about Supernatural fanfic...

[ratcreature]

I'm not feeling particularly fannish about Supernatural, but I have watched most episodes, thus while I was bored I looked around for Supernatural fanfic to read. I was mostly interested in gen, and while of course I knew that there's Sam/Dean slash I was actually surprised how common it is, from my first impressions even more widespread than gen (though I could be wrong about that). And I just don't get it. Personally I just have a hard time seeing Sam/Dean slash.

It's not that I'm particularly squicked by sibling incest, but the story has to somehow work harder to make that kind of thing work than other pairings. Not only because it has to make me buy that they would act on a sexual attraction despite incest taboos, that is similar in a way to other "relationship obstacles" in romance stories, but because it has to make me buy that there would be attraction in the first place. With most pairings I can buy that the author simply has a character feel attraction, inappropriate or not, and then the story goes from there, but for me (and I suspect most people) thinking about close family members with whom you grew up with, like your own siblings or parents and sex together is, well, sort of icky. Not just incestuous sex, but even the fact that your sibling or parent has sex with anyone, that's the kind of thing you don't want to contemplate in much detail. At least I don't, and I suspect I'm not alone in that.

I tried reading a couple of Sam/Dean stories, but they seemed to be much like regular slash in the way that it assumes that the reader buys the possibility for attraction between the guys in the first place. I don't quite get what makes this plausible for Sam/Dean shippers just from watching the series, and yet it seems very common. Which leaves me puzzled. I looked whether there was an essay on this pairing at ship_manifesto to provide me with some insight, but there doesn't seem to be one yet. So does anyone know of any Supernatural meta that would explain to me where the Sam/Dean shippers are coming from?

Comments

[miriam-heddy.livejournal.com]

I share your puzzlement. Not only can't I really see any physical attraction in canon (esp. one that wouldn't be overcome by the strong incest taboo in our culture--and these are not boys who lack acculturation. Just look at that car!) And really, aside from the fact that they *are* brothers and have chosen to work together, nothing about them suggests to me that they'd voluntarily spend any time together if they *weren't* brothers.

And, as time passes and I spend more time thinking about incest slash, I'm more and more feeling a little uncomfortable at the idea that the incest taboo has become just another barrier between Romeo and Juliet, because it feels like there's some sort of sublimation of something (not incest, but just... it's as if we've convinced ourselves that it's just too easy for two men to find lasting happiness in bed with each other these days, and I'm not at all convinced the Berlin Wall has fallen on that one.

[ratcreature]

Reassuring to hear I'm not the only one who doesn't see the slash potential. *g* For me they seem even more unlikely than some of the other more popular incest pairings, like for example when I squint can sort of see the Weasley twins fooling around with each other as teenagers, seeing how they're exactly the same age, though it's harder to imagine any sort long term arrangement between them once they're grown up, unless they share they girlfriends in a foursome or something like that. But Sam is a couple of years younger than Dean in addition to being his brother, which makes a huge difference for kids and teenagers, so unless the author proposes that Dean was molesting his kid brother, there certainly wasn't anything between them then, no matter that their family was moving around a lot hunting monsters, and they maybe lacked other friends or whatever childhood issues authors may bring up. Then Sam left for college, and it to me it seems more that they have to get used to each other again.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I recently discussed something along those lines with a friend who writes both Prison Break and Supernatural. About how both (actually throw Num3rs in as well) have the younger brother as the smarter, more educated and sensitive one. And like there seems to be a rule in "romantic" fic that the younger brother always has to make the first step. Like that magically makes it "ok" or something.