also Comm'd Ailleann's numberDean remark, 'cause that is funny and true.

I felt, when watching that shot, that I was being invited to enjoy Jo's fear, not that I was being invited to identify with her. Just a few moments earlier, as she fumbled for her flashlight, that was ID with her. That shot, she was suddenly transformed into an object for my putative pleasure.

I was still in the identification space with the shot, and didn't get the objectification read from it, or at least no more so than when Vampira's doing that jaw grab thing with Dean in Dead Man's Blood.

I feel like I'm having a hard time explaining, though, why that shot bothers me less than countless others. I suspect it's the combination of agency and identification space? BUaBS, I have identification space, but Jo's agency's removed (returned later, but not in the same way that it is in No Exit).