#and dean’s misogyny was intentional!

[quietwingsinthesky]

re: that last post about dean’s misogyny: i think people might be uncomfortable acknowledging that an intentional character choice made due to bias is still an intentional character choice. dean’s misogyny stems from the misogyny of the writers, but dean is not a real person, dean is a character who cannot be divorced from the choices those writers made. dean is misogynistic, and that’s intentional.

[scoobydoodean]

what is your opinion on people calling dean a heavy misogynist? i don’t agree personally but i feel like you could put my thoughts into better words

First, I have to chuckle a little at "heavy misogynist". Apparently, some people have begun to realize their fave is also guilty of misogyny crimes therefore they focus on making sure all of us know Sam is a light misogynist and Dean is a heavy misogynist. I just find that amusing.

This is a broad topic in a long show, so I won't endeavor to address every conceivable incidence of misogyny in the show I can think of. Instead, I'm going to create a few headings, at least one of which I think most criticism falls under.

Misogyny through the writing team

How Sam's misogyny gets a pass

Purity culture wank and Dean performing for Sam

How Dean actually treats women

Misogyny Through The Writing Team

First, Supernatural in of itself has issues with misogyny—as in, the writers of the show (including female writers) have issues with misogyny which they are happy to put on display semi-frequently. The show started in 2005, during a period of time where casual sexism was absolutely rampant on TV and no one thought anything about it. Female celebrities were regularly mocked and dragged on cable television in a way men simply weren't. They were called bitches and skanks and whores, and even "progressive" voices were inundated with casual misogyny and a fixation on purity culture (that largely applied to women only). Quite simply, I think fandom tends to be far too generous toward the writers, assuming certain things were "flaws" the writers intentionally wrote for the characters.

Put another way, there are some criticisms I prefer to level at the writing team rather than the characters, because what is written plainly reflects their ignorance in the real world rather than any intent to give Sam or Dean or any other character meaningful flaws—much less outright terrible ones that greatly harm their image. I'll give a few examples:

2.17 "Heart" makes me very uncomfortable as I sit here in 2024 and observe how Sam and Madison's romance develops. Me feeling that way does not mean the authorial intent of 2007 Sera Gamble was that I think to myself, "Man Sam comes off as uncomfortably rapey here." Hopelessly bad with women, perhaps—but not creepy.

In season 2, the writers begin to develop a running “joke” that Sam is afraid of not just clowns but also little people. The latter “joke” is (wisely) dropped fairly quickly. I have never criticized Sam for being afraid of little people, and I never will. It is readily apparent to me that this running "joke" reflects the ignorance of the writing team rather than an intent to give Sam meaningful or interesting flaws. Their intent was to use little people as the butt of a joke. I personally find this "joke" distasteful, and the idea of trying to take that and somehow "dunk" on Sam for the bigotry of the writers is more distasteful to me.

This is also how I feel about the running "joke" of a porn magazine and website (BAB) that solely features Asian women, that is put on display on multiple occasions during the show—first in 2.15 "Tall Tales", where the context is Gabriel infecting Sam's laptop with a virus from the website and making him believe Dean is responsible. BAB continues to make "Easter Egg" appearances in the show afterward. While often associated with Dean by fandom, the writers clearly think of BAB as a general, "funny" (it isn't), running gag with no more depth than "haha men like porn funny". An issue is stolen by a sentient teddy bear in 4.08 "Wishful Thinking". An issue is owned by the teenager who swapped bodies with Sam in 5.12 "Swap Meat". The Men of Letters also collected a considerable number of issues (8.17). I simply do not believe the writers thought for a single moment about BAB being a grossly racist gag. They most certainly did not write it as an intentional criticism of Dean from that perspective. It reflects nothing but their ignorance and racism here in the real world, and absolutely SHOULD be criticized from that REAL WORLD impact.

How Sam's misogyny largely gets a pass

One of the things I have not been able to stop noticing on this rewatch is Sam's issues with misogyny, and how often Sam's misogyny comes out in conflicts with Dean... starting from the very first episode of the show. Pretty much any time you get anything that feels like it might be a misogynist Dean or horn dog Dean moment... Sam either just has or is about to follow that up with some misogyny of his own.

In 1.01, right after entering Sam's apartment and meeting Jess, Dean mentions the Smurfs on Jess's shirt. We think to ourselves "Okay. A little misogynist... a little horn-dog Dean." Sam is happy to 1-Up that in two ways. First, Jess voices her intentions to go get dressed. Dean dismisses this, but while doing so, makes it clear he intends to leave the room with Sam, as he'd like to have a private conversation with Sam anyway. Sam objects, walking over to Jess and putting an arm around her, demanding Dean say whatever he needs to say right then and there. Maybe this would feel supportive if Jess wasn't in her underwear and hadn't just made it clear that now that the panic over a possible break-in is over, she'd really like to not be in her underwear in front of a stranger. But nope. By god she needs to stand there so Sam can prove a point about misogynist Dean! Second, Sam immediately (and I think quite erroneously) jumps to imply Dean is trying to cut Jess out of the conversation because she's... a woman? Or... something? He makes a big show of moving over Jess and standing beside her, saying anything Dean has to say, he can say in front of Jess. However, the moment Sam actually understands that Dean is here because John is missing on a hunting trip, he dismisses Jess to speak to Dean alone... because he's lying to her. By painting Dean erroneously with this "The men are talking" bullshit that had nothing to do with anything, Sam sets himself up to be viewed as a misogynist by his own framing of the situation and what it means to leave Jess out of a discussion. He also reveals his own alleged principles as a performative illusion. Despite being his intended life partner, Sam never intends to tell the woman he loves about his past as a hunter (he makes this clear later on the bridge). However, I think because Sam's actions usually co-occur with what gets called out more directly or more immediately recognized as misogyny from Dean (should have gotten him for the Smurf's comment, Sam!) Sam's misogyny often flies under the radar... and he's really... pretty bad.

I spoke here at length about how Sam tends to look down on women who interact with Dean (often before meeting them). There is absolutely an intersection with purity culture here and there's discussion in that thread about that as well, and whether this is a "2000s writers" issue or intentionally written flaws.

In 1.06, Sam cuts Dean off before Dean can accept an offered beer from Rebecca, but then as soon as Sam needs Rebecca out of the room, Sam asks her to not just bring them those beers... but also fix them sandwiches. Rebecca says, "What do you think this is, Hooters?" and Dean mumbles, "I wish" and we somehow lose sight of the fact that Sam literally just asked a woman to make him sandwiches which is possibly the number one misogynist man trope. Sam vaguely suggests Dean is a misogynist in 1.19 for nudging Sam to go on a date with Sarah Blake and possibly get information on the case, because that would be "using" her, but Sam wants to "use" Meg Masters in 1.22 and he wants to "use" Ruby to get what he wants, and when he said getting information from women was "Dean's job", he was also showing he was perfectly willing to use Dean and Sarah—he just doesn't want to get his hands dirty. It also comes to light in 1.19 that this is more about Sam's belief that he has to protect women from him, and Sarah herself ends up calling Sam antiquated for it.

I mentioned before that Sam doesn't plan to ever tell Jess who he is, and he makes the same plans with Amelia. Dean, meanwhile, confides in Cassie (it's what leads to their breakup) as well as Lisa.

I also have to mention... one of the funniest things I see deancrit samgirls in particular dig at time after time after time is Dean calling women "bitches". Never mind that Sam also calls women like Ruby and Bela bitches and calls a woman a bitch in front of Madison. Apparently none of these occurrences count because... *looks at notes* reasons. "Bitch" only counts as misogyny when it's Dean saying it. Also, let's not mention that Sam exclusively uses the word "bitch" to refer to women, while Dean also calls men and creatures bitches at different points so it isn't a gender specific insult for him.

Dean is definitely the "heavy" misogynist here... right? (I guess Sam is a "tall" misogynist instead).

Purity culture wank and Dean performing for Sam

Dean is commonly treated in fandom as if he's some kind of sex pest, and quite blatantly... he isn't one. Women almost always proposition Dean first (thejabberwock has sets on this here and here), but him asking people out also isn't inherently creepy in any way? Co-occurring with Sam's purity culture inundated judgements, we often see fandom's own as well, where Dean is some kind of sex pest because he... likes women? Or... because he has sex with consenting women who also want to have sex with him? Sometimes it's giving purity culture wank, sometimes it's given big radfem energy... but regardless, I sometimes see people talk about Dean like him so much as making eye contact with a woman is a violent sexual threat, and that's just laughable—as is denying the agency and autonomy of consenting women in general.

Even though it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, I'll also add that Dean... doesn't even actually have sex with the frequency that people talk about it? Dean has sex with Cassie—who was a long term partner of his in 1.13. He has sex with an actress in 2.18, and with Doublemint twins in 3.01. He has sex with a waitress 4.05. He plans to have sex with someone in 3.04, but turns her down when he realizes she's a prostitute who's working. This happens again in 10.07. I'm on season 4 of my rewatch and haven't been formally keeping up... but Dean is not actually having a lot of sex? We get implications he's been out partying a few times, and can maybe infer he scored, but we don't actually know.

I'm not a huge fan of performing Dean, in the sense that I think over the years I have seen it wildly overstated far too many times. But I do think Dean sometimes plays a character for Sam especially. Dean tells us this himself in 2.03 "Bloodlust" when confiding in Gordon. He never says so directly when it comes to the sexy sex guy doing sex persona, but his actions reveal him. One can think of plenty of examples of Dean saying horny stuff about women to Sam... but what about his actions?

How Dean actually treats women

Finally, there's how Dean actually treats women... and one would be very hard pressed to prove to me that Dean is sexist toward the women in his life. He's been close friends with multiple women and worked with women on hunts on multiple occasions and never once batted an eye. Jo in 2.06 is sometimes floated as an example, but it's actually discussed within the episode. Dean makes it very clear that he thinks women can do the job just fine. What he has a problem with is Jo's lack of experience and her romanticization of the job (especially during a period where Dean has fallen deeply out of love with the job himself). Everything we see as the series progresses supports Dean's assertion as truth. He's very good friends with Charlie, Jody, and Donna and doesn't go around excluding them on hunts while favoring men. That is not a thing that happens. While he initially tries to talk Claire out of the life (as he does everybody—this is not unique to women—see Adam for example) when she decides to hunt, he supports her regardless. There is nothing uniquely overprotective about how Dean treats women who hunt. End of. Dean has no illusions about traditional gender roles or any of that nonsense, jumping to clean dishes after dinner at Jody's and cooking breakfast for Lisa and Ben. (Our knowledge of Dean and the chores he does for his family already tell us this—but regardless). Even Demon Dean, an entity with no love for anyone and close to zero principles, targeted men who abuse and threaten women, and when Crowley ordered him to kill Lester's wife to fulfill the terms of Lester's demon deal, Demon Dean instead became so deeply annoyed with Lester's hypocrisy (he cheated on his wife first) and his assertion that it's different when men cheat, that he killed him and smiled while doing it.

So anyway, nope—I don't think Dean is a "heavy" misogynist.

[wellofdean]

I wanted to make a separate pose to big up these excellent tags on this post about how a show can be about misogyny when it's about men from @deangirlism101 :

#by virtue of watching the show long after it stopped airing and after years of exposure to the fandom#I've experienced a very interesting phenomenon wherein i went in expecting a very straightforward male fantasy#specifically in regards to dean#and was continuously surprised by how dean was around women who were actual characters and not caricatures#with caricatures of women dean also becomes a caricature of a womanizer#but with woman characters? with victims and friends?#dean is constantly paternal/brotherly#endlessly protective and respectful#in fact dean's utter lack of sexualization of the complex women around him in the first few seasons#kind of had me thinking he might just be straightforward gay#additionally it's interesting to point out that dean is the only one of the three winchesters who does not have a#''symbolic woman'' that drives his narrative#i.e. of the three winchesters he is the one who engages with the women around him as people and not someTHING to give him ''purpose''#which ties pretty well into his own role in his family being a typically femenine one#john endlessly relies on dean to serve the role of his mother yet he resents him when he does it so naturally#which from a queer lense is pretty much spelling out ''john can't put his finger on it but something (queerness) about dean bothers him''#anyways it just surprises me how#the fandom has perpetuated this image of the characters#and how#ironically#that image is the exact caricature dean so obviously puts on and we so obviously are supposed to KNOW he puts on

Some really nice points here, and bang on target:

Dean is not called to his adventure/journey because a symbolic woman dies like John and Sam are; he is put upon it by his father and his own sense of responsibility and love before he has the agency to choose. He wants his father's approval, his brother's love, and he wants not to be alone in a world of monsters...and...is HE a monster? A killer? Is everything his fault?

John resents Dean because what he needs from Dean (obedience, domestic work, emotional labour) is feminine. It's what women are for. Dean internalizes that resentment. Sam defies John and is driven by his own losses, and John can respect that, but Dean becomes the family repository of what they've lost. Dean is the eldest daughter who can never do enough.

John has chosen to abandon normal life and live on the fringes to pursue his revenge quest, and Sam is fighting to get back to the center -- left his family, hot girlfriend, Stanford Law, credit in the straight world, friends. But Dean? He has accepted that he will never be normal. He has accepted that he will always be a lonely, liminal weirdo who knows something terrible about the world that most people are spared from knowing.

Like:

If you leave Supernatural season 1 without realising that everything Dean pretends to be is pretty much the opposite of what he is, then you are not watching it right, full stop. The Dean Winchester he pretends to be is a character invented by a terrified, homeless, wounded little boy who doesn't know how else to protect himself.

Second, if you can't see how totally fucking queer all that is, I CAN'T HELP YOU. And,

you cannot hit that many nails on the head without knowing where you're swinging your hammer, and in conclusion, Dean was always deeply queered, and that was in the DNA of his character.

The truth is, that Dean is a very cohesive character. He is written and performed beautifully, and with intention. He is not an accident, he is an artistic creation, and he is excellently drawn. I am not "giving the writers too much credit", I am taking an Occam's Razor-type view of it, and coming up with the simplest explanation for what I see on the screen.

That said, if by some insane magic trick they managed to make Dean this queer by accident? It doesn't matter what they intended, because THE TEXT IS WHAT IT IS. I don't need the permission of the authors to see a church by daylight, and Dean is THAT OBVIOUS.

[dean-winchester-is-a-warrior]

Things Learned and Unlearned Ch. 14

Series Summary: Y/N has spent her life trying to outrun her mother's reputation. When she meets the rich and successful playboy, Dean Winchester, how quickly can he get her to stop running?

Pairings/Characters: Dean Winchester x Y/N, Sam Winchester, Jessica Winchester, Lucy Winchester (OC)

Warnings: Each chapter will have it's own warnings, but there will be smut, seduction, virgin!reader, playboy!dean, Edwardian era BS attitudes surrounding sex and women. (Technically it's set in 1900 and the Edwardian era started in 1901, but you get it.) Angst, Fluff, all the good stuff that regularly pops up in my series. 😁

Chapter Warnings: Implied smut, angst, attempted sexual assault - it's stopped, but there is non-consensual kissing and fondling. Misogyny and violence.

Word Count: 5,115

A/N: Here's Ch. 14, the penultimate chapter! I so appreciate all the love and support you're all giving this series. Hope you enjoy the latest installment. ❤️

Series Master List || Main Master List || Tag Lists

Dean bounded up the stairs leading to his front door, two at a time. He needed to get in and out quickly. He was already running behind and he didn’t need to be waylaid by his family. He just needed to change for the show before going to pick up Y/N. He had a lot of clothes stashed away in her hotel wardrobe, but not his tuxedo. 

Just the thought of Y/N made anger churn in his stomach again, but he pushed it aside. Thoughts of her had kept him distracted all afternoon, and it was affecting his work. 

It was pointless to be angry, anyway; it didn’t matter enough to be angry. There had always been a fifty-fifty chance of her staying or going. Sure, maybe her decision to let him bed her the night before had confirmed for him that she meant to stay, but she obviously didn’t see it that way. 

So that was the end of it.

He walked carefully through his front door, happy to find his home quiet; no one was around as he crossed the foyer to the wide staircase that led up to his bedroom. When he was halfway up, however, he heard Jessica call to him from the bottom.

“Dean! You’re here.”

He sighed. “Evidently.” He said as he stopped and turned back, trying for a smile as she climbed the staircase to join him.

“Why are you here?”

“Well, I do believe I live here.” He said sardonically. 

She cocked her head and gave him a look that said she didn’t think he was funny. “You know what I mean. You’ve barely been around since we’ve been here. Or should I say,” she raised an eyebrow, “since Y/N’s been here.”

Dean gritted his teeth. “I’ve been busy with work. Which is why I’ve gotta get going now.” He pointed upstairs. “I’m late.”

Jessica frowned. “You’re late for work at,” she checked the grandfather clock on the landing. “at seven thirty in the evening?”

Dean sighed. “I’m taking potential business partners to The Manhattan, the vaudeville theater, for a show tonight. I’m just here to get dressed.” 

He’d invited George Taskett and Simon Brighton, the owner of Clearwater Pulp and Paper to come to the show with them. He refused to believe the small voice in the back of his mind that told him he only did it so he wouldn’t be alone with Y/N all evening. He’d simply done it as an apology for being utterly distracted in their meetings earlier that afternoon.

He turned away from Jessica to start up the stairs again, but she reached out to grab his wrist. 

“Wait. I…I wanted to talk to you.”

Dean sighed. “Sure. What is it?”

Jessica let go of his wrist to cross her arms over her waist, stepping up one stair so that she was on the same step as Dean, leveling their heights. It wasn’t often that Dean found himself standing nearly eye to eye with a woman, but Jess was very tall. 

Perfect fit for Sam. Dean thought, even as the fierce look in her eye had him bracing for an onslaught.

“I was wondering what…what are your intentions with Y/N?”

Dean frowned darkly. “Excuse me?”

Jessica raised her chin. “You heard me. Y/N is a respectable woman.”

Dean’s voice was low and strained. “Have I ever insinuated that she isn’t?”

Jessica made a scoffing noise. “I know about the offer you made to her, and I believe that it was less than respectable.”

Dean’s jaw hurt from clenching it so tightly as he spoke. “My private affairs are no business of yours.” He said, turning away and starting back up the stairs.

“They are my business when they concern my governess, a respectable young woman that we’ve taken under our wing.” 

She followed him up the stairs to the landing. “Someone we see as family!” She called out to him when he started up the second half of the stairs.

He turned back to her. “Y/N is a grown woman and is quite capable of making her own decisions. In fact, I doubt very much she’d appreciate this little conversation.”

Jessica stomped up the steps after him. “I know for a fact she doesn’t want me to talk to you, because she told me not to. But I thought…” 

She reached his level again and stared at him for a moment. Then her shoulders deflated and she shook her head. “I thought I could get through to you. Make you understand that you’re throwing away a remarkable woman, kind and caring, beautiful, intelligent.”

Dean waved away her words, running up the rest of the stairs. “I’m well aware of Y/N’s attributes, thank you.”

“Then why wouldn’t you marry her? I mean my god, you love each other, that much is obvious, so I simply don’t understand your reasoning.”

Dean went deathly still, alarm bells screaming in his head. The same bells that had been going off for weeks now, maybe longer. 

He looked back at Jessica and knew his anger was obvious. “That is absolutely not true and you have no idea what you’re talking about! I am not ‘in love’ with anyone, and I have absolutely no intention of ever being married!”

He took a breath and attempted to speak calmly, but his voice was still raised. “Now, since you seem to know all about my life anyway, I’ll tell you straight out that Y/N has refused my offer and will be returning home with you in a couple of days. Seems as though continuing on as a ‘respectable woman’ as you put it, has trumped being ‘in love’.” He spat the words out, his stomach bound in knots and the now familiar panic climbing in his chest.

He turned away from her again and Jessica chased after him. “I simply don’t understand you!” She shouted at him. 

He spun back to face her. “You don’t have to understand me! You just have to mind your own damn business and stop-”

“Mommy?”

Lucy’s little voice interrupted Dean and he turned, still breathing heavily, to see Lucy standing in the doorway to her room, rubbing her eyes. She’d obviously already been in bed and their shouting had woken her up.

“What’s wrong?” 

Jessica walked over to pick her up and give her a shaky smile. “Nothing, poppet. Uncle Dean and I were just…talking.”

Lucy pouted. “Loudly.”

Dean reached over to pinch her cheek lightly, trying hard to keep his voice level. “Sorry, kiddo. Didn’t mean to wake you. I’ve gotta go now anyway, so you go on back to sleep.”

He turned away quickly before Jessica had the chance to say anything more. He tried desperately to erase her words from his mind, but they summed up one of his worst nightmares and he had a hard time wiping them away.

***

Y/N was just starting to wonder whether Dean was simply not going to come, when she saw him appear on the other side of the garden doors, knocking gently.

She stood up from her chair and waved him in. He opened the doors and stepped through, bringing the scent of cold air with him.

He nodded at her and she smiled a false smile.

He cleared his throat before speaking. “I apologize for being late. Work went longer than I expected. But we made a lot of progress. I hope you don't mind but I've invited George Taskett and Simon Brighton to the show with us this evening. Just as a gesture of goodwill while negotiations are being finalized.”

Y/N nodded. “Of course. That's smart.”

He nodded back and an awkward silence sat between them for a few seconds before Dean picked up Y/N’s coat from the chair and held it open for her.

“Well, shall we?”

***

As they jostled along the New York streets, Y/N found herself getting more and more annoyed at the continuing silence between them. If this was how the rest of their time together was going to go, she didn't think she could take it. 

She turned to look at his stiff profile; it was gorgeous like a marble statue, and just as unmoving.

She sighed. “Are we honestly not even going to talk about this?”

She saw his jaw tick. Movement at last! “Talk about what?” He asked, dully.

Y/N refused to answer such a ridiculous and redundant question, merely staring at him until he finally turned his head slightly to look at her briefly before rolling his eyes and looking forward again.

“What is there to talk about, Y/N?”

Y/N barked out a laugh without humor. “A lot, potentially.”

He growled slightly under his breath, and shifted in the seat so his torso faced her. 

“Have you changed your mind? Hmm? Ready to accept my offer after all?”

Y/N's heart squeezed tight and she heard a voice in her mind shout a resounding “Yes!” But she shook her head sadly. 

“No, but-”

“Then that's it, isn't it?! It’s finished. There's nothing else to discuss because we’ve already discussed it. So that's it, and we're done.”

Y/N felt like she'd been kicked in the stomach. She knew he was referring to the discussion being over, but the words went much deeper than their current conversation and they both knew it.

She nodded slightly and turned to stare out the front of the carriage again. “Yes, fine.”

A few minutes later, they finally pulled up outside The Manhattan Theater, which was large and impressive. The lobby inside held a glittering chandelier and lively art on the walls; Y/N knew that under better  circumstances she would have been excited and eager to be there. But the world seemed dim now, all of it lacking in color.

Then, afew minutes after arriving, her evening got much worse.

George Taskett was approaching them with a smile, and walking just behind him was Byron Temple; and he was smiling the way an alligator smiles, like he’s just waiting to swallow you whole.

The two men reached them and George held out his hand to Dean. “Good to see you Winchester and thanks again for the tickets. I don't get out very often when we come up to New York, so this is wonderful.”

He patted Byron on the shoulder. “Hope you don't mind, but Mr. Brighton sent word that he'd been called back to the mill on some urgent business and couldn't attend. So, not wanting the ticket to go to waste, I invited Byron along.”

Dean's smile wasn't echoed in his tone.

“Of course not. Good thinking.” He reached out a hand to Temple and the man shook it, his beady blue eyes calculating and cold. 

Dean stepped back and put his hand on Y/N's lower back. “You both remember my companion, Miss Taylor?”

Y/N bowed her head towards the two men. Taskett smiled warmly. “Of course I remember. Couldn't forget such a lovely face.” 

“Indeed.” Byron said, smiling again and making Y/N's skin crawl. “You seem to have bloomed even more since our last meeting.”

Despite everything going on between them, Y/N pressed herself into Dean's side and was immensely grateful when he slipped his hand around the side of her waist to hold her there.

The lobby lights dimmed briefly, letting them know the show was about to start, so they all filed into the theater. George and Byron were sitting a couple of rows behind them, so they parted ways and took their seats, agreeing to meet in the lobby afterwards.

Y/N was very glad to lose Byron Temple's uncomfortable presence. But as she and Dean sat down beside each other, she began to feel the tension grow between them once again. 

The show began, and the first act was a dancing clown who did a lot more prat falling than dancing. Everyone else laughed and clapped at his antics, but even though Y/N clapped along, she couldn't force herself to laugh. 

She smiled politely through the other acts; a man and a dog who performed tricks together, a comedian who told vaguely risque jokes that she wouldn't have understood a few months ago, a male and female dance act who were decidedly better than the clown, and many other interesting acts. Sometimes they were very talented, and sometimes just unusual. 

But Y/N knew that a few days ago she would have loved them all. Now; however, her heart was simply too battered to enjoy any of it.

Then, just before the last act of the evening, Lillian Russell came on stage. Y/N knew her name; she knew she was a singer. But judging by the reaction of the crowd, she realized that she must be an incredibly popular singer. The audience cheered loudly, clapping for a full minute as Miss Russell stood on stage, graciously waving and curtsying to the crowd.

As the cheers finally quieted, the orchestra struck up and the soprano began to sing. Her voice  was rich and sweet - certainly beautiful enough for Y/N to understand the reaction she’d received. She sang three songs, to the thunderous applause of the audience. But as she tried to leave the stage after the third, the crowd cheered for her to sing more. 

Someone near the front shouted, “After the Ball!” And everyone around him picked up the cry, chanting for her to sing the popular song. 

Y/N's stomach clenched as Miss Russell smiled indulgently and held out a hand towards the orchestra. “Alright, just the chorus through twice then, shall we?”

The familiar notes of the waltz began and Y/N felt tears come to her eyes, letting them fall as the soprano's beautiful voice gave heart wrenching power to the melancholic lyrics.

After the ball is over,

After the break of morn—

After the dancers' leaving;

After the stars are gone;

Many a heart is aching,

If you could read them all;

Many the hopes that have vanished,

After the ball.

As the orchestra played the closing notes and the crowd began to clap wildly, Y/N dipped her head towards Dean quickly.

“Excuse me.” She said, rising and making her way to the end of the aisle and then out into the lobby. Those lyrics had felt a little too relatable and the lilting melody brought back the memory of Dean waltzing with her around her hotel room.

Was that really only yesterday morning? Y/N thought. It felt like a lifetime ago.

She quickly made her way to the ladies room, incredibly grateful that it was empty while the rest of the audience watched the end of the show. She sat on one of the padded benches and tried to get ahold of herself. This whole evening had been a mistake. After their disastrous goodbye earlier, Y/N should have begged off.

As it turned out, pretending she was fine when her heart was splintering into tiny pieces was actually remarkably difficult.

After a minute or two, Y/N felt a little more in control, and splashed some cold water on her face at the sink, patting it dry with her handkerchief and then tucking it back in her purse. She took a big breath and walked back through the door, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw the man waiting for her just outside.

“I saw you run this way.” Byron Temple said in a dark voice. “I thought I should come make sure you were alright.”

Y/N squeezed her hands into fists, immediately disliking the fact that the ladies room was tucked away under the stairs, hidden from the main lobby. She supposed it was designed to give ladies some privacy, but that was the last thing she wanted right now.

She licked her lips and tried to smile. “That's very kind. But I'm fine, thank you. Just powdering my nose. If you'll excuse me, Dean will be waiting for me.”

She tried to step past him, but he snagged her wrist and pushed her further under the stairs. She tugged against his hold, trying to break it, but he held firm.

“Don't know why you're running back to that bastard. I can see that he's made you cry.” He ran his thumb across her cheek and she slapped his hand away. He merely chuckled. 

“I told you before, pet, to call on me when Winchester sets you aside. And I'm guessing by the tension between you two, and the tears staining your cheeks now, that it's either happened or is just about to happen.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” Y/N said in a harsh whisper. “Now unhand me and leave me alone.”

“Don't be like that, pet. I promise that I can offer you a lot more than he can. I'll show you just how a woman like you should be treated.” 

Y/N yanked on her wrist again, speaking quietly but angrily. “You are disgusting and vile and I want nothing to do with you, do you hear me? Now let go of me this instant, or I’ll tell Dean what you've said here and he’ll-”

Byron laughed. “No you won't, and if you did, so what? Do you honestly think he’d care when he’s done with you anyway? Do you really believe he's going to toss away the massive deal that’s been brokered between our companies, a deal that’s been six months in the making - just because I upset his little whore?” 

Y/N clenched her jaw, embarrassment spreading through her at the degrading insult. But she had no doubt of her answer. “Yes. I know he would.”

But Byron ignored her, yanking her up against him and shaking his head. “I think what you really need is a taste of what you're missing out on.”

Before she could even squeal a protest he slammed his mouth over hers, shoving his tongue past her closed lips and making her gag. Acting completely on instinct, Y/N bit down on the slimy muscle invading her mouth, making Byron swear and rip his mouth away from hers. 

She could taste the coppery blood he left behind in her mouth, and then he backhanded her and the sharp taste of her own blood mixed with his.

“Fucking bitch.” He growled at her with quiet rage, pushing her backwards until she was shoved up against the wall. “I would have treated you so nice. But I guess now I have to show you what a real man does with nasty whores.” 

He slammed his hand over her mouth and nose, cutting off her air and making her panic instantly. He bent his head slightly, attaching his foul mouth to her neck, while his other hand was shoved up her skirts, grabbing at her thigh and pulling at the ties on her drawers as she struggled against him.

Then suddenly he was ripped away from her and she bent double, gasping air into her starved lungs. 

She looked up in time to see Dean smashing his fist into Temple's face, a loud crunch indicating that his nose was now broken. The older man fell to the ground with a howl and Dean immediately jumped on him, pummeling him endlessly with left and right blows, as blood spewed over the marble floor beneath them.

Coming out of her stupor, Y/N ran to Dean, pulling on his arm, just as a crowd began to gather. George Taskett pushed his way through the crowd to pull on Dean’s other arm, just barely managing to pry him off. 

“What on earth is going on here?” He shouted, obviously very confused.

Dean was breathing harshly, and his tuxedo was askew, but otherwise Temple hadn't managed to get in even a single blow.

“I'll tell you what's happening!” Dean shouted. “The goddamn deal is off.”

Both Y/N and George gave Dean wide-eyed, disbelieving looks. 

“Dean, don't.” Y/N said softly, beginning to tremble.

“What are you talking about, Winchester? What has gone on here?” George asked again, looking down at his Vice President laying on the ground as Byron covered his bleeding, broken nose and, horribly, spat out a tooth.

“If you think for one minute I'm going to do business with scum like this, a man so lacking in moralality that he would-,” Dean cut himself off and then waved dismissively at Temple, “well, then you're crazy.”

He grabbed Y/N's hand and quickly hustled her out through the gathered crowd. Y/N looked back helplessly at George Taskett, who seemed to be completely knocked for a loop.

Dean quickly hailed a cab and helped Y/N up into it. “Rialto Hotel, quickly.” He told the driver as he climbed in behind her. The driver clicked his tongue at the horses and they sped away. 

Dean tried to look at her more closely in the dim light of the carriage, pushing her disheveled hair off of her face. But Y/N was shaking too hard now, as the terror of the situation came crashing down upon her. She just shook her head and buried her face in Dean’s chest, weeping uncontrollably now that she was safe.

Dean gave up trying to see her face and just wrapped his arms around her and held her close. He lifted her out of the cab when they arrived, and refused to put her down until they were inside the room.

She stood in the middle of the floor, while he quickly lit all the lamps and closed the curtains. Then he returned to where she stood and gently peeled her coat off of her shoulders. He stayed behind her to take the pins out of her hair, pulling it back off her face while she inhaled deep, shuddery breaths, finally calming down enough to speak softly to him.

“Thank you.”

Dean just shook his head and turned her to face him, moving her into the light a little more and trying once again to see the damage. She watched his face contort with rage all over again as he saw her split lip and the angry bruise she could feel pulsing under the skin of her right cheekbone.

But he gritted his teeth and his voice was gentle as he kissed her forehead. “Just wait here, sweetheart.”

He moved off to the bathroom and she heard him running the bath. Tears began to fall again as he came back and led her into the warmly lit room, filled with the scent of lavender. 

He removed her clothes gently, and then helped her step into the tub. She looked back at him as he held her hand. 

“Will you hold onto me?” 

Dean nodded and stripped away his clothes quickly, stepping in behind her and sitting them both down in the warm, fragrant water.

For a little while he simply held her as she’d asked, pressing soft kisses to her temple and along her hairline. Eventually he took one of the clean cloths and ran it under the cold water tap for a moment before pressing it to the side of her face that was still throbbing.

“Y/N, what happened?” He finally whispered to her.

So she told him. Her voice was quiet and halting at first, but she eventually told him everything, including what had happened at the poker game.

Dean clicked his tongue. “Sweetheart, why didn't you tell me that sooner? I would have ended things with that snake immediately.”

“Exactly.” Y/N said with conviction. “That's why I didn’t tell you. I knew how important that deal was, how hard you'd worked on it, and I didn't want you to have to end it simply because of some insults from a jackass.”

Dean shook his head. “That wasn't something you needed to worry about.”

Y/N shrugged. “Of course it was. It was important to you.”

“Yes, but not more-” Dean cut himself off and Y/N felt him tense before he continued 

 “You should have told me.”

Y/N nodded. “Yes, I should have.”

Dean was quiet for a minute before pulling the cloth away from her cheek and kissing her there gently. “Ready to get out?”

She nodded again and Dean stood up to help her out of the cooling water.

He dried her off and then combed gently through her hair before braiding it, pampering her in much the same way as he had that first night they’d spent in the hotel together. Y/N knew she would have started crying again, if she’d had any tears left to shed. But she'd finally cried herself out and now she was just exhausted. 

Dean tucked her into bed and seemed to hesitate a moment before climbing in after her and pulling her back against his warm chest. Her heart hurt, and her head ached, but despite that, her tired mind slipped, fairly quickly, into a very restless sleep. 

Some time in the middle of the night Y/N woke to find Dean wasn't beside her. She sat up quickly and sighed in relief when she saw him sitting in one of the green chairs. The light in the room was dim, just one lamp burning, and he was cast in shadows.

“What are you doing?” Y/N called to him softly.

Dean got up and came to sit on the bed facing her. “You punched me twice in your sleep, and I thought maybe I was making you have bad dreams, holding you the way I was.”

Y/N shook her head and shuddered. “No. You weren't the bad guy in my dreams.” She whispered.

Dean pushed her braid back off her shoulder. “I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I'm sorry I brought him anywhere near your life.”

Y/N frowned. “But it isn't your fault. You couldn't have known. I'm just grateful for the rescue.” She took a deep breath. “You know…he's the reason - one of the reasons - I said no to your offer.”

Dean tensed. “Y/N…”

But she just continued. “Or, well, men just like him. He called me…” The word stuck in her throat and she cleared it. “He called me a whore, you know. And…he wouldn't be the only one. Most of the world would believe the same, if I stayed with you.”

Dean's jaw ticked, but he nodded. “Yes, I understand. And I’m sorry for that. The world can be an ugly, hypocritical place.” 

He licked his lips. “But what I’ve offered you, Y/N, it's…it's all I can offer. I can't…I won't get married, and I won't love you.”

Y/N felt what was left of her heart shatter completely.

Dean spoke softly, shaking his head. “I can't, sweetheart. I won't.” He reiterated before taking a shaky breath. “But you and Jessica are right.”

Y/N frowned, trying hard to keep the ever present tears at bay. “Jessica?”

“Yeah,” he scoffed slightly, “she took me to task earlier tonight. Said I had no right to make an offer like that to a respectable lady.”

He shrugged and one corner of his mouth lifted. “And she was right. You deserve more out of life than to be ostracized by the world. You deserve to get what you always wanted, what you told me you wanted all those months ago.” 

He smiled at her gently and ran his fingers along her jaw. “You deserve contentment, children, a respectable cottage and a…” He paused and cleared his throat, nodding as though he was answering a question in his own mind. “And a compatible husband.” 

Y/N wanted to shout at him that he'd made those things impossible now, that she wouldn’t find contentment without him, that the compatible husband she'd always wanted was sitting right in front of her. 

But she didn't say any of that; he'd made his feelings very clear, and she couldn't fault him for not loving her. It wasn't a given that just because she loved him with every fiber of her being, he was going to love her back.

“I won't love you.”

At least he wasn’t lying to her - trying to hold onto her under false pretenses.

She smiled at him now, through her brokenness. “Yes, I'll hope for those things, I guess. But…” 

She swallowed hard and tugged on his hand. “Will you come back to bed, and do those things you do to me that make me forget everything else? Kiss me until the world fades away to nothing but you and me?”

As he leaned in to claim her mouth in a searing kiss, Dean's bright green eyes glittered like jewels and she knew in that moment, that emeralds would always make her cry.

***

Y/N woke late the next morning and she wasn’t surprised by the empty bed beside her. She'd felt Dean disappear from her before the sun had even broken over the horizon. 

She sat up and saw the note that was tucked under her snow globe on the table. She wrapped the sheet around her and walked over to sit gingerly on the edge of the chair that was closest. She stared down at the folded piece of paper for a couple of minutes before picking it up and unfolding it. 

Dean's neat, bold handwriting took up the whole page.

Y/N read over the short note several times, hoping to find something more than the words on the page, but that was it.

She folded it back up and let it flutter to the floor as she wound up her snow globe and set it down on the table, staring at it as she rested her chin on her folded arms. For a long time, as her tears flowed silently, she drank in the frozen scene of permanent joy that could never be hers.

Jensen RPF and Any/All Characters:

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Dean Fics Only:

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Any/All Fics Regardless of Character or Fandom:

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[tiktaalic]

i want to #VoteMary but didn’t they write bella off specifically because everyone hated her so bad for being a woman (or is that a myth)

I thought I posted it but I didn’t. But yes. Kripke did say fan reception is why they killed bela. And he says his mistake w her is that she’s too aggressive and antagonistic and on even keel and a threat. I think he mentions specifically regretting having her shoot sam. Because that’s Over The Line and colors her perception. But like to me. This simplifies down to bela was killed off because of out of universe misogyny. She’s a fun character. She has characterization.

Mary was created purely so that she could die. Specifically so she could die rolled out of bed in a nightgown pink lipgloss on before she’s stabbed in the abdomen and burnt to death. She is THE little miss fridge. Like. By 2000s goal posts. Bela is an alright character for a woman. By 2000s goal posts. Mary is egregiously misogynistically written for years. Mommy nightgown brutally murdered to kickstart revenge quest. Mommy nightgown who shows up in dreams and fantasies to tell her sons they’re Brave and she loves them. Mommy nightgown fake out version who Zachariah made up to get at dean Before he makes a crack about sleeping with her.

And there are the flashbacks eps which I actually like alright. And then they get CRAAAAAAAAAZY with it and little miss nightgown throws on a robe instead of the nightgown and she ignores her kids and says I am not just a mother because it’s 2016 and women are PEOPLE! And then they kill her again. Which is so hysterically funny I like. Well it sucks so bad obviously but i cannot deny HYSTERICALLY funny to bring her back with explicit intent to flesh her out and make her into something more complex than a symbol that gets flashed every few seasons that died and is fantasized about so we can watch dean hastily wipe away a tear. And then to kill her again. Whejififiriejfj.

Also like. Bela very much has had The Tide Change on her. People in general are like Bela’s pretty cool actually she rocks she’s fun they treated her badly but she’s great and I enjoy her. I look up bela Talbot on Twitter and it’s fancams and bela Talbot my dream girl etc. Mary suffers the slings of the arrow every day. She’s annoying she’s a bitch she’s a Mary sue shes too much of a girlboss she’s a bad mom she’s an abusive parent she’s as bad as John. People HATE her ass. They STILL hate her ass. As SOON as she becomes a person people want her DEAD. still! In 2023! People STILL think she’s abusive and boring and too much of a Strong Woman archetype and that she’s the worst thing the shows ever done. No one is still holding a grudge against bela Talbot. People clock into the Mary grudge factory every day. Still. In 2023.

[samwinchesterpregnant]

Your opinion on if Sam was a girl but Dean was still a guy, how that would affect the Winchester family dynamics? (Especially between the siblings but I think John's approach would also be important.)

love this question because i think about it every day every night obsessively ummm.. w regards to the family dynamic i feel like jo is one of the only models spn canonically gives of a young, female hunter that also includes some detail of her upbringing. we know that mary was a capable hunter and was raise in the family business, but john doesn’t know this. we know that jo shows a keen interest in hunting, but is often kept at home to work at the bar for “her safety”.

i feel that sam’s canonical role in the series plays well with this dynamic: dean and john are more involved in the physical realm of hunting, training/fighting/etc. girl sam would be (similar to canon sam) much more involved with the research side of things, which may frustrate her more than canon!sam. yes, sam wants to be normal and thinks his upbringing robbed him of a typical life, but also— sam does enjoy hunting! i imagine that girlsam would feel very stifled and annoyed by any restriction placed on her involvement with hunts. although, i will say i think john would be much less restrictive with sam than ellen is with jo. sam is an extremely capable hunter, gender roles be damned, and john is (regardless of intent) known for gambling with the odds occasionally when it comes to his children’s safety (see shtriga episode). but at the same time, any girl-child of john winchester is immediately a mary effigy and he will not lose her twice.

i honestly think dean would be more of the perpetrator of trying to “keep sam out of harms way”, at least when they are in their teens. dean’s look-out-for-sammy disease is already terminal and with added complicated gender dynamics i think his head would probably explode. dean would probably be the one insisting that sam is never out of his sight (mr. the night my brother went to college was the worst night of my life lmao).

i think the biggest difference would be the very real threat of sexual violence (not that sam and dean don’t canonically deal with sexual violence! but just on another level); both on the job and from other hunters. i think this would tip the dynamic slightly in a way that would make sam a lot more sheltered than we see in canon. dean is probably the worst, most annoying older brother. sam is never going on a date, and if she is, dean is literally camped out in the back of the movie theater watching like a hawk. like she is never getting the normal high school experience bless her heart. their bizarre and psychosexual codependency would reach neil jordan borgia levels.

also everything about sam would just be turned up to 10 by misogyny. our salad eating, diet coke drinking, telekinetic, yellow wallpaper, sylvia plath loving, sad girl, rosemarys baby coded, blood-drinking, psychic, getting-groomed-by-demons, #1 live through this by hole fan, baby girl would be fully actualized by girlsam.

[spnregular]

directors commentary on "i wear my red lipstick, got my coat and gun" pwease?

this fic i wrote while stranded in the seattle airport and as you know already, is heavily inspired by your series the pain in the end is alll in your memory. trans woman dean!!! this is one of my darker fics so if anyone else chooses to read it pls heed the tags and warnings! it's a miserable time by design :)

So right off the rip, this fic is named for a lyric in an unreleased lana del rey song bc lana is all glamor and bad boys. If dean had a transition goals pinterest there would be hundreds of photos of lana wrapped in the arms of her older greasy boyfriends.

Case closed, boogeyman dead, and now the two of them were in the backseat of the Impala, all the right parts lined up where they needed to be. Dean has a hand, cupped around her tit and another fumbling at the zipper of her jeans. Her hands gripped at his waist under her shirt, her long nails digging into his ribs. Dean ground down into her hips, her legs wrapped around him the way they were supposed to be. 

The good guy saves the day and gets the girl. The way it went down in all the best pictures. 

Dean likes it when things are they way theyre “supposed” to be, tv taught her how to feel so on and so forth. She sleeps with women because all her male heroes do and she’s gotta be like them, she’s gotta keep the tape rolling!!! Everything she does is because it’s been decided for her. A woman so cruelly divorced from her own feelings and desires, she legit believes she doesnt have them

Whole car smelled like whiskey, smoke, and pussy— the Dean Winchester, post-hunt celebratory special. Didn’t even know this one’s name. 

Dean misogyny win

Dean had two fingers pumping in and out of her pussy, his eyes closed to focus on her wet heat. She kissed his face, over and over and over, lingering with her lips on his. Dean pulled his face away to flick his tongue over her nipple, his head still swimming as she hissed in satisfaction. In his mind, he was driving 100 in a 65, all fresh road and clear skies overhead, Baby’s engine purring and someone’s deep laughter echoing beside him. 

There’s nothing dean finds more erotic than her car so dissociating by imagining driving is like thee perfect way for her to enjoy actually being with another woman. I mean, baby’s the most beautiful woman she knows and she wants to fuck her, right? Step one apply the same logic to human women. Step two ??? step three profit. also, crucially, she is imagining a man having fun next to her. is that man cas? yes

Dean was soft in his jeans and his legs felt unsteady. She was waiting, writhing, expecting something good. She thought he looked good, he thought she looked good too. She looked like something out of a skin mag right now, the way her legs and pussy were spread, clinging to his hand, just begging to get fucked. He wanted to give it to her, he wanted a good ending. He leaned in to kiss her, hard, and palmed himself through his jeans. Nothin’.

Whiskey dick <3 but also when dean is having sex, her pleasure is the farthest thing from her mind. I mean, guys dont actually like sleeping with women right? It’s kind of a chore but you look rlly cool after. So it’s all about her, she should get to enjoy this ridiculous thing dean’s gotta endure.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dean waved her off and smiled. He held an arm out as far as he could and brought one finger to his nose. Done this trick a million times. “See? I’m all good.”

Drunk driving dean rights <3

Dean wiped at the lipstick until most of it came off, leaving what looked like a few hickeys. A little lipstick on his collar looked good, looked like he scored. Looking over his face more intently, he noticed how much of it she had gotten on his lips. He lifted a hand to wipe it off and stopped, just grazing his fingers lighting over the edges where it bled onto his stubbled chin. 

Absolutely no point in sleeping with women unless everyone knows. Gratuitously borrowed from beat sheet of course.

In the dim light, a pair of green eyes with long lashes stared from the rearview mirror, right back at Dean. Big eyes, nestled against delicate cheekbones, perhaps a bit too much blush on them, and an upturned nose. Underneath it all sat full lips, shiny, red stained, and kiss swollen. The lipstick highlighted the curve of those lips, the pleasant swell of the bottom lip and the striking Cupid’s Bow of the top.  Dean licked his lips and watched the pretty face in the mirror lick her—

Dean does NOT like thinking about her “delicate features” but she loves them. She loves her lashes, her luscious lips, her fine cheekbones and nose. She’s like really pretty!!! But we can only talk about this when drunk!! And even then!!!!!!!! Not really. Having her softer features highlighted like this, out of the blue, she’s GOT to admire them. As a man, she kinda hates it but knows chicks dig a pretty guy. as a woman? she knows her face card is never declined,,

“Yes, I’m sure that’s it,” Crowley said, raising his eyebrows as he took a sip of his own drink, “Nothing to do with the way her lips paint your face with her drugstore lipstick?”

The first time this happened, crowley already knew what was going on. He thinks it’s funny/cute. a lil pathetic too, but who cares, dean is his lil girl.

“Something to match your summer color— you’ve really acquired a Jersey Shore complexion in the last few months,” Crowley continued, ignoring Dean, “Or perhaps… something to match the other gifts I bought you. A deep red?”

Red is a classic color but also i genuinely think red suits dean very well.

Dean shifted in his seat and closed his legs, the lace under his jeans riding high in the cleft of his ass. The look of satisfaction on Crowley’s face just screamed cat and canary.

dean has so much lingerie at this point and i didnt mention it but she fucks women with it on. Only way she can really keep it up atp. also crowley takes immense pride in being her sugar daddy.

“Yes,” Crowley said as he placed his glass on a side table, turning to face Dean. He leaned in, his eyes darting quickly over Dean’s face, weighing and measuring, “Something classic. I’m sure I could still find an original Guerlain.”

I went with guerlain because it’s a hollywood classic favored by marilyn monroe one of the OG class acts. and it would be expensive/hard to find so crowley would love it

“It wasn’t your color,” Crowley said, licking his own lips, “But I didn’t say it wasn’t fetching, in a sort of cheap, two-bit whore sort of way.”

Crowley thinks dean is so hot, he’s just a raging bitch. Also he’s actually very supportive of dean’s transition, more than happy to buy her whatever she needs. he is just incapable of saying anything nice to anyone.

“But you’d look better in my colors, poppet,” Crowley purred.

crowley wants to own dean so bad.... also it took me like 20 minutes to think of the word poppet, i had to ask my gf for help

Dean looked into the fire and imagined how it would feel on his new skin, clean and condemning. “Fuck off, man,” Dean said, but he didn’t move.

“Say it like you mean it,” Crowley said, his breath rushing along Dean’s neck, “Then I’ll believe you.”

“I— I don’t—“ Dean couldn’t say anything more after Crowley’s hand gripped the side of his waist.

Just two cnc queens chillin together.

“You stink of musk,” Crowley said, “Naughty girl.”

Dean shoved Crowley back to pin him with both hands against the back of the couch, blood rushing through his head. Crowley chuckled and looked up at Dean through his eyelashes. 

“Sorry,” Crowley was clearly not sorry, “Forgot I’m only allowed to use the ‘g’-word under special circumtances.”

Dean pretends that it’s a force fem situation, that crowley is shaming her into this role of “bitch” but crowley knows it’s real, that she wont let herself have this.

The demon skank pressed her lips onto Dean’s, hands roaming where they shouldn’t. Dean clenched his jaw and held his breath until it was over. 

“Got a little skin from Dean Winchester,” she chuckled, “And I didn’t even have to sucker you into a shit deal to get it. I must be the luckiest girl in the world.”

I just think it’s so funny that you gotta get assaulted by a demon to get a shitty deal :)

“He doesn’t need to know if I have a little fun with his best girl,” she said, eyes turning black. She puckered her lips again for another kiss, holding Dean’s head in place as he tried to turn away. The shit on her lips was sticky and smelled like cotton candy. It didn’t pair well with the overbearing scent of sulfur eking out from her skin. When she pulled away her smiled deepened, all of her teeth showing, “Oh, don’t you look pretty as a picture. Red is definitely your color.”

Now that dean’s “misbehaving” everyone knows she’s a “bad girl”. Crowley ran his mouth.

“Kinky,” she said, “But I think I’d like to stay on top for this round.” Her hand trailed lower to his belt buckle, tugging hard. She worked his jeans open and leaned back to stare at him. “I just remembered,” she laughed, “You were Alistair’s girl for a bit, right? Hey, maybe when we’re done you can give me a few pointers on how I did?” 

Im always thinking about deanalistair btw. Alistair is sort of the reason dean’s egg cracked. A violent cracking but nonetheless. ive always thought that part of the reason dean didnt want to talk about hell is not just shame over enjoying torturing but she learned more about who she was than she ever wanted to know

“Dean,” Cas said, “Sam wants you back at the bunker. We can cure you.”

“You know that’s not what I’m lookin’ for,” Dean drawled, willing every muscle in his body to relax. Something about the way his skin sat over his body didn’t feel right, like he should peel it off and start fresh. 

Dean’s demon life is miserable but so was being a human lol. at least as a demon she can explore herself more thoroughly. everyone expects demons to be freaks. Here she’s barely able to reconcile the idea that she’s been sexually assaulted. In front of cas no less!!! Her little guy who she’s supposed to look cool in front of. but also, demons dont care about that kind of shit, right?? just another day in hell!

“You know the drill, Cas,” Dean said, tucking himself back into his jeans and patting his shirt down for dirt and dust, “I’m sure there’s another deadbeat demon for you to waste your time on. I know how you like doin’ that.”

Gotta make fun of cas’s demon fetish

Dean tilted his head to expose the long line of his neck, satisfied when he saw Cas’s eyes flicker over it. “You seen the pictures, you know the stories. The hero gets the girl when he saves the day,” Dean said, softening his voice as best he knew how, “I think you should get an ending like that.”

Again, dean’s gotta fall back on a movie,  fall back into the familiarity of what she knows. If something’s in a script that means she doesnt have to think about it. It’s rote!

“I wanna give you something, Cas,” Dean said, his eyes felt wet, “I gotta do something, let me give you a girl.”

I want to call to attention the detail that i dont use she/her pronouns for dean anywhere in this fic. This is because dean doesnt actually think it’s real lol. And she really only lets herself fall into it if there’s a man. There’s gotta be a guy for the girl and a girl for the guy. Only other girl around was that awful skank, so, well, dean’s gotta woman up. of course…

“No, I—“ Cas grazed Dean’s cheek with his fingertips. Dean gasped when they burned, a faint burning sensation setting his skin alight. It was good.

The idea that an angel touching a demon would burn is just a horny bit for me. But i think dean would like it as she likes to be punished.

“I could make this the best happy ending you ever had,” Dean said. He gripped Cas’s thighs and ran his hands up and down, “I promise you’ll love it. Just let me do it.”

Here, dean has some inkling of cas’s feelings for her. She doesnt know the extent but she knows that cas would go to great lengths for her. She’s using this nebulous idea to her advantage. it's not nice, it's not fair and deep down she knows that.

“I didn’t—“ Cas moaned again when Dean managed to get his full length down his throat, “I— ah— I thought it would be different.”

Cas’s only other sexual experience is assault and subterfuge! He’s got a complicated relationship to sex atp, knowing he’s got this yawning hunger inside but unsure of safe ways to sate it. He’s also not really cognisant of how dean was just assaulted in front of him. He’s imagined being with dean in a million different ways, but none by coercion, none that dont come with a happy ending. He wanted his first time with dean to be happy.

Dean felt his own eyes prick with tears. There was only one way this could go down with Dean and it was never gonna be good. 

Dean does not believe herself capable of making anyone happy, esp not anyone she has true feelings for. she's poison remember!!

Cas’s kept his face covered while he breathed slowly. Below, Dean felt his own dick twitch, half-hard, as though something that just transpired could have been good for him. He lifted himself up from the ground and patted Cas’s arm hard.

Cas feels shame that he enjoyed it, he defs dissociated a bit and Dean honestly could have gotten off on sucking cas if this wasnt actually about hurting herself.

Dean turned around to find his way out of the basement, not wanting to see the look on Cas’s face anymore.

dean, queen of avoiding the consequences of her own actions....

[jinkieswouldyoulookatthis]

Misogyny is always Sexism

but

Sexism is not always Misogyny

Sexism is "discrimination based on sex or gender, or the belief that men are superior to women." (source) Sexism can be passive, the unconscious result of societal or cultural exposure, with individuals making choices based on gender but without any active dislike or distrust of women.

Misogyny involves a hatred or distrust of women based solely on the fact that they are women. While misogyny comes from sexism, and is a type of sexism, not all sexism is misogynistic. Misogyny is less likely to be passive as it involves an active disdain for women.

A man who loves women can be sexist, but a misogynistic man can never truly love a woman.

Also, while certain insults sprang forth from misogyny, because of how language is shared and evolves, they can be used by people who are not misogynistic, since words and phrases develop different connotations and nuances of meaning through use, over time. So a guy who uses terms bitch or skank or slut, could just be parroting those words back as more generalized insults without the personal weight of hate or distrust of women behind them. The difference from one person's usage to another's is in the intent put behind the words, not the words themselves.

A guy can also have a madonna/whore complex without actually hating women, because many elements of society and culture teach hang-ups about a woman's sexuality/subservience and how that effects her worth as a person.

Anyway, Dean Winchester may have a lot of sexist baggage, but he's not a misogynist because he doesn't hate, dislike, or distrust women simply because they are women and that is a requirement for someone to be a misogynist.

[ardentpoop]

What r ur thoughts on Kaia Nieves? Honestly her characters death probably affected me more than any other characters death. I think its partially bcuz her characters arc was so unabashedly racist and unnecessarily violent. But i also think that her character couldve been so much more so im curious to know what u think...

-@xyberangelzparadise

I loved her introduction, her powers, and her potential for a friendship (or enemyship) with jack who was wrestling with his own powers when they met. the “bad place” alter ego plot didn’t do much for me but it could have been interesting if the s13 writing team knew what they were doing with their characters overall. this is one of those seasons that could have been great if there weren’t far too many disparate plot threads competing for attention and a lack of any sustained focus on the characters - especially jack and his individual relationships with the members of tfw after he’d just been added to the show.

specific complaints about kaia’s writing:

that scene where dean yells at her and pulls a gun on her is absolutely horrible to watch and should have been treated with more narrative weight if they were gonna include it at all. ghastly look as usual by writers who couldn’t have seriously pondered the implications of the racial dynamics they were portraying if you paid them to do it.

I appreciate that they were trying to give the audience a tiny crumb of wlw with kaia and claire but to be frank we really didn’t get enough of them together for it to feel impactful, and on top of that it fucking stinks that they sacrificed kaia to generate angst/revenge-plot fodder for claire in “wayward sisters.” claire really is a dean mirror huh 🤪 (disclaimer for other readers who might stumble upon this post: I am not talking about d*stiel even a little bit - for all intents and purposes it doesn’t exist to me)

I remember that they briefly bring her back in s15 but truly they did not do Nearly a good enough job of integrating her into the plot in a meaningful way so by that point it feels…. tangential. as did many other characters’ appearances in the final seasons due to the extremely scattered writing.

overall I enjoyed the setup for jody taking in alex + claire + patience + kaia but I wanted more from it thematically. it was so obvious to many viewers that the writers were belatedly trying to correct the show’s notorious track record of misogyny, but that problem ran Far Far too deep for them to be able to fix it by simply adding more female side characters to the already-overflowing cast. alex’s intro episode and patience’s intro episode are two of my favorites in the late(r) seasons, but beyond their introductions we just do not see any of these characters focused on for long - besides (arguably) claire who got more screentime than any of the other girls.

and back to kaia as an individual character: I would’ve liked for the writers to have explored her as a jack foil. tbfh I wouldn’t have shunted jack off to apocalypse world so soon after his introduction; I would have kept him in the bunker with samndean and maybe cas. but if they were gonna go the AW route I think kaia should’ve been transported there with jack and it could’ve been her instead of mary who fought with him through that landscape. on top of the two of them getting to develop a relationship built on teamwork and embracing/refining their powers, this way jack could’ve used kaia’s dreamwalking abilities to try to communicate with sam, dean, AND cas if he wanted to. could’ve pulled out some interesting insights about the characters and their converging relationships that way. I would’ve mostly/entirely nixed the “dark kaia” plot tbh and focused her future appearances on her interactions with claire, alex, and patience - in a world where they were all recurring guest stars in MOTW episodes so the audience had a chance to get properly attached to them as characters.

sorry for how rambly that got lmao feel free to share your thoughts with me in the comments/tags if any of this sparked your interest :)

[quietwingsinthesky]

This is deeply fascinating for me watching you go on an Anna spree because I kinda got caught up in the doylist interpretation of it all, which is that she very much only seemed to be there because Sam was getting way, way more pussy than Dean and we can't have that. We need a girl angel to prove he's still the straight manly man who fucks. And sure, there was potential there, lots of potential, but the actress just fell so flat with everything and it all felt so obligatory to me that I didn't care. So it's just nice to see someone who could enjoy her properly, you know? Like yay! Someone's actually being bothered with the interesting exploration of her character that the actual show couldn't be assed to do.

really? i thought her actress did a fantastic job, especially in the transition from anna as a human to anna knowing she's an angel. her body language and the way she talks almost completely changes after she regains her memories. her little dynamic with ruby is also one of my favorites from the two-parter she's introduced in. not to mention her importance in the trio of uriel-castiel-herself in introducing castiel to rebellion and being his blueprint for doing so.

i'm not going to say that anna wasn't written into the show mostly with the intent of giving dean a love interest. but i do think you are severely understating her actual character by slotting her only into that role.

like, while i think there was a lot more the show could have done with her, should have done with her. and while i think misogyny played a role in why she was not given an expanded role despite how well she fits the themes of the show. i also don't think the show... didn't explore her at all? she's fairly well-fleshed out, especially for a female side character given like 4-5 episodes and way less screentime than that. her relationship with dean feels a lot deeper to me than a lot of people in this fandom are willing to allow it to be; there's a lot going on in their conversations after anna regains her memories. the parallel about their fathers is something people always point to, but even more compelling to me is that they talk about themselves in very similar ways. dean talks about himself as something terrible for what hell shaped him into, and anna calls herself basically the worst thing an angel can be for choosing to fall.

there's a hell of a lot going on between them in how heaven and hell dehumanized them both. her covering the handprint has always been about that to me, and their sex scene as a whole. about trying to reclaim themselves when they are literally being treated like heaven owns them (dean's been fucking branded, and anna is being chased down for slaughter.)

idk. i like her a whole lot. far from a perfect job was done on that show, but what they did do was done very, very well.

[michelleelizabethtanner]

🌿& 💥 pls!

Thank you 🙏💕

🌿how does creating make you feel?

So, pulling from this week’s feelings – sometimes creating, specifically writing, really highlights for me the inadequacy of my mastery of language as a tool to convey complicated emotions. Like, I’ll have all these subtleties in my mind that I want to convey as effectively as one meaningful look from Beth or Rio would convey it, and I just can’t. There is so much delicate communication between these two characters, that I’m finding it difficult to show instead of tell. It feels like less should be more with them, but writing doesn’t work that way. You can’t have a blank page and Brio just staring at each other and doing their facial tick communication, saying a thousand things while saying nothing at all. So I’ve been struggling with challenging myself to do better. And it isn’t quite turning out so I’m getting a little frustrated. This isn’t to say I’m not enjoying myself! Please know, this is all still fun for me. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t do it. But I’m spending some time going through other works – both in fic and actual published literature – and seeing how specifically authors communicate emotions.

I guess, TL;DR: creating something myself really lets me see how many miles there are between an idea and a seemingly effortless finished product.

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

This is so funny in the fact that it isn’t at all surprising. My Dean POV, The Innocent Man, is my least kudos’d fic. I mean, can ya really blame people for not wanting to read about Dean Boland - The Most Hated Man in the World? 😂 I personally had a lot of fun with it, so I’m not mad about it at all. It’s leaning kind of heavy into the one-dimensional aspects of Dean as an obvious villain. But that was intentional and I thought it was funny to show how comically (and tragically) oblivious men often are in cis hetero relationships. If you wanna be mad about some casual misogyny, give it a read. But I completely understand why that fic is the least popular.

Ask Game

[a-menaceinpink]

spn finale and final thoughts!

finished watching al 15 fucking seasons of supernatural for the first time and i just -

with the exception of cherry picked scenes here and there that i like regarding claire or cas or dean/cas or jack (my special little guy!) it is objectively quite terrible in the later seasons. everyone that says it becomes the dean show is totally right. this did not have to be a problem. nevertheless, it is.

sam, who is unarguably the protaganist and main, luke-skywalker-esque figure of the first 5 seasons is COMPLETED sidelined (i can name like maybe three sam-centric plots/subplots in the entire last 5 seasons and one of them is the whole lucifer visions thing which is just ... bad) and idk who the writers thought they were writing but that was Not Dean Winchester. I am a dean apologist, a deangirl, he was my special little guy even as he went crazy with the mark (yes i think he was right to kill the human traffickers <3 you're doing great sweetie) and i can very easily say that most of the time i did not like him! his decisions didn't make sense! he didn't seem like himself! also why, WHY, would you write him as turning into john with regards to jack??? like?? what the fuck is up there?

not to mention the fact that the writing takes a long walk off a very short cliff. suddenly the horror elements vanish and characters lose all sense of depth and the misogyny gets even weirder and more in your face than before (which is impressive considering the first season started in 2005) and the pacing comes off the rails and they keep coming back to lucifer (which is my personal beef with them) and they reuse plot elements and it is just!! so clear!! that they wanted to milk this show for all it was worth and it got bad because of it!!

i think what irritates me so much about the fact that it got so bad is that like, on paper, there are a lot of interesting elements to their final seasons. the last season with the antagonist LITERALLY being a narrative?? being god the writer?? being the network, for all intents and purposes?? like tell me that wouldn't have been interesting to explore characters begging, pleading, with the audience to be let out of this endless cycle that's wearing them thin. where's the monologue that's remiscent of bilbo's "i feel like butter scraped over too much bread" line! and for that matter, if they were gonna have them be depressed about the fact that it's literally god who's been using them as puppets, why not go harder!! why not have them both literally burn out in ways that make sense for the character! dean going recklessly into every fight knowing he won't be killed off, sam doing darker and darker things just to see what the narrative would allow him to get away with!! or alternatively, some recognition that they exist in patterns, so seeing if breaking that pattern would do something different! would actively choosing to do something that normally would be odd make a difference! who knows! i think characters that are aware that they're characters (not in the deadpool way) would be so interesting to see on screen!!!

also they really use jack as a character prop, but that's a complaint for another post. he's just my little guy <3 i love him so much <3 he does not understand social cues and he is just doing his best <3

[wellofdean]

Supernatural is a show ABOUT misogyny. It is a show about how men's damaging, misogynistic relationships under patriarchy fuck them up, subject them to an endless cycle of violence and estrange them from their own hearts. It's about fucked up relationships between fathers and sons, from brother to brother, and from the ultimate father, God, to his creation, which he has explicitly rigged up to make brothers kill each other. The subject of Supernatural is the way that patriarchy is bad for MEN.

There are people in this fandom who could really stand to do some deeper, less surface-level thinking about the difference between a DEPICTION of misogyny and the rubber-stamping approval, or even just unconscious replication, of it. Is there unconsciously replicated, period-typical misogyny in it? Yes, of course. We are all creatures of our time and place, but so often the misogyny in Supernatural is highly-intentional, over the top, cartoonish, explicitly stupid and mocked when directed at women, and insidious and soul-destroying when the men on Supernatural direct it towards each other, or inwards towards their own softer feelings and desires, and that is an intentional interrogation of what misogyny is and does, and Supernatural has legitimately interesting things to say about that topic. It is a story about men that is actually, in many, many ways, in the interests of those of us who want to see gender-hierarchy dismantled.

Also, there are numerous meaningful relationships that the Winchesters have with women who are not dead at the end of the series (Cassie, Jody, Donna, Rowena, Claire, maybe Eileen...) and some very meaningful relationships with women who do die, which, in itself, is not misogynist (Mary, Charlie, Ellen and Jo, maybe Eileen). What Supernatural does not feature, is heterosexual romance, which is not the only possible meaningful relationship a man can have with a woman, and not what he story is actually about.

Finally, do you really, REALLY think they actually wonder why people think some of those men are gay? I mean, REALLY? Because I don't. I think they are WELL AWARE of why people think that. For one thing, Cas is explictly in love with Dean. Confirmed canon, and completely obvious LONG before he said it. "But they said..." WHO CARES what they said? Look at the actual text! There are so many reasons beyond the lack of het romance in Supernatural to read characters on that show as queer and many of them are explict and/or narratively structural.

The other thing people need to get a grip on is that when people talk about ongoing stories that they are party to the making of, it is right and proper for them to not talk about or reveal things that haven't happened yet in the story. Dear creators of that story: THANK YOU for not telling us, word of God-style, what is happening in that story. THANK YOU for leaving us the space to dream in it.

And like, I don't know if you noticed? But in the actual story on our screens, not in subtext at all, queer, essentially non-compliant love literally pierced the veil of death to save the day? Which is a thing they really said it was capable of on Supernatural. I think it's time some of us stopped repeating the fandom catechism and accepted the fact that this was a QUEER STORY, the writers of that story meant for it to be queer, and the actors knew what they were doing.

the writers of supernatural were actually so misogynistic that for fifteen years they would pretty much only write complex relationships for their main male characters with other male characters, where if somehow any of those male characters had a meaningful relationship with any woman, she would eventually be killed off so the men could go back to their Natural State of only forming close relationships with other men, and then...they had the audacity to wonder why everyone thought all those men were gay

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

MARY WINCHESTER (SUPERNATURAL)

1.) in a series famous for fridging women she is THEEE og. fridged in the first five minutes of episode she might as well be in the freezer.

AND THEN. this sounds like some real stupid spn bullshit but. season 12. she gets defrosted. and its the smartest thing the writers ever did. does some rly fun things with the dissonance between s&d (mostly d)’s image of her and the actual real human person she was and is!!

ONE SEASON LATER: they stop trying to bother giving her a tangible personality or any interesting conflict (imo this was probably motivated by poor fan response to her; a big chunk of the fanbase were just as upset as dean was that she wasn’t the perfect mother they’d pictured. HOWEVER it is still canon. a canon that is easily swayed by fandom misogyny is also misogynistic ofc). they strip away complexity they’d set up in season 4/5 by saying umm actually things would be worse if she didnt make that morally complicated demon deal in her youth <3

TWO SEASONS LATER: still not giving her any personality. worse than just not doing anything else with her complicated relationship with motherhood at this point, it feels like theyve stripped her down to nothing BUT that. they shove her into a relationship with s&d’s other parental figure with literal sub-zero chemistry for no reason. and ummm guess what :) they kill her again!! back in the fridge for you, bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THREE SEASONS LATER: s&d find a spell that was explicitly invented with the intention of bringing her back and they just say like welllllll she seems like shes having a good time in heaven. i HAAAAAAAAATE THIS FUCKING SHOWWWWWWWWWWWW

ALSO: even if she doesnt get in i recommend checking out the photo. its rly good. samantha smith milf of all time forreal.

(my last supernatural submission. sorry for putting you through this bestie. i could go on but i dont think i should.)

2.) The first scene in the show is her getting brutally killed by a demon. It is what starts the events of the entire show, since she gets fridged for manpain. And then she gets resurrected in season 12 and is a really interesting character and then she gets fridged for manpain AGAIN

3.) Going for the Guinness world record in “number of times one show fridged the same mom,” SPN?

KONAN (NARUTO)

1.)

• She is taken in as a *child* by jiraiya and trained as a ninja. When jiraiya leaves his parting comment is that she'll be beautiful when she grows up & to come visit him when she's 18 (she's still a child at this point) 🤢

• Konan isn't given the chance to express her own opinions - she's shown to simply follow nagato's lead. 

• Unlike nagato, she isn't acknowledged as being naruto's ""sibling student"" for having the same teacher. Naruto isn't shown to care about this bond and is entirely unaffected by her death.

• Wrote out of the story & killed off immediately after Nagato's death for no reason. Doesn't get a chance to exist as an independent character even after she becomes the leader of her village.

• Naruto vows to bring peace to the rain village but never does or is even shown to think about it or her. (& in boruto the rain village is even shown to be in ruins)

• Konan puts her faith in naruto and vows that she and the village will support him in his quest for peace. Despite this she doesn't ever get to fight at his side during the war because she is immediately killed off.

• She also doesn't get to show up in the war as an opponent to naruto. Despite being a founding member of the akatsuki she isn't reanimated along with the others in the war.

• While her fight against tobi showcases her skill and preparedness it only exists as a reason to kill her off. Tobi only wins due to his plot armour.

[tiktaalic]

Been watching Supernatural for the first time and am currently in Jo's era. I love Jo, fly into a mild rage at the show's treatment of her most eps., etc., but it's also reeeeeally funny to watch this first sustained attempt at giving Dean a romance with a woman unfold. At the point I've reached they're so clearly going for that, but every time they attempt a Romance Scene they choose they worst trope you've ever heard of and you watch Dean and Jo take turns initiating but they're BOTH so sullen about it. Then the director goes 'okay now have a sad about your father talk' and Jensen goes 'oh yay! approximating dead father emotions is in my wheelhouse' while Alona presumably goes 'finally a chance to act instead of receiving misogynies' and all of a sudden they have a genuine interesting dynamic. And this is so blatant that from what I hear the show eventually just gives up on the romance.

With the very entertaining result that the Man Show's first attempt at romance spanning beyond an episode ends up looking more than anything like two gays halfheartedly trying to perform heterosexuality and accidentally becoming friends along the way.

YEAH the Jo and dean is quite strange all the way through. I remember hitting it in my rewatch and being really shocked that (iirc) jo is the one who initiates it? And is flirting with dean while dean is so so so in the dead dad depression dumps. It goes straight over his head. He doesn’t engage at all. It’s like. Jo voice. We don’t often get big tall handsome men here. Dean voice. Can you help us l track down a demon. And then a few eps from that she stops flirting with him and HE starts flirting with her in the grossest ways possible while she actively spurns him. Because he’s a misogynist. I know Eric Et Al talked about how basically. They added jo to pander to women. And then women were like If you give dean a girlfriend I’m killing everyone in this room and then myself. So they backpedaled on the romance. But I also don’t feel 100% kosher accepting straight from the misogynist’s mouth that CRAZY FANGURLS FORCED them to change how they wrote women. I mean I don’t doubt there were women who hated jo I’m quite familiar with the woman who hates every woman on tv. But. I also am familiar with how Eric wrote women. So I feel like this disclaimer I’ve just put in is necessary. Point is. It’s a crazy dynamic especially when they put a neat little bow on it in season 7 that says Btw dean thought of her as a little sister and jo had a crush on him because he was a Cool Older Man. It’s a hodgepodge of intentions. So it’s like. Jo flirts with dean and dean doesn’t care and then deancflirts with jo and she doesn’t care and he tries to sleep with her and she calls him lame and then jo dies and dean kisses her forehead and feels guilty about her death and then in an alternate reality he’s her brother and then Ghost Jo comes back and says I had a huuuuuuge crush on you and Dean says I always thought of you as my little sister. Comes off Really strange when you look at all of it together.

[helennns]

Assignment 2: Semiotic Analysis of Four Ads

Skyy Infusions Cherry Vodka

The entire advertisement is focusing on the use of sexualization of women to sell alcohol. The color red is commonly sexualized, and it’s used a lot in the photo. The background of the photo is red, the cherry and some of the text on the bottle are red. Both of the women have glossy red lips, which have a common association with sexuality. The cherries in their lips are a pair that connect at the top of their stems, symbolizing some sort of a connection between the women. The advertisement uses ripe cherries. Fresh fruit is seen as natural, so this supports the tagline at the bottom. There is little direct association between the women and the product, as they aren’t actually interacting with it at all. They’re interacting with each other and with the cherries, but not the bottle itself, so their purpose in the ad besides being sexualized is unclear.

The main draw of the advertisement is the sexualization present, but it’s more than just the sexualization of women and alcohol. The women’s interactions with each other and the cherries creates an air of sexuality between the two. The sexualization of women who are attracted to other women (WLW) is extremely common, and largely perpetuated by heterosexual men. This is seen in heterosexual mens large consumption and obsession with lesbian porn. There’s a common theme of heterosexual, and sometimes WLW women getting drunk and kissing each other as a fun and entertaining act. This might happen at parties in front of people while men cheer them on. No matter the women’s intentions and hopes, this act is seen as performative sexuality for the entertainment of men. This advertisement associates their alcohol with a sexualized view of WLW, and the deeper cultural behaviors that come with it. Further, the women’s full faces are not visible. Only part of their side profiles are shown, and it does not include their eyes. Again, this portrays them as objects to be sexualized.

The photo is advertising cherry infused vodka, and placing two women with cherries, a fruit, in their mouths alongside the bottle. Women's bodies are often compared to fruit, their body shapes can be described as apple or pear shaped. Their breasts and other sexualized assets are described with fruits as different sizes or words for them (melons, cantaloupes), and breasts can be called cherries. The tagline in this advertisement is “Go natural”. Natural is used to refer to the natural cherry flavor in the vodka, but the ad and the product being advertised don’t fully reflect the tagline. The colors used in the advertisement are bright and saturated. The women both have heavy makeup on, and their bright red lips match the cherries, which look very artificial despite being the only actual natural part of the ad. Every part of this advertisement uses the sexualization of women, particularly WLW, to sell the product.

Dean's Finest Old Scotch Whisky

This whisky advertisement features a Scotsman recreating Marilyn Monroe’s iconic subway vent photo. The ad uses the perception that men in skirts are something seen as humorous, as well as the idea of a man in the position of a female sex symbol in order to market the product.

In Western culture, men wearing skirts is not typical, and is often seen as wrong, or humorous. Feminine men and men wearing feminine clothing are a relatively common punch line, and the jokes are rooted in misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia. This ad is playing into this by putting a man in a kilt in the same position as Marilyn Monroe, a woman who was known as a sex symbol as well as a symbol of femininity. Despite being a Scottish company and bringing attention to the product's origin with the clothing, the brand is playing into the idea that a man wearing traditionally feminine clothes is something to use as a punch line.

Had the ad been the exact same, but with a woman instead of a man, it would not be seen as humorous, but likely more sexy. The iconic image the ad recreates is one that sexualizes her, but with a man in the exact same position as her, it’s intended and perceived in a humorous way, despite his position, outfit, and bare legs that would all be sexualized on a woman. So even though the advertisement has no women in it, it still holds the underlying message that the sexualization of women is normal and sexy, and the sexualization of men in the same way is funny and ridiculous.

Whiskey is typically seen as a rugged and manly drink. Many other whiskey ads feature traditionally masculine men to market their product, so why is this one different? The advertisement's tagline is “surprisingly mild”. So to market a whiskey that’s supposed to be milder than normal, the ad uses a man in a skirt in a feminine position to market it. This reinforces the idea of whiskey as a masculine drink, saying that this whiskey is milder and suited for a different type of man than others. But, despite the man being more feminine, he’s still a man, further solidifying the idea that whiskey is a man’s drink. This advertisement plays off gender stereotypes of both men and women in order to advertise its product.

Theo James for Hugo Boss Cologne

The broad aim of this advertisement is to sell cologne to men. It does this by intentionally playing into common stereotypes about men in order to appeal to those who aren’t secure in their masculinity, sex appeal, control, and success. The man in the advertisement, Theo James, is representative of all of those traits. His appearance perfectly fits the masculine ‘tall, dark, and handsome’ character commonly seen as desirable.

The advertisement clearly uses sexuality with the man and the woman, but it could be argued that sexual symbolism is used with the shape of the cologne bottle being slightly phallic. Especially in the context of an already sexual ad, it’s not absurd to suggest that the unconscious mind may see the cologne bottle as phallic. Insecure men may unconsciously see this as a way of fulfilling something they feel they lack. The cologne bottle is synonymous with their manhood, both physically and mentally.

The advertisement plays into the sublimation that might occur in men’s minds. A man can subconsciously channel his aggression and need for sexual dominance into his career, pursuing power in whatever socially acceptable way he can. The advertisement plays into this by showing a man who has achieved both forms of dominance, saying that the only way to fulfill their deep rooted desire for dominance and success is through the use of this cologne. The man represents what a man who uses this product could be. The advertisement associates the man's traits with the cologne they’re selling. It targets the insecurities of men, showing them everything they could be if they were to use this cologne.

Taylor Swift for Covergirl

The main drawing point of this advertisement is the face of the product, Taylor Swift. The advertisement was released in 2012, and she was already an easily recognizable celebrity. A close up of her face and numerous mentions of her name in the writing show that the advertisement is clearly using her face and her name in order to sell the makeup. Taylor Swift is used in order to target a specific type of consumer.

Makeup advertisements are already targeted towards women hoping to improve their appearances. Covergirl didn’t stray from this, promising consumers their “best look” with their eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara, telling the consumer that only these products can make them the most beautiful and able to look their best. Additionally, the use of Taylor Swift could target women’s subconscious desire to be seen as desirable. The ad associates their product with a woman who was known for her desirability that was proven by her relationships and songs about love. Her appearance in the ad also hints at this. She stares directly into the camera with an expression that is both seductive and daring. The advertisement silently causes consumers to feel that the only way to achieve Taylor’s level of beauty and desirability was to use their makeup.

This advertisement didn’t just stop with desirability as many makeup ads do, but instead took it a step further by drawing in women who crave exceptionality, whatever form it comes in. Taylor Swift was considered exceptional in a number of ways, be it talent, success, or looks. She stood out, and the advertisement told, and showed, consumers that they could too. The tagline, placed right below Taylor Swift’s face, states “don’t live in someone else's shadow!”. The double meaning of shadow (as either in terms of success or eyeshadow) associates their makeup with standing out, as well as sending a motivational message to their audience that they too can be exceptional with the use of their makeup. The idea of standing out is also apparent with Taylor Swift’s appearance and makeup in the ad. The colors of her clothes and makeup, as well as her jewelry, are bright and bold, and they’ve also changed her hair from its signature blonde to a darker brown that adds a boldness to the look. 

The main message being sent to women by this advertisement is that they are defined by their appearances, an idea that has long been relevant. The advertisement confirms their subconscious thoughts that success and exceptionality are defined by beauty. The ad encourages women to stand out like Taylor Swift does, but through their appearances, instead of talent or hard work. It targets the deep rooted insecurities and fantasies found in many women by offering them the chance to stand out, to be exceptional and desirable, and telling them this is only achievable through the purchase of their product.