I’ve thought about fem!Dean again and actually, the very basic argument of “well he’s a hot guy performing masculinity, so she’d be a hot woman performing femininity” is also just not well thought out. This idea of fem!Dean breasting boobily in low cut tops, miniskirts and heels with long luscious locks because Dean is a hot guy who fucks around doesn’t make sense.
To illustrate: The male version of that idea of Deanna would be running around in tight shirts and flash his guns all the time. He’d at the very least dress in stylish, revealing clothes that put his best sexual assets at the foreground. Meanwhile, the actual Dean wears notoriously frumpy outfits. Because he’s a hunter. He wears work clothes he can move and fight in. I feel the idea of transporting the toxic masculinity of his character, while a fun exercise (and I’m sure he himself imagines his female version as a similarly bimbofied feminine girlie), ignores one of Dean’s main motivations in life: killing monsters. Yes, he fucks around a lot, yes, he apparently does care about his looks at least in terms of hair, but the outfits he wears are very practical.
Yes, even while he’s younger and still wears the rings, bracelets and the huge jacket. Those elements of his style are also, I would argue, while hot, not the main ‘hot guy fashion’ of the 00s. He’s maintaining a ‘not like other guys’ persona — and, of course, again: the main thing that defines his style in those years is the huge bulky leather jacket. That’s not tight skirt lace bra poking out of the camisole French nails territory.
We need to also keep in mind that women don’t fuck Dean and aren’t drawn to him because he’s such a sexily dressed hot guy. That’s not the Dean fantasy. He’s a manly lone wolf rebel outcast, more or less. He’s not an A&F model flashing his abs.
My main point here is that Dean is performing masculinity, yes, but the main motivator for his style at least is his work. While I do find the aspect of gender expression very interesting and important, I think an interpretation of Deanna that puts more focus on that than on the fact that she would have to kick, climb, shoot, run, dig and drive a car in her outfits, is ignoring who this woman is, how she was raised (whether that’s by John or Mary). In short: it’s missing something.
[final note: Yes, sure, she can have long flowing hair (what this conversation comes down to most of the time). Because it makes sense for the femininity, sure. It even makes sense with her job as the show portrays it, since every huntress we see has long flowing hair. Spn is a world where women fighting monsters never have to worry about getting their hair caught in branches or having it obscure their vision while they’re trying to shoot, it hanging in their faces while they’re trying dig graves or it getting ripped out of their skulls during fights because it’s easy to grab. So in that sense, sure. Deanna could have long flowing hair. But I personally chalk that up more to the universe the show is set in. And I, personally, do think that a transportation of who Dean is into female form does allow, and does favour, a reading of her with short hair. At least in the early years, since during ~2008 there was a brief period where straight women could be portrayed as hot and sexy with short hair. Long gone, but well.]
I wanted to add that Deanna would be the type of action flick heroine who’s always wearing 'plain' clothes and has this ‘I’m a tough girl who doesn’t have time for this bullshit’ attitude (while still being very hot of course), but finally has one moment where she’s dressing stereotypically feminine for a job (little black dress and smokey eye) and all the guys in her team are like “woooooow I had no idea you looked like this!!!!” while she throws her (perfectly styled) hair back and makes a cool girl comment about gun holsters or something. But then I remembered that at least the first part of this happens multiple times on the show when Dean gets to wear a suit and obviously feels very attractive wearing it. So.
