Has there ever been any talk about having people write in en masse between now and the time they start working on next season to say how and why the treatment of race and gender has been bothersome? Not as a protest, but more along the lines of an intervention?
There was a flurry of activity like that near the end of season 3, when the mysogyny in particular was just too over the top. A bunch of people wrote letters to the production company. It might even have made a difference: there's been a significant drop in the use of gendered slurs on the show. Of course, they still blinded and then killed Pam, the only actual human woman we've seen more than once since Bela died.
Have we seen any recurring human male characters except for Bobby?
Not since S2 with Andy and Jake, right?
Gordon and Henricksen both reappeared last year, but the former was kind of problematic.
A Sera Gamble quote from the link Fay posted:
No, you don't understand. Within an hour of this airing there are going to be little avatars of [Castiel] and there are going to be fans sites about him.
Sera really does get fandom, doesn't she?
Gordon and Henricksen both reappeared last year, but the former was kind of problematic.
Ah yes. So did the religious hunter. Silly of me to forget.
Henricksen's death actually bothered me more than Gordon's. It seemed like such a total waste.
Yeah. It wouldn't have surprised me for him to become a casualty given repeated brushes with the supernatural, but he was free and clear and then Lilith showed up to kill him (and all the other non-Winchester survivors) at the literal last minute.
So having a woman (who Dean had sex with) turn evil/traitor and then die would be "better" than having a black angel do so?
Well, I agree that that too would have been part of their pattern of crap things happening to women - but there have been A LOT of women in the show who have not turned evil and/or died, including Dean's various shags. Hell, probably most of the female characters to crop up onscreen have not turned evil and/or died. Whereas nearly all the black guys to appear on screen are dead bros walking.
I agree that it's grim and tasteless to have a misogyny versus racism competition, but I think that the show's record with representations of black men has been worse than its record with representations of women.
Plus, of course, that would have upped the Dean angst level - he'd have been partially responsible for the whole angel death spree, since it was the hot chick he'd saved who then went postal on her former co-workers. ('cause, you know, Dean doesn't already have enough angst. Heh.)
Re: the SPN race issues, I have to confess my ignorance and insensitivity. And I consider myself a knee-jerk liberal. *embarrassed*
I suppose, in the context of God and faith, there are some who may wonder at the absence of Judaism in the larger fight against evil, or Islam, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, etc. There's a message in that omission, as well. I've seen the Magen David and Hebrew and Arabic written as elements of devil's traps, but it seems these are relegated to a supporting role.
I don't know, I've just seen a lot of good characters killed off by evil in the show, black and white, male and female.
