Google failed me

[valarltd]

So, I'm watching Supernatural. And what gets me is the language. Sam is explicitly coded as a girl from the get-go. The whole repeated "bitch/jerk" exchange is pure bickering spouses. He's called Scully. He's referred to Bonnie to Dean's Clyde. The prison guard calls him "sweetheart." There's an incident where someone calls him "princess." (And we won't go into the the body language or behavior: the settling on his stomach with a butt-wiggle in "Playthings" and the fact that Dean hits him, and Sam offers to let him do it again if he needs to)

Why are there no meta essays on this? I haven't been able to find one.

Comments

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of slash fiction. The show even referenced it at one point.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I know there's a ton of fic. The show is in its 10th season, after all.

But I'm looking for essays, and I've read a ream of them this morning. None on the language use, not just by Dean, but by other male characters.

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting topic of meta analysis (and not one that I've run across either). It is persistent in the language, though, because J2 commented on how they had to rewrite a particular scene about two or three seasons ago because it read exactly like a break-up between romantic partners rather than two brothers.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

A LOT of their scenes sound very much like lovers' quarrels.

[nbrooks.livejournal.com]

And Dean is coded so over-the-top macho that everyone looks a bit femme beside him too. That's one thing I love about Dean. His rather adorable anxious masculinity covering the fact that he's actually a big softie at heart.

Don't know if you've seen any beyond season 3 or not, but the bitch/jerk dichotomy only gets stronger. Especially in the lighter, "humor" episodes.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I encountered a piece of meta about how Dean's actually the beta.

John is the alpha, he leads the pack. Dean is his loyal pupil. Sam however, butts heads with John, and like any good alpha, goes off to start his own pack.

Sam does the research. Sam sets their destinations. While Dean is being a miniature John, Sam is leading his birth-pack in John's absence.

I'm barely into season 4. We've just met Castiel.