"Go be gay for that poor, dead intern": Conversion Fantasies and Gay Anxieties in Supernatural

Citation

Elliott-Smith D (2011) "Go be gay for that poor, dead intern": Conversion Fantasies and Gay Anxieties in Supernatural. In: TV Goes to Hell: An Unofficial Road Map of Supernatural, Abbott, Stacey and Lavery, David (Eds). Canada: ECW Press, pp. 105-118. https://ecwpress.com/products/tv-goes-to-hell?_pos=1&_sid=45e317005&_ss=r

Abstract
Academic writing about Supernatural’s appeal to queer spectators has largely dwelled on the cult series’ Gothic milieu and mise-en-scene. Further still, its knowing treatments of the homoerotic relationship between its two attractive males leads, the demon-hunting Winchester brothers Sam and Dean, clearly offers up their fraternal love for queer appropriation and fantasy. Most critical analyses of Supernatural’s ‘queerness’ seem to focus on Sam and Dean in particularand the scenes in which their traditional heterosexual masculinity is questioned, queered and marginalizes. A more informed understanding of the show’s appear for gay male spectators might be served by studying the show’s representation of explicity gay male characters. I argue in this chapter, via a study of two episodes (The Real Ghostbusters, and Ghostfacers) that the shows appeal for gay men particularly lies in a disidentification with the show’s hypermasculine protagonists, revealing a simultaneouls desire to be with (to bed) and eventually to be like Sam or Dean in a collapse of identification and desire.

Keywords
TV Studies, Cult TV, Horror TV, LGBTQ Studies, Queer Horror, Genre Studies, Film Studies

People

Dr Darren Elliott-Smith

Senior Lecturer in Film & Gender Studies, Communications, Media and Culture