Really thoughtful post about queer representation and the Dean/Cas shippers here: [link]
Well-written, though I'd say that on a series with two main characters and five frequently recurring ones, having one of the latter as a positive lesbian portrayal is already doing pretty good and generating good audience feedback for the creators. (Nevermind that the recurring character who's the show's favorite villain often codes as queer too.) Given that, I doubt the worst-case scenario the author posits is a real possibility.
Oh, I agree, Matt. But I think in general her points are sound.
Did Dorothy ever say how she came back from the dead?
No, I don't think so. But there's magic in Oz, so.
OK, I thought maybe I missed it and I was curious.
the Winchesters have at least one weapon that they routinely kill angels with
What have we seen it magically kill, though, outside of the Heaven/Hell paradigm? I assume that when you stabbed a human with it, they just react like you stabbed them with a big dagger.
I'd like to see them expand on that, if there's expansion to be had. But the idea that Oz has its own rules and Jehovah is irrelevant to her was where my head was for the episode. Not that she was like any of our witches who've dallied with Hellish powers.
having one of the latter as a positive lesbian portrayal is already doing pretty good and generating good audience feedback for the creators
Matt, I am so disappointed in you. Why don't you understand how badly homosexuality is portrayed, how the queer audience is betrayed 23 times a year plus conventions and interviews? Are you
sure
you're gay? Please view and report back your heart rate and blood pressure.
(Nevermind that the recurring character who's the show's favorite villain often codes as queer too.)
I think of Crowley as pansexual.
Please view and report back your heart rate and blood pressure.
I don't think that's fair. My heart rate and blood pressure went up.
Dorthy is at least OK with Charlie's sexual orientation, (Since one of the things Charlie muttered coming back from the dead was "can you be my new crush?") Doesn't mean
Dorthy leans that way herself, but given that she comes from a pretty homophobic time, it indicates that it is not out of the question.
Did "crush" have the same meaning in Dorothy's time? I'm not sure when the meaning shifted, but I've seen it used in stuff at least as late as WWI to mean a strong, rather one-sided female friendship. (In one of the Anne of Green Gables books, it's used for a little girl who sees a new girl in school and thinks this new girl is just the bestest most incredibly little girl ever, and wants to be her best friend forever and ever. And when I was in college, I remember going through some old campus magazines and seeing a few things from around 1918 or so where it was used in a similar sense in mentioning that a freshman girl had a crush on a senior girl.)
Did "crush" have the same meaning in Dorothy's time?
I don't think that either the writers or the bulk of the audience are going to translate, though. If the ruby slippers would be confusing (and I think that's fair, silver is a pedant's thing), this would be a whole different level of missed message.
What have we seen it magically kill, though, outside of the Heaven/Hell paradigm? I assume that when you stabbed a human with it, they just react like you stabbed them with a big dagger.
Balthazar used his in an assassination attempt on one of the Fates, and angels have killed various pagan gods, which I'd think would trump faerieland witches. Presumably the angelic rescue squad that retrieved Castiel from Purgatory used them in combat with the leviathans as well (though we don't know if they were actually able to destroy any, we just know there were angel casualties).
To my mind, standard issue angel blades should be able to kill anything except archangels (too powerful), Mother of All (possibly unkillable, as even the phoenix ash final solution left a still-fecund
tabula rasa
behind), Cas amped up on the spirits of all the Purgatory creatures, and Death himself.
Matt, I am so disappointed in you. Why don't you understand how badly homosexuality is portrayed, how the queer audience is betrayed 23 times a year plus conventions and interviews? Are you sure you're gay? Please view and report back your heart rate and blood pressure.
Hey, that convention stuff about Jensen stifling questions got my nose out of joint too, but none of my complaints about what I'm actually seeing on the air involve queer representation or the depiction of Dean and Cas's relationship. Both are being handled as well as I could hope for in a show that's not specifically targeted at a LGBT audience.
