I've read a bunch of Supernatural fanfiction and I've developed a theory about why so much of it is M/M. Aside from M/M being a popular genre, there just aren't a lot of women characters in the show. I mean, by count there are a lot but by character development there are very few. So when fans pair off their favorite characters, it's just more likely to be two men.

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I am making an analysis of each character's development in the series, to either support or disprove this theory.

I'm looking for back story, character traits, relationships, and character arcs.
• +1 point for a fact
• +3 points for a characteristic or trait
• +5 points for a relationship formed or changed
I'll try to only give points the first time something comes up, not every time.

This will be chock-full of spoilers, so the reasons for the points start off collapsed/closed.

The dark blue points are compressed to 10x,
so Dean and Sam don't run right off the page.
Hover over the bar to read the total points value.

The women characters are well-characterized when they are present. But they don't get as much screen time as the men characters, so they don't get built up.

For instance, Bobby is always around. He's in the story across many episodes, he's mentioned even when he's off-screen, he interacts with new characters, he responds to new situations. When writing a fanfic, you know you can always include Bobby, and you have a good idea how to include him.

But Madison only appeared in one episode and got maybe one mention after that. You'd only include her in a fic if you specifically wanted to write a fic about Madison. And you'd need to invent most of her character yourself.

Jo is dead within 24 hours of a main character hitting on her.

The men characters have greater visual variety than the women. All the women are thin, shorter than the men, have long styled hair, a generic-hollywood face, and little-to-no muscle tone. On the other hand, the men can be muscular or fat or thin, they can have beautiful hair or be balding or hide it under a hat, they can be tall or short or in between.

From cartoon and video game design guides - does the character have a recognizable silhouette? Dean has broad shoulders, a popped collar, and short spiky hair. Bobby has stooped shoulders, a fleshy neck, and a baseball cap. Castiel has a trench coat and square head. Gabriel is short with long-ish hair. I can't make the same distinctions among Jo, Ruby#1, Ruby#2, Meg#2, and Young Mary. In silhouette, even Ellen's age distinctions and Lisa's racial distinctions would disappear. The women's body shape, clothing, and hair is not distinct and consistent enough to identify their characters.

The primary story arc is complete! I love this show despite its imperfections. Let's look at some points of interest from the data.

The top five "Running Total" slots are held by men, followed by Jo with less than half the development of Bobby.

Our stand-out women are Ruby (she's in 15 episodes) and Jo (she gained 96 development points). None of the women got both a lot of episodes and a lot of development.

Looking at the "Episodes Since" chart, of the 17 most recent characters only 2 were women. One appeared briefly to comfort a man and the other got a mention while remaining offscreen.

Ben, the little kid side character, has as many development points as Lilith, the 2-season villain. Another comparison for Lilith: over 2-seasons she gained 22 development points, while the villain Lucifer gained 55 development points over 1-season.

Gabriel has almost matched Ruby's points in one-third the episodes.

Jess, the inciting incident, hasn't been fleshed out in over 100 episodes. The actress has been on screen a few times, but only as a vision, a dream, or a fake-out. Rest in peace, Jess.