…It’s actually a damn good question…
Because a lot of the episodes in the early seasons also feature young women walking into the woods, facing danger, and surviving.
Because both of the male leads have been feminized in the narrative - often in relation to each other. And odd gender politics have been present since the very beginning.
This is long, so I’m putting it under a ‘read more’.
For me (speaking more to the “queer” part since I’m a guy, though I hope I’m at least mildly competent as a feminist ally) it’s cause yeah it is full of a lot of awful stuff – but it’s also full of some absolutely amazing stuff that’s sexuality- and gender-neutral, and even some which resonates strongly with queer experiences.
From the very first episode, they also established questions of “what and who is ‘family’?”, “how do I navigate between loyalty to where I came from, and being true to myself?”, “am I too different to ever fit into ‘normal’ society?”, and “where and with whom do I really belong?” as the foundation of the entire series – questions which are as queer as queer gets!
All throughout, but most notably in seasons 4, 5, and 8, it opened doors to explore some of the most fundamental human spiritual issues of hope and fear, guilt and forgiveness, faith and doubt, transgression and repentance, suffering and salvation. And it does so in a way that does justice to the reality and power of both sides of each pair, and the tension of living somewhere in between. It doesn’t default to either saccharine-laced “inspiration,” or overwrought, not as-“edgy”-as-it-thinks-it-is cynicism.
Being queer, and a feminist ally, means that I chafe at the show’s numerous fuck-ups and wish so damn much that it lived up to its far greater potential. It does not mean that I’m somehow less human than other viewers, and thus any less captivated by emotionally complex characters navigating profoundly human experiences.
I gotta say, I’m loving this conversation.
I agree so much - especially about the second to last paragraph, about SPN dealing with some fundamental spiritual issues, without defaulting to the obvious cliche answer of either cynicism or hope and rainbows and everything is fine. It’s realistic, but when I say realistic I don’t mean realistic in that gritty, cynical, ‘edgy’ way - I mean realistic in an actually believable way (and this is a show with monsters). It’s got some of the most believable characters I’ve ever met, some of the most relatable (thanks, Jensen and Jared). I guess the story in itself is so powerful (or was, back in the day) that it overpowered all the sexism and other problematic aspects for me ..and you’re right, it’s probably a matter of personal lines. Any other show with this amount of sexism, I’d say “nope” to, but this one just had such a fundamental good, but also *meaningful* story at its heart, that I forgave it for a lot of things.