For most shows it's not a problem because most shows start with both male and female characters. The female characters in SPN were both killed off in the first episode, leaving it a story about two brothers and for the first season, a story about them searching for their father, getting to know each other, re-building their relationship, learning to know and trust each other.
Then the producers/writers/creators decide that they want some female characters. The boys need girlfriends because a) why wouldn't two really hot guys have girlfriends and b) it's getting a little too homoerotic and borderline incestuous for prime-time television.
But instead of introducing them as characters in their own right you decide one of them is going to be "the female Dean" which is guaranteed to piss people off because Dean is Dean. And you tell everyone that this person is going to be Mrs Dean Winchester. Now this never works, because people who have invested a year in a character and feel that they know him, don't like being told who this person should end up with. That works for any show. Most of the best loved "ships" are ones that developed naturally through over a period of time and weren't thrust upon viewers from the start.
So people complain and the writer/creator/producer realises they made a mistake and changes things. But they still want girls in the show, so they go back to the drawing board. But now people are suspicious, because girls=romance=the boys being split up.
Stealing from your other post, Bobby may mean Sam sits in the back, but Bobby is no competition for Dean's affection in the eyes of the viewers. A girl would be. If Dean made Sam sit in the back of the Impala while he drove around his new girlfriend, that would mean Dean cares a bit more about said girlfriend than he does about Sam.
If you've watched a show for two years and all you really care about is the interaction between those brothers you got to know as they got to know each other, then all people who call into question their commitment to each other are the enemy. Plain and simple. Girls are more threatening to that dynamic therefore all girls are the enemy.
Also, from a writers perspective, writing women as hunters is a double edged sword. On one hand you want to say "see this kickass chick; look how awesome she is" but at the same time you can't let your hero look weak. So in a way, it's better having Jo point a gun at Dean and have him take it off her and then have her punch him, because then they're on equal footing, than it is for some mystery girl to come in and save Sam with very little help from him.
The fact is that fangirls are always going to complain about women in Supernatural because to most people the show is about Sam and Dean and their relationship. Most people don't care as much about seeing a scene with Dean and Bobby or Sam and Ellen, as they do about a scene between Sam and Dean.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-05 02:57 pm (UTC)Then the producers/writers/creators decide that they want some female characters. The boys need girlfriends because a) why wouldn't two really hot guys have girlfriends and b) it's getting a little too homoerotic and borderline incestuous for prime-time television.
But instead of introducing them as characters in their own right you decide one of them is going to be "the female Dean" which is guaranteed to piss people off because Dean is Dean. And you tell everyone that this person is going to be Mrs Dean Winchester. Now this never works, because people who have invested a year in a character and feel that they know him, don't like being told who this person should end up with. That works for any show. Most of the best loved "ships" are ones that developed naturally through over a period of time and weren't thrust upon viewers from the start.
So people complain and the writer/creator/producer realises they made a mistake and changes things. But they still want girls in the show, so they go back to the drawing board. But now people are suspicious, because girls=romance=the boys being split up.
Stealing from your other post, Bobby may mean Sam sits in the back, but Bobby is no competition for Dean's affection in the eyes of the viewers. A girl would be. If Dean made Sam sit in the back of the Impala while he drove around his new girlfriend, that would mean Dean cares a bit more about said girlfriend than he does about Sam.
If you've watched a show for two years and all you really care about is the interaction between those brothers you got to know as they got to know each other, then all people who call into question their commitment to each other are the enemy. Plain and simple. Girls are more threatening to that dynamic therefore all girls are the enemy.
Also, from a writers perspective, writing women as hunters is a double edged sword. On one hand you want to say "see this kickass chick; look how awesome she is" but at the same time you can't let your hero look weak. So in a way, it's better having Jo point a gun at Dean and have him take it off her and then have her punch him, because then they're on equal footing, than it is for some mystery girl to come in and save Sam with very little help from him.
The fact is that fangirls are always going to complain about women in Supernatural because to most people the show is about Sam and Dean and their relationship. Most people don't care as much about seeing a scene with Dean and Bobby or Sam and Ellen, as they do about a scene between Sam and Dean.