ivyfic | (no subject)

trakkie leant me her Supernatural DVDs. Yes, that's another one sucked in. Good show, genuinely creepy, but having heard about the fandom, I resolved to watch it with a gen only set of mind. They don't make it easy.

I'm trying so very, very hard not to see the slash. I really really am. But aside from the fact that the show is about two pretty men living in each other's backpockets, driving around the country, sharing hotel rooms and staring at each other in towels, there are moments that in any other show would make my little slasher heart jump for joy.

There's the moment where Sam throws Dean up against a wall and Dean looks desperately into his eyes and says, "You're all I have." There's the moment when Sam is talking about what they're going to do after this is over, and how he wants to go back to college, and Dean wrenches out a heart-breaking confession that it isn't just about the hunt for him, there's something else. He turns away and gathers himself before saying that he just wants them to be together. There's the fact that Dean seems obsessed with his brother's love life, constantly ~~guiltily, jealously~~ throwing Sam at any chick that passes their way.

And, as if that's not enough, there's the conversation where Dean asks Sam if Sam won't date because of Jessica (his dead girlfriend) and Sam says yes, but that's only a small part of the reason. Dean asks what the bigger reason is. They look at each other in anguish for long moments before Dean says, "Yeah, right," and turns away. Yeah, that big reason? That fucking elephant in the room? That's your BIG GAY LOVE FOR EACH OTHER. Seriously, show, you don't leave fandom blanks like that to fill in! What were you thinking?

I'm going to go scrub my brain now and pretend that I'm watching a normal show like a normal viewer. Subtext? What subtext?

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Maybe I just haven't watched enough of the show (only got sucked in by Ben Edlund's "Hollywood Babylon"), but the characters read as completely platonic to me. The emotionally fraught looks, meaningful pauses, and physical intimacy that would have me yelling "Oh my God, they ARE SO DOING IT!" about friends in a buddy cop movie are subsumed into the more powerful sibling dynamic and don't give an impression of slashiness at all. Likewise, macho posturing and slurs against one another's (well, OK, Sam's) masculinity that might raise the specter of Methinks the Lady Doth Protest Too Much among frat brothers just seems perfectly normal and subtext-free between the genuine article. I wonder if at least a sizeable portion of the audience that sees them through slash colored glasses has never been around brothers of close ages in real life, and is applying sensibilities learned from unrelated male friends to the onscreen relationship?

I also don't get why third parties on the show would ever mistake them for a couple, unless specifically told that they have different last names or something like that. In my experience it's not that unusual for brothers to travel together, share motel rooms on the road, and bicker constantly. All things that are considerably more subtext-y if displayed by guys who aren't related.

Again, I have to just point to my comments above. It's not that it's the only explanation (which slash is almost never about, except for oh, say, Sentinel), but it can be read that way. I've seen shows with no slash subtext. This is not one of those shows.

I really don't think it has anything to do with people's knowledge of real sibling pairs. To say that all Wincesters are only into wincest through ignorance is a bit...much. Sort of like saying that guys that fantasize about doing it with twin sisters only have said fantasies because they don't know any real sisters.

As for why the show keeps calling them gay...I have no idea.
From "Something Wicked This Way Comes":
kid at motel: King or two Queens
Dean: Two Queens
kid: *smirks* I'll bet.