Our Faves Are Problematic. Don’t @ Me.
So twitter’s all in a tizzy over a fan who asked Jensen to sign an essay she wrote for a college course on why Dean Winchester is bi-sexual. Here’s her original tweet. (FYI - NO, I don’t think she did anything wrong, and I don’t think Jensen did anything wrong but I’ll get into that below. Ali’s gonna be meta as fuck.) (And yes I did just refer to myself in the third person, don’t act like you didn’t know that about me…)
https://twitter.com/JeanaKirk90/status/1071960490027479040
I’m snipping Jeana’s recount of what happened out of the comments because frankly, people are assholes and no one should be subjected to the vitriol she received.
Here’s where I get all meta on you…
Full disclosure: I ship the fuck out of Destiel, and I love Jensen, Misha, and Jared so bear that in mind.
Our faves are always going to do stuff that make us facepalm. Whether they’re our IRL faves, or famous faves, no one is perfect. Jensen’s attitude about being publicly supportive of the LBGTQIA Community has been evolving for years probably along with the general population (at least the intelligent ones..). He has a lot of fans that are within that community and a lot of fans who are not fans of that community. That’s what happens when you star in a show that’s a shoot ‘em up testosterone-fest (stay with me).
Yes, really…. stay with me.
It’s in his best interest to keep as many fans as possible happy, regardless of how he feels. This is his livelihood and the livelihood of a ton of other people as well. If he fucks up publicly it could cost all of them their jobs and that’s a ton of pressure. Obviously, he doesn’t want to do anything to compromise the longevity of the show.
The twitter/tumblr/facebook/insta fandom is not the entire viewership, we’re the zealouts. We’re loud and proud about our love for these boys and this show and that’s awesome. That also makes us some of the loudest critics and sometimes, we’re assholes.
Oh come on, you know I’m right.
We’re assholes to the cast, the writers, each other… That said, the DeanCas supporting side of the fandom isn’t enough to support the whole of the show should people jump ship because Dean and Cas go canon and that’s something he has to take into consideration. It’s something the writers, producers, show runners, etc, all have to take into consideration. Misha really doesn’t have that kind of thing to worry about because he’s been loud and proud from the beginning. Jensen and Jared have slowly gotten louder about their support which can alienate some (hateful ass) fans.
That’s right, we see you over there being hateful. Go reexamine your life.
While it’s clear that Jensen is a believer now in LGBTQIA rights that doesn’t mean he has to believe that it’s the best thing for Dean. The writers will bait us. They’re going to do whatever they can to keep us coming back for more, it’s their job. They may be (read: ARE) queer baiting but here we are, still sucking it right up. Misha may be 100% ok with Destiel going canon but that doesn’t mean Jensen is a shitty person if he isn’t. That may not be how he perceives Dean and let’s face it, the writers aren’t going to just drop something like that in front of him without discussion. Not every straight person is going to be ok playing a different sexuality and that doesn’t make them homophobic or fragile. He doesn’t deserve our hate mail because he’s not on board, just like he wouldn’t deserve hate mail from nonshippers if he was on board. He may get there eventually. Maybe it’ll be endgame for the show because at that point it won’t matter, who knows.
Shut up Dean, it could happen.
We get tiny snippets of situations like this where he outright says Dean isn’t bi, maybe it’s because he’s on the spot and panics or maybe it’s because he’s right and the writers just like making us beg for it. Either way, the hate spewed at him is ridiculous.
These guys give more to the fandom than any other group of actors I’ve ever seen. Let’s not forget that because of an interaction with a fan.
