Supernatural gay characters
Queer and Gender Diverse Characters
This entry documents characters of gender and sexual diversity, and its portrayal on Supernatural.
Charlie Bradbury a woman-loving woman geek girl who becomes a tracker, is the only queer character to appear in multiple episodes, along with Crowley whose sexuality is probably top described as "complicated." God aka Chuck Shurley was revealed to be bisexual person (or possibly pansexual) in 11.20 Don't Call Me Shurley—"I dated. Yeah, I had some girlfriends. Had a several boyfriends."
There own been, to meeting, no transgender or non-binary characters. Both angels and demons have been seen to switch between vessels of alternative gendered appearance, although it is often not known by which gender a vessel's owner identified. For example both of Raphael's vessels may have identified as female, or nonbinary. The intent of the writers appears to be to show angels and demons possessing vessels of alternative genders, although this does involve a rather binary and cis view of gender. In scenes where angels are in vessels of different gender than their original vessels, the show generally doesn't clarify the pronouns to be used. In 6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much, Crow
Supernatural is one of the longest running shows we follow; the Winchester brothers have been fighting against demons, vampires, werewolves, angry spirits, angels and anything else you can imagine for an incredible 9 years, 8 seasons (and a 9th season has already been planned) and a massive 168 episodes and counting.
That’s a long time and in that hour we’ve had an amazing number of people hang around with the Winchesters. We’ve had monsters galore, victims in spades, people to protect and shelter, the occasional treasure interest, allies occasionally and, pretty rarely, the odd companion who has unified them in their struggle.
But such a lengthy presence on our screens makes it easy to see patterns of representation - and erasure. Any display that lasts this long and, because of that, has a great many characters is going to be more heavily criticised for it’s erasure than a shorter lived one. After all, a single season show with a small cast of 3 characters and less than a dozen extras is going to possess less scope for inclusion or developing numerous minority characters - not that it makes the erasure tolerable by any stretch - but when
Supernatural and queerbaiting — The only thing truly spine-chilling was how Supernatural treated its queer characters
A month ago, I awoke to a frankly bizarre turn of events. Amid the chaos of the US election, the last thing I expected to flood my social media was Supernatural. The longest-running US fantasy show in history has always been my guilty pleasure. With its mainstream popularity having steadily declined over its run, seeing it trending was surprising. After watching the antepenultimate episode of the final season, aptly named ‘Despair’, it made gut-wrenching sense.
If you’ve somehow managed to make it through the past 15 years without hearing of Supernatural (in which case I applaud you and encourage you to end here), here’s some background:
The show centres around Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers who travel around America hunting fantastical monsters. In typical CW-style, it begins a red-blooded dramatic deed fest, with monsters of the week, an intriguing plot, and clunky dialogue paired with one-dimensional characterisation. Over the seasons, it evolves into a character-driven phenomenon. The introduction of the angel Castiel in Season 4 marks a striking tr
Gay characters on SUPERNATURAL? And some thoughts on the show post-S3
Hi all, I have started to get back into this entertainment after giving up on it in Season 4--I found the mythology as it developed too cumbersome. Personally, while I really like consistency and character building, I also really like stand-alone episodes. For example, I also much prefer the first not many seasons of Smallville to the later years.
Anyway, I am enjoying watching S3 properly, which Ive always heard mixed reports on, due to the writers' strike at the time. But I find the ongoing tension about Dean's inevitable death and descent into Hell a compelling hook for the whole season, and overall the stories are pretty good, though "Jus in Bello," despite its appealing homage to Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, was quite flat.
Anyway, "Ghostfacers" was appealing to me for having a gay nature who was also heroized in the narrative as a daring and winning member of the admittedly crackpot team. (Do we see them again?)
I am wondering--are there other gay characters who come up before or after on the show?