#but yea that boy is very aware of the line between fantasy and reality and he Likes when it's Fake imo

[angelsdean]

What's interesting about even the busty asian beauty thing is that he never says anything like that about asian women in reality/outside of porn. Like it doesn't make the 'joke' ok, it's definitely still gross, but it's porn, it's 'fantasy'. Despite sam saying he confuses porn and real life I think dean separates the two in his brain and his actions towards real people don't really align with sam's comment. Dean isn't perfect but some corners of fandom really make him sound way grosser than he is

First off, just need to point blank say, the BAB stuff is horrible and gross and always made me super uncomfortable whenever it would pop up on the show. And it's VERY much a writer problem. The writers either had to be extremely unaware or just didn't care abt how gross and fetishizing that magazine is for it to keep recurring like it did in the show. This is one of those instances where, yes, you could absolutely do a critique of Dean + fetishizing asian women and that would totally be valid because it is canonically in the show, but for me I just can't get past it being such a glaring writing issue and it doesn't feel aligned w/ a lot of Dean's character.

But god do I have a lot to say abt Dean + porn in general from a Dean studies perspective. I've wanted to make a proper post abt this for a long time but I want to provide more specifics so I gotta wait until I'm further along in my rewatch. But the gist of it is that for me and in my interpretation, the majority of Dean's porn consumption is very much clearly separate from reality. He tends to prefer over the top, borderline cringe and cheesy productions. Like those Casa Erotica films. And if you read Dean as someone who likely did some form of sex work for survival (very possibly underage as well) I think it makes a lot of sense for Dean to prefer these very obviously staged films instead of some kind of amateur thing.

Like, no doubt there are huge problems in the porn industry, not arguing that, but from Dean's perspective these over the top staged performances feel safer. These women are clearly performers and less likely to be some vulnerable person being nonconsensually filmed or forced to do these acts. I think he likes that it's fake. Even his love of anime and tentacle porn like, those things are so clearly fake. And in this case, they're animated! There is no real person that could potentially be a victim. There's a distance between reality and fantasy for Dean, and again this is purely my own headcanons and interpretations, but I think for him, if he had a traumatic history with sex work (which again, likely was more for survival and therefore not really a 'choice' or something empowering for him) then this sort of cheesy porn would feel very safe and comfortable for him and less likely to trigger past trauma or other uncomfortable feelings. Even when he meets that porn star, he's very star struck in a "fan" sort of way, which again highlights that he views those films as well, films, and he recognizes that it's all fake. I'm pretty sure he even like, compliments her on her talent and performance. Because he knows it's a job and an act. But yea there's just so much more that could be said about this.