Okay so anyway, to that whole dream sequence thing:
The song “Let’s Misbehave” was created by Cole Porter in 1927. Cole Porter was a bisexual man, and you can read more about him here, but also just Googling and seeing a bunch of historical articles written on him.
The scene showed Dean tap dancing, and tap dancing in films was most popular around the 1930s. In 1935, the Hays Code was passed. Moral censorship basically in films. You can read more about it here. There’s a lot of stuff in there on sexuality and marriage and “good lifestyles” and whatever the fuck. Basically: Censorship.
He’s tap dancing – seen symbolically as avoiding addressing something directly.
There’s a lamp with like, you know, a shade: Lampshading can be seen as an annoying storytelling thing, but in this case, I view Dabb as making fun of lampshading while also addressing it head on. Here’s what TV Tropes has to say: Lampshade Hanging (or, more informally, “Lampshading”) is the writers’ trick of dealing with any element of the story that threatens the audience’s Willing Suspension of Disbelief, whether a very implausible plot development or a particularly blatant use of a trope, by calling attention to it and simply moving on.
Basically: Talking with @obsessionisaperfume and @oceaxe-ifdawn on this, basically, it’s Dabb being super meta on Dean’s sexuality thing for us, to us, while making fun and making a serious case out of it. I’m choosing to see it as him writing to us this sentiment essentially: Dean would be dreaming about getting fucked on the map table right now by Cas but we can’t ever show you that, so here’s the meta on that.
But, I think it was him discussing censorship issues over the years, and I, and others, think it was Dabb making Dean take a look outside of the closet. Just given the writing this season, the fact they already know the ending and therefore are writing for the ending, and how much of a focus they put on their relationship this season–yeah it’s… it’s optimistic in my eyes.
Any other thoughts or ideas? This isn’t usually my area of discussion (like how deep and meta-y it gets) but I found the whole thing super fascinating.