(no subject)

[frelling_tralk]

So I've been seeing this video several times on my flist and I'm trying to work out my thoughts on it

The video in question


I haven't had all that much exposure to Supernatural cons, so I'm wondering if there's some context that I'm missing, but I actually felt like it was a real overreaction the way that everyone tried to shut that fan down

This post has the person who asked the question explaining what happened This is the full question that she wanted to ask:

I’ve loved seeing Dean’s character become more comfortable with himself this season. As a bisexual, I’ve noticed some possible subtext, as seen in Everybody Hates Hitler, that Dean might be coming to accept himself as something other than straight too? I know you’ve said you know Dean better than anyone, so, in your professional opinion, as the preeminent scholar on Dean Winchester, if you see that as a valid interpretation of what’s going on with the character this season.

She then notes that Now here is what happened when I attempted to ask this question. I got as far as the word “bisexual” before the crowd groaned. I proceeded to hold my hand up in a ‘please just wait a second and let me finish’ way and then got as far as the word subtext before the crowd was full on booing and starting to shout a couple things I couldn’t make out. This is when Clif stepped out from behind the curtain looking very intimidating. He said, “Are you really going to ask this question?”

The video also shows Jensen saying "really that's the first question" and jokingly saying don't ruin it for everyone (which did seem to be aimed at her, but I'll take her word for it that she felt it was addressed more at the crowd booing her), and finally says that he's going to pretend that he didn't hear the question and let's move on. And supposedly shipping questions were then banned from the con? But the thing is that she wasn't asking a shipping question at all that I could see, and there are several scenes in canon that can be read as Dean being bixsexual. I don't see it as completely invalid fanwank to ask the actors or the writers about it when the writers are putting those scenes in there. I certainly don't think that anyone deserves to be booed for simply asking the question, nor was there any need for fans to get that defensive over someone perceived as making the actors uncomfortable.

I'm kind of torn because I do hate when fans constantly harp on Destial or Wincest to the actors and look to them to validate their ship, just yikes. But this felt like the other extreme to me with an oddly hostile response from the crowd before she had even finished speaking. I don't know if it's just because a lot of the audience are used to those questions from other cons and have a kneejerk response to them by now, or if they thought she was oversharing or what? I think I might be missing some context with what supposedly happened at Misha's panel earlier as well. But still there's a big difference between asking an actor to sign a fan manip or drawing of something REALLY inappropiate (if you know what I mean...), and an audience of fans having complete second-hand embarassment at someone merely asking "poor Jensen" if the character he plays could be bisexual.

And is a question like that really so inappropriate for a show that all the time teases the audience with quotes like "Cas, last time someone looked at me like that I got laid" and "get out of my ass". It almost seems like it's fine for the writers to joke around with it in a frat-boy kind of a way, but god forbid the audience take any of hints of bisexuality or homosexuality as anything more than something hysterically funny to play around with

Comments

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

That's true. I've never been to a SPN con myself, so I'm more going by what I hear about the actors getting a lot of embarrassing questions from overenthusiastic shippers, but maybe the content of them isn't as bad as I always pictured, but more along the lines of the question in the video where everyone just reacts with collective embarrassment to a question being asked about a male/male ship or subtext :/

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

In the link above at a con in London a fan asks Rekha Sharma if Baltar (James Callis) was a good kisser and if he used tongue.

Seriously. The fan asked that question. Can you imagine the SPN boys being asked that? But . . . I wonder if they would have reacted the same way if that was asked about a woman on the show they'd kissed or had some UST with? It's an invasive question but I wonder if they would have been as uncomfortable. Probably.

But this fan's intended question was not even that invasive. She was really curious. I think the audience thought it was going to a place that . . . it actually maybe wasn't going. We'll never know for sure since she didn't finish.

Sometimes there is homosexual subtext on a show. Sometimes there is incestuous subtext. (The Borgias I'm looking right at you.) I think it's fair for fans to ask about it politely, but I think it is going to be uncomfortable. Fans, con runners, actors, just need to deal with it.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Heh when I followed the link I was half-expecting the question to be about the subtext between Gaius and Gaeta, and thinking that's not really awkward to ask when it's something that can be discussed in terms of the show surely, but yeah that's just :shudders: Some fans are so creepy


But this fan's intended question was not even that invasive. She was really curious. I think the audience thought it was going to a place that . . . it actually maybe wasn't going.

I get the feeling that a lot of the audience were assuming that it was leading to a question on subtext with the Destiel ship maybe, and that's something Jensen hasn't really wanted to talk about in the past other than to say that he doesn't see it, so that might explain why fans were as hostile as they were. (With another of the actors Misha he's all for questions like that, so there wouldn't have been the same response if he had got asked that question.) That might explain the atmosphere somewhat because the audience thought that another fan was making things uncomfortable for Jensen to bring up slash subtext again, even though she did have a legit question if they had let her finish

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

It did end up being about the Gaius/Gaeta subtext but not because of the fan. ;-) You have to watch. It's hilarious. ;-)

I read somewhere on the link on Tumblr that someone from the con started to talk to the fan about her question and that's probably why she didn't finish. That's not cool. Let her finish and then comment, is what I say. But it's also about her too. Don't let boos stop you if you're going into territory you know is controversial. Gotta stand your ground! If this fan at a nice British con can ask about tongue, I'm thinking most everything is fair game. ;-)

The point is, she has a right to ask about Misha if she wants to. There are so many new fans everyday asking the same stuff all the time. They should be grateful for new fans after ten years on TV. It's like having a guest and they bring you a hideous gift. Smile and say thank you. That's just politeness. And if you never open it, you never know what it might be.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

She does say in the link that Cliff (the bodyguard of Jensen and Jarad) told her not to ask that question and just thank them and go, so I can understand stopping when she did as I think it was more about Cliff approaching her than it was the boo's stopping her from finishing. But then it made it more awkward to cut her off at 'I've seen some possible subtext', instead of letting her get to the gist of her question for Jensen.

Interesting that she said her question got through the screening process, yet that was obviously a question that the actors were not okay with being asked

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if a body guard came up to me that would be pretty intimidating. And she was crying later. I don't think her question was going to injure anyone, seriously, whatever she was going to ask.

I think they need to man up. It's a question, deal with it gracefully, and move on. She's not the first to see subtext and won't be the last. There is subtext, duh. I heard similar questions for Gaius and Felix all the time. (I haven't gone to cons but I watch all the vids on YouTube. :-)) James Callis didn't like it in the beginning. I think he didn't want to be typecast after his earlier role in the first Bridget Diary film. But eventually, the actors just answered the question and moved on.

I think screening is a good idea, but once screened let the question happen.