Trashy Universe

I’m sure back when 15x10 aired, I was not alone in this, but readers, when I saw this scene, I screamed. Like, alarm the neighbors kind of screaming. This is - and it’s 100% subtextual but there is no earthly way this could be overinterpreted - a clear statement that the writers want to give us “canon Destiel”. (If anything it was underinterpreted by the audience - on Twitter, you could tell who was not used to examining subtext because they were very confused about why it was there.)

We’re seeing, essentially, a drug trip - Garth has just given Dean a good dose of laughing gas, and sends him on his way. “Let the gas do its thing… everything’s fine…” So (in the way film handles these things) we are accessing Dean’s subconscious, perhaps things he hides from himself - but Garth is reassuring us, we’re gonna like this.

The scene is shot in black and white, to old-timey music, in old-fashioned costumes. It evokes the Motion Picture Production Code (or the “Hays Code”), a semi-voluntary (in that you could ignore it but no reputable theater would show your film if you did) system of censorship designed to impose moral standards on film. Among the things forbidden? “Excessively lustful” sexual content - which means filmmakers got really good at finding ways to express sexual content via visual euphemism. Ways like watching fireworks together. Ways like… dancing. Hold that thought.

Dean is venturing into some territory that’s uncomfortable for him. He’s not sure what he’s doing. But Garth appears and offers to demonstrate. Narratively, Garth has been used to show us what Dean could be if he would get out of his own way: he’s well-adjusted, content, confident without being overconfident, unafraid of showing the world his internal softness, unashamed of what and who he loves. Garth is telling Dean: Drop the front, let the real you shine - and then he vanishes, and Dean tosses the prop away; he can trust himself, he’s got this.

He dances around the room by himself for a bit, but he’s looking for something -  a partner. (Dean has been dissatisfied with the ‘unattached drifter’ lifestyle for quite a while - he maybe first expressed this in “Rock and a Hard Place”, but there was a moment in “Baby” that made the point outright, if indirectly.) When he finds someone to dance with… it’s a lamp. There was a time when I could have quoted you chapter and verse on “lamps, the sun, and other light sources as a stand-in for Cas” in the show’s language of symbolism; my helpful friends came up with this, in which light was used to hold space for Cas and highlight his absence from a scene. Trust me that the lamp is a stand-in for Cas, and at a minimum the audience is being invited to imagine who that lamp might represent…

Then there’s the song: “Let’s Misbehave”, originally written by Cole Porter - we can’t know how he would label himself if he were alive today, but it’s known that he was married to a woman while also having male lovers so “bisexual” is at least in the neighborhood of right. As he closes out the dance with the lamp by blowing it a kiss, we hear…

They say the Spring Means just one thing to little lovebirds We’re not above birds Let’s misbehave

and then Dean dances his way up the stairs to the top of the map table where he stands, rapturous, in a beam of light: his highest bliss, his happiness, his heaven, and if the light was holding space for Cas in the past, that space is now right where Dean is.

…so the tl; dr on the whole scene: they have used tap dancing (symbolic of sex) with a lamp (symbolic of Cas) to “Let’s Misbehave” (not symbolic so much as just straight up about sex) to tell us that among Dean’s deepest desires is a relationship with Cas - or turn the decoder ring one click to the left and they’re simultaneously tapdancing around (i.e. addressing indirectly) and hanging a lampshade on Dean’s desire for a life partner. They bring this up again at the end of the episode: Garth and Bess are dancing together while Sam and Dean look on wistfully, and Dean comments, “You know, I always thought I could be a good dancer if I wanted to be.” - a reference both to the dream sequence and to the domestic contentment they’re watching.

Supernatural had the opportunity to do something great. To send a message of love and validation to a whole community. Not only to the part of the community that liked their show, but to all of us. But instead they decided to pander to the people, who never had to fight for their representation.

I support #TheySilencedYou, #TheySilencedThem and #TheyWillNeverSilenceUs and I'm in awe of all of you. Of your eloquence, passion, coordination and decisiveness. And I feel like your message goes beyond this particular TV show and the CW.

It's about protesting a pattern of disrespect towards otherness in Mainstream Media. It's about demanding meaningful, unmistakably queer representation, that enables discourse and furthers understanding in a heterogenic Audience. It's about asking Networks to not only hire diverse staff but to also give them the freedom to tell their stories the way they want to. It's about telling creators to own up to the inherent messages they leave us with in the end.

And that's inspiring and should be celebrated.

Fun fact: my irl name means little poet

I lOvE iT

1) The word translated as “forbidden” is “toevah.” While that translation isn’t … wrong, it’s sort of like saying “McMansion” means “really big house.” There are a lot of connotations in that word. The specific issue with toevah is that we … sort of … don’t know anymore exactly what it meant. Based on context, it seems likely that the word referred to something ritually forbidden. This part of Torah was written not only as a guide for future generations, but also to say “so, look around, see your neighbors? DON’T DO THAT.“ Thus, if we interpret “toevah” to mean something that’s forbidden to do as a ritual before G-d, then the verse says nothing whatsoever about Adam and Steve and their two kids and their dog–it’s saying you shouldn’t have sex with another man in the Temple as a sacrifice.

2) Following the same “this is ritually forbidden” logic of toevah, this verse may also be interpreted as “don’t do sex magic,” which was a thing in. Like. A lot of fucking cultures at the time.

3) Hebrew is a highly gendered language, and the grammatical gender in this verse is really really weird. One of the “men” in this verse is given female grammar. Why? Who fucking knows, man, this isn’t the only grammatical oddity in Torah. (There are also places where G-d is referred to as plural, and also as female.) One suggestion is that this is a way of creating a diminutive–that is, that the verse should be read as “a man should not lie with a boy.” Now, it’s worth noting that modern secular scholarship has concluded the written Torah was written down around the 6th century BCE, and most non-Orthodox Jewish scholars are like “yeah, all things considered, that sounds pretty legit.”

Do you know what else was happening around the 6th century BCE? What laypeople tend to mean when they say “ancient Greece” was happening.

Do you know what happened a lot in that time period in Greece? Dudes forming relationships with younger boys, like ages 10-15, and using them for sex in exchange for financial gifts, mentorship, etc. While we don’t know just how young some of these younger boys may have been, we do know some were prepubescent. In light of this, and also something I mentioned under the first point–”see your neighbors? DON’T DO THAT,” if this verse is interpreted to say “a man should not lie with a boy,” then it’s pretty clearly “my dudes, my fellows, my lads, don’t be fucking pedophiles.”

4) Because of the grammar I mentioned in #3, it’s also possible that “should not lie with a man as with a woman” is actually referring to a place, not an abstract personhood: a man shouldn’t have sex with another man in a woman’s bed. In the time period, a woman’s bed was sort of like–that was her place, her safe sanctuary. It was also a ritually holy place where babies were made. By having sex in her bed, you’re violating her safe space (and also introducing a man who may not be a male relative, thus forcing her into breaking the laws of modesty). If this verse is read this way, then it should be taken to mean “don’t sexually violate a woman’s safety and modesty.” 5) And as an offshoot of #4, this may be a second verse relating to infidelity. Which woman’s bed is any random dude in 600 BCE most likely to have access to? His wife’s. But laws were administered differently based on whether the person they pertained to was slave or free, male or female, and so on–thus, a man committing adultery with a woman would be treated differently than man committing adultery with a man (especially because the latter would carry no chance of an illegitimate pregnancy).

She’s working at the hospital since Rhona came to town,

Hide away, hide away, Miss Rhona’s come to town,

Hide away, hide away, she’s come to take us down.

Miss Rhona’s at the doorstep, I’ll keep 6 feet away,

But Grandma needs the paper, I’ll take her some today,

Hide away, hide away, Miss Rhona’s come to stay,

Hide away, hide away, we can’t come out to play.

But Grandma needs the paper, I’ll take her some today,

And here’s a note from Rhona, she wanted me to say,

Hide away, hide away, keep 6 feet away,

[Image ID: Tumblr user @neanderthyall says in the notes, “I thought that 6 feet was kind of a double meaning. Like six feet away to stop the spread, but when people die they’re six feet underground, and its six feet of the dirt that keeps you apart. Like ‘Hide away, hide away, even though it hurts Hide away, hide away, or the six feet will be dirt’.” End ID.]

I’ve taken the liberty of expanding the lyrics slightly and coming up with a tune:

Daddy’s at the food store, Mummy’s out of town, She’s working at the hospital since Rhona came to town, Hide away, hide away, Miss Rhona’s come to town, Hide away, hide away, she’s come to take us down.

Miss Rhona’s at the doorstep, I’ll keep 6 feet away, But Grandma needs the paper, I’ll take her some today, Hide away, hide away, Miss Rhona’s come to stay, Hide away, hide away, we can’t come out to play.

I need to see the sunlight, I’ve not been out in days And here’s a note from Rhona, she wanted me to say, Hide away, hide away, keep 6 feet away, Hide away, hide away, she took us down today

As planned I’ve extended this even further and re-recorded it with the new lyrics and a guitar part; it’s also a bit better quality. It’s so cool that so many different versions of this song have sprung up already! I recommend having a scroll through them all on @jus-tea​​‘s tumblr.

(Em)Daddy’s at the (B7)food store, (Em)Mummy’s out of (B7)town, She’s (Em)working at the (B7)hospital since (Em)Rhona (B7)came to (Em)town, (Am)Hide away, hide away, Miss (Em)Rhona’s come to town, (Am)Hide away, (Em)hide away, she’s come to (B7)take us (Em)down.

Miss Rhona’s at the doorstep, I’ll keep six feet away, But Grandma needs the paper, I’ll take her one today, Hide away, hide away, Miss Rhona’s come to stay, Hide away, hide away, we can’t come out to play.

I’m missing all my friends, though we keep in touch by phone, I’m learning what it is to truly be alone, Hide away, hide away, even though you moan, Hide away, hide away, or we’ll be lying prone.

My love she says she misses the twinkle of my eyes, But Rhona stalks the streets and to meet would be unwise, Hide away, hide away, we hear the desperate cries, Hide away, hide away, or see the bodies rise.

I feel myself a-coughin’, I haven’t got a mask, It’s work or die for me, though, so who am I to ask, Hide away, hide away, Miss Rhona’s on the task, Hide away, hide away, she’s come for me at last.

I need to see the sunlight, I’ve not been out in days, And here’s a note from Rhona, she wanted me to say, Hide away, hide away, keep 6 feet away, Hide away, hide away, she took us down today.

The days all run together, I haven’t changed my shirt, We may be getting restless, but keep on the alert, Hide away, hide away, Miss Rhona’s quite the flirt, Hide away, hide away, her touch is not inert.