tenoko1:

Whooo boy, talk about a loaded question. *cracks knuckles* Okay, this is gonna take a minute so get comfy, because it isn’t a simple “just because”. There are lots of interconnected reasons I and others believe he’s bisexual. The fact that people want to think this fundamentally changes his character is their problem because they’re treating LGBT people as something other than people.

     1) Dean is written based off Dean Moriarty in On the Road by Jack Kerouac, who is a bisexual, promiscuous man traveling on the road with a man that they have purely platonic relationship. (Sam is named after Sal Paradise– who is straight. Sal was originally going to be Sam’s name. Kripke was hardcore dedicated to his transformative fanfiction.). The book was originally written based-off real people and basically RPF, and Dean Moriarty is based on Neal Cassidy. (Original publication of the book in the US censored out Dean’s bisexuality, and it was only later publications that it was put back in).

Okay? So that’s the basis of his character.

     2) Even not knowing that, Dean has been read as bisexual since the pilot. People want to treat LGBT people like they fit in specific boxes or come with labels and neon signs. They don’t. They’re people. Some of it was written into the script other parts are acting choices on Jensen’s part or unconscious acting choices, but Dean has been read as bi by the audience since the pilot.

And as more episodes went on, it became clear he was still closeted and with good reason. John’s A+ parenting mixed with the toxic masculinity and hyper-masculine BS of the hunter community. The fact that in canon being gay is used as an insult and punchline of many of the jokes. Dean’s reactions to them being confused as being queer versus Sam’s reaction to being confused as queer.

There are fourteen seasons of narrative that Dean is a closeted bisexual and as interested in men as he is women, but only choosing female partners. Sexual history does not define sexuality.

     3) “But he’s straight, he’s said so”. Yes, because no queer person has ever lied or claimed to be straight, as well as the fact that Dean is 100% truthful and does not lie professionally or consider sublimation his thing.

Sublimation
[suhb-luh-mey-shuh n]
noun

   Psychology. The diversion of the energy of a sexual or other biological impulse from its immediate goal to one of a more acceptable social, moral, or aesthetic nature or use.

     4) All of these things add up and reinforce each other, mind. It’s not, oh, this one thing. No, it’s people watch the story and pick up on these tells and then those readings are reinforced by finding out who his character is based on, lines and scenes from canon, like Dean basically confessing in a closet about people and feelings he wants to experience for the first time. You’ll often see people ask, “Please give me a heterosexual reason for this because I can’t come up with one”. People who may not have read him as bi from the pilot say they slowly came to believe he was over the course of the series.

Again, LGBT people are still just people like everyone else. That this possibility of bi!Dean is being treated like it would make him other and stand out just… I have no words.

     5) Writers and showrunners have also enforced this throughout the years. The scene with Aaron, Jensen’s acting choices, the ‘love in all places’ line. Robbie Thompson writing the “I love you”. Carver encouraging Misha to play Cas feeling like a jilted lover. Cas’ Heaven originally had photoshopped pics of Dean in it to further mock him until Singer had them removed– all the other blatantly gay imagery stayed, though, because he didn’t make the connection. Actors, once no longer on the show, confirming “Yes, it’s real and I ship it. I can say that now. What are they gonna do? Fire me?”– this said by Curtis Armstrong. Felicia Day said something similar, but I can’t find it.

Dean and Cas are actually canon in several other countries according to the translations, using terms of endearment only spouses use with each other, or distinction in the “I love you(singular). I love all of you(plural).” which wasn’t blatant enough despite being how the English language works, other translations used the purely romantic form of the word ‘love’ followed by the platonic/familial version.

Also, Dean/Crowley is canon. Demon!Dean wasn’t a different character, it was just an angry Dean not having to give a flip anymore what people thought of him and doing what he wanted, which included killing jealous husbands, getting in bar fights, hooking up with a waitress, and making horrible relationship choices, re: Crowley. There’s an entire arc of the most awkward post-breakup Dean doesn’t want to acknowledge or talk about. Just because he regrets it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

     6) Further, there’s no good reason he shouldn’t be bisexual.

• “It makes Jensen uncomfortable.” No, it doesn’t. He’s very LGBT supportive and has played a bi character before. I believe he and Jared both said they’d be totally fine if the writers made either of their characters bi.
  
• “Dean is straight.” He’s a fictional character, everything he does is written and a creation of a team of writers, directors, showrunners, and an actor.
• “He said he’s straight.” I covered this earlier.
• “You just want your ship canon.” I didn’t mention a ship as reason for his bisexuality and I don’t ship Wincest. Remember how I said he’s been read as bi since the pilot? He didn’t have to have a relationship to be read that way. That’s not how sexuality works. You aren’t defined by your current relationship status. You just ARE. Rain, snow, or shine.
• “Supernatural isn’t about romance! It’s Sci-fi!” Did you see the pilot? How the whole show is built off a man’s obsession for revenge after the murder of his wife, then repeated and mirrored in his youngest son in order to get him out on the road hunting the monsters? Also, romance has always been part of the show and has always been in sci-fi. Continued inclusion of an element does not change the genre.
• “Supernatural is about TWO BROTHERS.” Sort of. Started off with them as our guides through their world and their struggles, yeah. Sam avenging Jess. Dean avenging his mother and obeying his father. Holding on to each other as they keep losing everyone else around them. But if Sam and Dean are all you see, you aren’t looking, much less seeing. Not to mention actors, directors, showrunners, and Eric Kripke have all refuted that notion. Shows grow and change and evolve. Doesn’t mean they aren’t the foundation it’s all built on, but they aren’t the whole.
  
• “If you want diversity and representation so much, then why not Sam?” Because Dean is the one more heavily identified as being bisexual. Dean coming out as bi has years worth of heavy-handed narrative to support it that folds it in naturally. Sam by a smaller margin is read as bi or even pansexual in fics, but it may not blend in as well or be accepted by the general audience as easily. Dean is the one with a much more elaborate set-up for him to come out as bi– and that they’ve tried to do in the past– and into a relationship with a familiar, long-running character without the need to introduce a new one that may or may not be accepted by fans.
  
• “Supernatural has representation!!11!!” You mean all the one-off side characters and dead characters? That’s not representation. This is also a problem regarding POC representation on the show, but that’s for another post.
  
• “But your ship!!!11!” I covered this earlier, Chaci. Make like Elsa.
  

     7) There’s far more reason for Dean to be canonically bisexual. Media still treats male LGBT characters as taboo, while normalizing LGBT female characters and wlw pairings (until possibly, Whoops! They dead. You mad?) because they are still catering to the cis-het male audience and basically fetishizing it. Hugo Ateo, who played Cesar Cuevas, stated he has a hard time getting gay roles– as a gay man, mind you– because he “doesn’t look gay”.

LGBT people aren’t a special edition Barbie, John. They’re like everyone else. They’re people. Treat them and their stories as worth being told.

Dean’s still the same badass, monster fighting, nesting, anime watching, cowboy obsessed, caregiving, porn-loving, world-saving Winchester we all know and love.

If someone views him differently or changed (God forbid, ruined) for being canonically bisexual, then the problem isn’t the character.

If you’re only okay with him as bisexual in accordance to a ship and keeping it hidden in fandom, then the problem isn’t the character.

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Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.