SPN spoilers

[rivkat]

Wow, that was a waste of potentially good material, given how enraging it was. I am choosing to interpret the good days/whore line as further evidence of Dean’s depression, which has recurred from S2, since even if you change it to “monster” it’s still moral deterioration from “saving people,” which Dean is now convinced he can’t do. Likewise, Lisa makes sense to me as icon of Things Dean Can’t Have. Though it’s a bit wince-inducing to talk a bunch about deadbeat dads and then have Dean … be one. Anyway, to me, untreated depression plausibly makes Dean despair, and it’s predictably unpleasant and static to watch. So many supernatural therapists for Dean, so little supernatural Zoloft.

Have some good news: podcath did a podfic of Finders Keepers (SPN Sam/Dean AU remix)! Audiobook here; mp3 here. And beadslut did a podfic of Ex Machina (SPN gen).

Also, those of you who’ve had trouble with LJ notifications: did opening a support request help? I haven’t gotten anything in a week, and it is annoying.

Comments

[locknkey]

So many supernatural therapists for Dean, so little supernatural Zoloft. This made me laugh! And it is too true.

The "whore" thing did not bother me as much as some and maybe it should have. Not a writing choice I would have made, but within Dean's characterization in show and the titular correctness of "whore of Babylon" I can hand wave it. Canon Dean is not particularly PC and right now he is broken and angry and I suspect maybe still part angry little boy upset that his mother abandoned him. (I can even see Lisa in this context - the only woman who knows what he does and wanted him anyway - very much an idealization) Still, disappointing choices on the part of the writers.

I actually find the hidden misogyny of woman's only value being their ability to reproduce, much more offensive. This is the best reason for Dean's happy to be all about Lisa.

[rivkat]

See, I could have lived with "on good days you get to kill the whore of Babylon." That's a person. "A whore"? Those are women who, as coffeeandink has pointed out, are actually regularly singled out for violence, including murder--and are not responsible for the apocalypse. It's not about PC (there are ways to portray even misogyny without endorsing it; I don't believe that's what the show does), and it's not about Dean being angry and broken, which, 100% yes. It's about what the show consistently does to disempower women, which is connected to your point about reproduction. Here, that worked, in a sense--since Lisa was never a person as far as Dean was concerned, it made sense that Lisa was a stand-in for the family he wanted (and can never get with Sam). But if we're talking about the one who got away--it should've been Cassie!

[locknkey]

See, I could have lived with "on good days you get to kill the whore of Babylon." That's a person. "A whore"? Okay I get that - semantics changes the contextual meaning and you're right. Not something I'd thought about, but I can completely see it.

t's about what the show consistently does to disempower women, which is connected to your point about reproduction. Here, that worked, in a sense--since Lisa was never a person as far as Dean was concerned I agree with that whole heartedly and I think this idea speaks to the absence of Cassie as well. Yes - if Dean has had a true connection to any woman it would be Cassie. Her very absence - not even a phone call - but Lisa gets a whole scene - speaks to race fail as well as gender fail. I think, show, as writer, made poor choices this ep.