"He Was My Gay Thing": Representations of Queer Experience

“Everybody Hates Hitler” Meta, Part Two

The scene between Aaron and Dean in the pub was an interesting one, to say the least, and my view on it seems to be a bit different than most of what I’ve seen. A lot of the meta written about this focuses on what it potentially suggests about Dean’s sexuality. I’d like to take a different focus and look at the scene’s representation of queer experience. For the record, I’m queer, and I enjoyed it and found it to be a positive scene, both in my initial casual viewing and on subsequent more analytical viewings. For me, it’s about queer sexuality and its representation onscreen.

This is somewhat lengthy, but I’ve divided it into five sections. The first part is a basic analysis of the scene, focusing on Dean’s reactions, with possible interpretations. The second part discusses what the scene says (or doesn’t say) about Dean’s sexuality. Third is an analysis of the humor in the scene, and why it isn’t about “lolgay.” This is followed by an interpretation of the scene as queer-positive. The final part is an examination of how the writer’s history informs my interpretation of the scene’s intent.

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Riff on 8x13 Everybody Hates Hitler

When Aaron hit that Nazi over the head, I had a moment where, pleased with the lack of Jewish stereotype, I shouted, “You go little nerdy dude!” And then I realized what I said. Where have we heard that before?

Of course my reading Dean as having interest in Cas and at least a cursory interest in Aaron as someone who expressed sexual attraction for him is not a concrete conclusion. I see it that way, maybe people don’t but no one can deny that Dean was flustered but not in an unpleasant way by Aaron’s attention.

If you do see it that way, it’s still probably not enough to establish that Dean has a type, and that’s fine. But you have to admit that Dean sort of let down his macho exterior with this guy. The restaurant conversation was not really how his FBI roleplaying goes; he was stuttering, off-guard, and awkward (for whatever reason). Which is really weird for Dean because he rarely does that with anyone. Anyone except Cas and Sam anyway.

So Dean feels more comfortable around nerdy types (though I would not call Aaron submissive and Cas is not really submissive anymore either; Sam is a little different as his brother, though he is also a nerdy type). I wonder why Dean lets his guard down with calm intellectual types? 

I think there is a feeling that nerds are non-threatening. Part of this is physical (both Aaron and Cas are shorter, more slight than Dean and physically not as threatening). But that aside they’re a genuine people, if a bit over-passionate sometimes (ala the cosplayers in 5x09 The Real Ghostbusters). They are not afraid to be who they really are no matter what others think (a quality both Aaron and Cas share) and I think that’s a quality that Dean appreciates in people. It makes them more black and white in his book and therefore easier to relate to and deal with.

I think part of this too comes from the fact that he identifies with them. We’ve heard him reference Star Trek, Star Wars, LotR. And despite his ribbing of Sam, he geeked out in this episode over the sword. While Sam’s excited about the books, Dean is excited about the Batcave (another geek reference he uses). Dean is sort of a dork. I think his childhood conditioned him to be hyper-masculine in some respects and he grew up with a father who didn’t put a whole bunch of stock in book-learning. Left to his own devices, he probably wouldn’t be a bookworm but he’d be a geek. He’d like cult movies, have some comic books, play video games, be a band fanboy. He’d totally LARP, come on. I think he has an inner nerd, of sorts, and when he sees other people displaying what is his soft underbelly outwardly, he feels more comfortable with them, like he doesn’t need to defend his masculinity.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but I just thought it was interesting that the closest he’s come to romantic partners in a long time are both nerdy little dudes (wings optional).