Why supernatural is sexist

Fans were outraged. Her demise serves only to drive a temporary wedge between the brothers and to motivate Dean to seek revenge in the bloodiest way possible. This is a matter of interest particularly in the case of their father, John Winchester, who was portrayed throughout the show as a hard, emotionally unavailable, oftentimes cruel person.

These acts are real — as are the survivors of them — and they should be treated with the respect and severity they deserve. She is a writer, a lover of movies and a passionate intersectional feminist. Skip to content Toggle navigation. Screens x August 1, I agree to my Facebook data being stored and used as per Privacy Policy.

There have been scores of examples of this happening. One off the top of my head is the battle of Gallipoli. The plan was absolutely doomed from the start. Too ambitious, no proper intelligence gather, and severely underestimating the enemy, ensured defeat. They went into battle thinking that this was it, they were going to win. Sam and Dean thought they finally had the chance to end it, as did Jo and Ellen. However that group walking were not dumb at least not then, Sam and Dean have kind of regressed in their intelligence.

But they still went forward. Facing that head on with the willingness to fight is more poignant then facing a battle confident of victory. I explained Ellen and Jo but I want to add a few more examples. Madison in Heart went out not weak but strong. In a lot of ways, stronger than the guys. She sacrificed herself to save those she might hurt in the future. She used what made her unique to help them, knowing it put her in danger.

She may have not been happy going out but I mean, would you be? Meg sacrificed herself twice. She took on the hell hounds alone so Cas, Sam, and Dean could get to Crowly. The second time was to put herself in Crowlys way and buy them time to get out.

She stood in front of the man who tortured her for a year and dyed her hair and looked him in the eye. She knew she was down but she did it on her own terms. Humans are social creatures and we develop close bonds. Those emotions carry with you and impact decisions you make after the death.

It makes a doctor who lost a child to cancer, spend their life researching a cure. We can only hope to leave a legacy to be carried on by others.

Over the years they have lied and been lied to. They were manipulated by stronger forces. They have literally been to hell and back.

At this point death seems to be the only card left that can create enough emotion to move the story forward. Basically, the Senseless Sacrifice is the downer version of Heroic Sacrifice. Yes, they follow through on the plan and demonstrate all of the heroic qualities of a Heroic Sacrifice. But the badguy gets away anyway, or the plan they died for was inherently doomed to fail.

Compare to the deaths of Future! They died so that Future! Dean could get in close. Dean never even got a shot off at Lucifer. Meanwhile, Future! What Ellen and Jo did is, unquestionably, heroic. Does it work in the context? I still love Ellen and Jo. And THAT is why fridging has a negative context. Of course there is a cultural lack of strong women POV stories, but holding this one show accountable for that is silly.

I think possibly the problem is the article appears biased — detailed analysis of females but mostly sweeping generalizations about the male deaths.

That seems a sweeping and generalized criticism to make based on the one error you caught, but I respect your opinion if not your debate technique. It was an observation based on the detailed analysis of female deaths versus not even one male death treated similarly. Not much to debate about that fact surely? You seem more interested in snarking about both this and my other comment that has absolutely nothing to do with this comment, than having a debate anyway.

The point of my article was the way women within Supernatural are treated. Not only in their deaths, but in their lives.

Would you like a male comparison? Bobby Singer. Bobby Singer dies in Supernatural. He is shot at the end of an episode in a shocking manner, but unlike the deaths of the women here, the next episode is dedicated to his life, his contribution, and becomes essentially a battle that puts a choice in his hands.

When he is brought back as a ghost, it is treated as multi-episode story arc, and he is an active force still. Even when he moves on by his choice , he is still treated with agency, eventually even fomenting rebellion in Heaven. Another male death. Kevin Tran.

Kevin is undeniably fridged. However, when Kevin is brought back as a ghost, it is to save his mother. It is with agency. He is directing the Winchesters. There is a sense that his story is not over, and it is still his story. When Cain is killed, the camera does not allow us to see him as a corpse, as we do Abaddon, his contemporary so to speak.

There was an aspect of choice to it as well, on his part. When John Winchester dies by demon deal, we see his choice all through the episode, we see the heroic sacrifice aspect, and we see him come back as a ghost to save his son again.

When Gabriel dies, he is stabbed personally by the devil, in an episode fairly well dedicated to him deciding to square off against Lucifer and that he chose to side with the humans.

We see him in a video after his death, indicating that he knew he would die, and he acts from beyond the grave to tell the Winchesters what they needed to know to end the Apocalypse, essentially still helping in the fight, and ending it on his terms.

When he returns, we are left with the impression that his story still continues, and we will see him again. He is an archangel vessel. God has a mission for him. These are Dead Men Defrosting tropes. When Castiel dies in Swan Song, he comes back the same episode, more powerful than before, and it kicks of his story arc for the next season.

And my point was putting some of these in the article would have been beneficial for comparisons sake; it would have emphasized your point rather than detracting from it as the generalizations did. Clearer now? I disagree as the article was already fairly long and that the subject matter was the women of SPN, but I do see your point.

I disagree. This was an extraordinarily long article to begin with. Generalities in these circumstances are understandable. If any of these things were not the case the audience is not aware of the show or context, the article was short, or this was set up to be a direct side by side comparison instead of using examples to point out a general pattern , then yes, it would be needed.

Going to surprise you- I am Love this show and sometimes am deeply disturbed at the death of one of the characters- I have seen both men and women die- horribly sometimes- and I flinch and despair at every death- IT IS A SHOW PEOPLE- thats what this show is about- demons, angels death and a chance to change the world- and oh yes- that bortherly love that permeates everything- and the I have your back- attitude- what a great show to integrate all these issues and emotions- I will continue to watch until I can no longer see- or hear or feel for that matter- It is a great show- the actors evidently are doing what they are supposed to do- and we are reacting to that- good or bad- the story line is what it is and ergo- some women die and some men die- TA DA- the end.

As stated over and over again, it is not the death that we have a problem with. You might be able to find one or two exceptions to the more than 35 examples of the treatment of female characters sited. You could read those too, and then weigh in when you have read the article.

An excellent article that puts forth the treatment of women on Supernatural. Sure they do but as the article says, the treatment is very different for men and women. I would just like to put up one example. Bela was sexually abused by her father so she had made a deal with the demon at 14 to have her parents killed in exchange of her soul.

Bobby Singer shot and killed his physically abusive father in his teens while protecting his mother.

Neither Dean nor Sam ever come to know why Bela made that deal and she is mocked by Dean before her deal comes through. This is one of the many examples that shows how there is a difference between a male character dying and a female character dying on on Supernatural.

They are brought back only to further manpain of male protagonists. And despite all the misogynist slurs directed towards her, most of her scenes in season 9 were of her being ineffective.

And she had so much potential! Then killed to bring out a more powerful male antagonist. The information on Emma is incorrect. The text of the episode will tell you that Dean did use protection although he acknowledges accidents happen.

I can certainly correct it if the information on Lydia is incorrect. I assume the rest on Emma still stands? Abbadon was brutally and repeatedly stabbed on screen, Cain was killed maybe? One of these deaths is not like the other two. They are well framed and the evidence you lay out is irrefutable. Quite a few of us would be willing to give the world of video games, movies, and television ideas. They need only listen. Fabulous post! Mystery Spot? The one exception: Grandpa Samuel.

His death and his were separate, legitimate events, and were both counted. Only people who died in the episodes made the list. That means when the boys intimidate a two-sentence-Sheriff into telling them that 3 people have died in this county alone, if we only saw 1 of them bite it, only 1 was counted.

Children are included in the counts, by gender. Demon and angel vessels were counted, too, and boy did they go through those like cheap toilet paper. We do have a tally of their genders, though. Rules, rules rules.

They seemed like the only way to do this fairly. But now, onto the good stuff. So, did the show kill way more women than men? Not really, no. Actually… still no. In every single season, there were notably overwhelmingly more men killed. In the entire show, all seasons combined, there were men and 86 women killed.

And you can see that this dynamic held true for every season, so when we talk about blanket statistics, it applies to the whole run of the show. There was a bit more variability in the pre-title openers, especially when in s4 they up and blasted 8 nuns in the name of Lucifer, but the overall trend still holds. The women are more likely to be rescued than be the rescuer, and more of them make it out alive, because who wants to see pretty girly guts all over the ceiling fan?

This is something else the show gets a lot of flak for, but it does pass the Bechdel test at least some of the time, which gives it a leg up over many other shows in terms of political correctness. Go Show! Especially if the stats so blatantly state the opposite?

Mary and Jess were gone in the pilot, the catalysts for their devotion to their entire lifestyle, and John was gone by the start of Season 2. Bam, bam, bam, all gone. Two women, one man. After that, the show really failed to bring in new female characters that were as important to the boys. The only women really worth remembering that were introduced after s2 are the Big Bads of seasons 4 and 6, Lilith and Eve, and two once-allies ish -turned-enemies, Ruby and Anna.

Oh, plus the other love-to-hate-her girl of the hour, Bela, and then Pamela. All strong women, all dead. And that seems to be the trend.