So this season of Supernatural has been a big one for gay/lesbian representation (almost too in your face, if you ask me, but I’m not trying to start a war). But you know what? I’ve been thinking, and what I’ve been thinking is this:
I cannot possibly be the only pure straight Christian virgin watching this show.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but to me, representation means everybody gets equal time to play the good guy– it gives a certain feeling of satisfaction to the viewer who can relate, like when a show mentions the state or city you live in, and your brain has a little internal celebration because suddenly, something in your life is part of somebody else’s life too– it suddenly takes on a little more… credibility, reality. I would branch out from that to say this as well: representation isn’t just for the minorities– if only the minorities are represented, that’s not exactly equality, is it?
But that’s another debate for another day. Back to my point.
Supernatural definitely does not hold to my Christian beliefs, but because I’m stable and sane (as stable and sane as a fangirl can be) I can separate the show from reality and move on, enjoying the show while at the same time not condoning the behavior I see displayed, and not being swayed from my beliefs because of it. The problem that I see here stems from what I stated earlier: I cannot possibly be the only pure Christian virgin watching this show– so where is MY representation?
I don’t think that a virgin has EVER been displayed in a good light or done anything important on Supernatural. Yes, there was that one girl, Nancy Fitzgerald, in Jus in Bello, which made me very happy. But do you remember what Sam and Dean did to her? They made fun of her. They laughed at her. The writers of Supernatural made her virginity an opportunity to bring out the party in Dean– they used something that means a lot to a lot of people as a joke, a way to enhance personality in another character. And I felt terrible for her, but I still loved her despite the awful light in which she was shown.
And then at the very end, what does she say?
“When this is over, I’m gonna have so much sex.”
You know how you feel when they kill a gay/lesbian/bi character? “Great, there goes our representation.” “Oh look, the writers killed off another LGBT character. Big surprise.” At least there have been positively portrayed characters that were something other than straight– I had one girl– ONE– and they as well as killed her.
So what does that say to other people like me, who have never partied, gotten drunk, had sex; who live purely, who wear purity rings to show their pledge against premarital sex? People talk about having representation to encourage the minorities and the underrated, the disabled, the weak– what does that make us? Make me? What does that tell people like me? To me, it sounds a lot like, “You don’t matter; your way of life is wrong. You will never make a dent in the world’s problems, you will always succumb to evil, you have no chance. You are worthless.”
I thought that the Supernatural fandom was about supporting each other– I thought that equality actually meant equality. I didn’t think we laughed at each other. I didn’t think we left people out just because they don’t fit in.
Just because you don’t come across a lot of people like me doesn’t mean we don’t matter– who among you can say that that isn’t true?
Just because a minority of people are deaf doesn’t mean they don’t matter.
Just because a minority of people are lesbian doesn’t mean they don’t matter.
Just because the rest of the characters on Supernatural aren’t pure Christian virgins, IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT I DO NOT MATTER.