whyqueerbaitingisbad
fuck your queerbaiting.
queerbaiting in visual media elaborated and explained so that people can be more aware of how harmful it is. -a media studies project done in 2021-
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✨queerbaiting an audience is a low blow and anyone who condones it, no love for you✨
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the many definitions of queerbaiting
taken from m a n y different sources but they all say about the same thing.
- When people in charge of a piece of media incite their viewers with an LGBTQ+ narrative and keep the viewer watching without ever explicitly confirming said character’s sexuality.
- The term was made to address the way producers represent and recognize a sexual minority.
- An emerging phenomenon because of the evolution of how an audience interprets media and how the producers of said media promote the piece and interact with its viewers.
- When producers intentionally try to lure an audience to watch something under false pretence that it will have queer content.
- The practice of intentionally adding homoerotic tension between characters in order to lure in an extended audience without any intention of turning the homoerotic tension to overt homosexual action.
- A strategy by which writers and networks attempt to gain the attention of queer viewers via hints, jokes, gestures, and symbolism suggesting a queer relationship between two characters, and then emphatically denying and laughing off the possibility.
- Very heavy references to queer relationships or even queer characters, but never follow through on these, to increase viewership and draw LGBTQ fans in with the promise of positive representation.
- Describes a textual and paratextual strategy that media creators use to pick up a queer audience using either queer subtext in their media and denying it or acknowledging that it’s there with having no intention of giving any actual representation.
basically, media creators allude to having queer characters in their pieces only to deny this as being intentional after having gained a bigger audience and profit.
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why is this trope used?
Queerbaiting is usually done in hopes of gaining a bigger audience for the show, attracting more people and also letting producers shape queer characters in more “digestible” ways so that more people can feel comfortable watching. It’s used by some people who believe that it gives the LGBTQ+ community good representation without needing to make it too explicit.
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the harm
- Exploits a community that is already starved for good representation.
- It’s gaslighting: a tactic someone uses to manipulate someone and gain power over them. Gaslighting often leads people to question their own reality, which is what happens to queer people, who end up wondering if they are really just imagining something that is not there. Doing this is especially damaging for queer youths watching that media if they are isolated or stuck in conservative areas, with their only exposure to queer content is through media.
- The discourse over the subject has caused tension among fan cultures that goes back and forth between progressive and not.
- It teases, denies and robs people of representation and space, an expression of homophobia and exploitation, and reproduction of heterosexism.
- For producers, queer characters are but a function in the narrative, they are used to advance the plot, or for diversity points. But for the audience, these characters have value. The characters represent parts of the audience. Hence, when they are used as plot and not characters, the audience feels used, as though they themselves have no value.
- Another community goes unrepresented and doesn’t have a voice on-screen.
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✨if either dean or cas was a woman, the tension between them wouldn’t be questioned✨
Dean & Cas vs. couples from romantic movies. Part 2 | (part 1)
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Dean & Cas vs. couples from romantic movies. Part 1 | (part 2)
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the Hays Code: the origins of queerbaiting
1934 to 1968
The Hays Code was established both to add government censorship and to prevent the loss of revenue for movies and shows from boycotts led by the Catholic Church and fundamentalist Protestant groups.
Hays proclaimed that "It states the considerations which good taste and community value make necessary in this universal form of entertainment." Those considerations were also: no picture should ever "lower the moral standards of those who see it" and that "the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin." After a few years, it was updated to include a list of "don'ts" and "be carefuls". Amongst which were bans on nudity, suggestive dancing and lustful kissing. Mocking religion and the depiction of illegal drug use were both prohibited topics, so were interracial relationships, revenge plots and showing of a crime so clearly that it could easily be replicated by someone who watched the piece.
Unsurprisingly, this code reduced queer characters as subtext and innuendo. They were either obscured through ambiguity or written out entirely. However, since the Hays Code was okay with allowing “sexual perversion” the rare queer characters who were kept in films were shown in a negative light, as they were forced into unflattering stereotypes: villains, misfits, comedic relief, or sexual rebels in need of fixing.
The effects of this code still linger today and queerbaiting is heavily based on the rules of this code.
Although there are more and more shows that not only have canonically queer characters but queer leads, there is still a disproportionate number of queer characters who meet unnecessary deaths, which stems from the Hays Code that showed that homosexuality could only be shown as unappealing or negative.
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bad representation
remnants of the Hays Code’s influence
(again, these are only the one’s i’m familiar with, but there are many more)
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
kisses trans woman, finds out she’s trans, goes to the bathroom to throw up.
Glee (2009)
even though it was a pretty progressive show, the queer characters were extremely stereotyped, which made them somewhat harmful representations.
Zoolander 2 (2016)
advertises having a non-binary character, makes a mockery out of an identity through misrepresentation.
Pretty Little Liars (2010)
characters whose only storyline and personality is their sexuality is shallow, especially when the relationship they have feels forced.
sources:
https://www.insider.com/movies-that-got-lgbtq-representation-wrong-2020-6
https://theboar.org/2020/02/best-worst-lgbt-representation-small-screen/
#queer#queerbait#queerbaiting#hays code#hays code influence#ace ventura#glee#i mean it was a start but its still eEeEh representation#klaine#zoolander 2#benedict w h y#pretty little liars#emily and alison
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how do you categorize a show as having queerbait?
Queerbaiting does indeed have no clear definition but it has been used through the years, in different contexts, to talk about different forms of homophobia. The word has always implied negative connotations and usually implied homophobic slurs and persecution.
The discourse that surrounds queerbaiting is not limited to the term’s meaning and its existence, but also which pieces of media should be categorized as such.
The debate on queerbaiting is a discussion of representation. Despite the several people who accuse TV show producers of queerbaiting and are very firm when pointing out that queerbaiting is not representation, it is the false promise of representation that seems to anger them the most. Another source of anger is when the producers deny that a character would be queer, which is partly seen as denying people their right to interpret and partly seen as the producers lying to their fans.
Most queerbaited relationships are categorized as such because, if you were to change one of the characters to make it a straight relationship, the romantic tension would be obvious and would be included in the show without hesitation.
When showrunners continuously tease and purposefully heighten expectations of queer relationships through intertextual readings and paratexts, the lack of it in canon classifies the show as queerbaiting.
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rebuts against queerbaiting
- because some people don’t know what it’s like not to be given a voice -
Some scholars are aware of the problems that come with queerbaiting, but also believe it to be an intentional tool used to “slowly change tropes and stereotypes” and “help make the conversations on topics such as homosexuality and transgenderism more easily discussed within homes”.
A lot of scholars see different medias as not being forms of queerbaiting because they are “more inclusive and open-minded” towards certain tropes and stereotypes, thus “allowing” for more diverse representation.
A common theme among scholars is stating that queerbaiting should not be seen as such a negative, despicable thing, because it still allows some sort of queer representation.
but yknow what, no. it’s unacceptable to say “it’s bad representation, but at least you have representation”. queerbaiting is a very harmful way to show queer people, because it doesn’t represent reality.
bad representation is no representation.
#queer#queerbait#queerbaiting#whoever says this deserves no rights#bad representation is no representation
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“Bury Your Gays”: more queerbaiting that no one asked for
Another trope that goes hand in hand with queerbaiting is called “bury your gays”, in which there is a canonical queer couple where either one of both parties ends up suffering an untimely death. This trope helps to subtly and unconsciously say that being gay will lead to negative consequences. Historically this trope has mostly been seen with lesbians.
(again, it's all subtext, you need to read in between the lines.)
(The 100 as an example) A few shows do have canon queer representation, and they are praised for it. When The 100 had two leading characters kiss, the show was praised for being “brave,” “progressive,” and “groundbreaking”. With this, the showrunner and writers rolled with this, advertising it on all their social media accounts, letting their audience know to look forward to a “truly progressive approach to LGBT relationships". Thus, they gained more viewers.
As queerbaiting has opened up the conversation of killing off characters because of their sexuality through the “bury your gays” trope, this has also brought up the conversation on killing racial minority characters as well. This has reflected not only a change in media representation but has also brought more attention to the sociopolitical inequalities we find littered through media.
#queer#queerbait#queerbaiting#bury your gays#fuck this trope too#how about we bury the producers instead
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examples of Bury Your Gays
these are 4 examples out of h u n d r e d s, and i’m citing them because it’s the ones i’ve experienced. i’m lucky i didn’t have to go through more, but it still sucks ass seeing the only character that gives you a voice die.
Lexa, The 100, season 3 episode 13
Killed by a stray bullet are you kidding me??? She was a beloved character and her death really didn’t do much to advance the plot... AND THEN the producers kept bringing her back for like 5 mins every season because having a glimpse of her in trailers brought more viewers.
Charlie Bradbury, Supernatural, season 10 episode 21
Not only was she the only consistent queer character, but she was a reoccurring female character in a show that was notorious for killing off women for the plot. Fans had hope.
And then, she died. How you may ask. Killed and left in a bathtub (there was a window in that bathroom, she could have e a s i l y escaped) for the main characters to find to fuel their anger.
✨we love a plot device✨
Castiel, Supernatural, season 15 episode 18
There were only 2 episode left to the e n t i r e show, but nOOoOoO, let’s kill off the character r i g h t after he confesses his love (which fans have been waiting for for literal years) and then send him, not to hell, but to sUpEr hell.
...the metaphor in there for queer people going to hell is not subtle at all what the fuck...
Adam, Voltron: Legendary Defender, season 7 episode 9
...ALRIGHT SO
If you weren’t a fan of the show who watch videos from convention panels, you wouldn’t have known this guy was gay or was a main character’s ex-fiancé. Now, my biggest issue with this is that the showrunners advertised him as having an important role in Shiro’s (his ex-fiancé’s) life. But when we only see him for m a y b e 10 minutes in the span of 2 episodes, Shiro doesn’t say what their relationship was, and then goes on to marry an unnamed character, which we only see the scene at the last second of the last episode and its in the form of a photograph, the frustration felt over his death is unmeasurable.
also, jUsT fOr ThE fUn Of It, here’s a site with a l e n g h t y list of other examples: https://allthetropes.fandom.com/wiki/Bury_Your_Gays
#the 100#fuck you jason rothenberg#how about we bury the producers instead#supernatural#charlie bradbury#charlie deserved better#lexa deserved better#castiel#aaaah yes lets send the gays to hell#what the fuck#voltron#voltron legendary queerbait#also that website's list is fucking long i got so frustrated going through it
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producers using their connections with the online community to manipulate their audience
When the producers of shows involve themselves in fan culture, it makes their position a more precarious one, as their interactions give them an insight on how to appeal their media to a bigger audience.
Because of how easy it is to interact with their fans, most actors and producers are aware of the want for queer representation from their audience. In order to keep those viewers and use this knowledge to tease and dangle that possibility in front of them for as long as they can, some producers try not to completely knock down the idea and possibility of queer representation in their shows so that they can keep the part of their audience that is waiting for it.
With more and more show producers learning about the impact fan interactions can have on a show, they use this knowledge to code their pieces of media in ways that they know what fans are looking for and they cater to that. This can either establish a good relationship between fans and showrunners, or a negative one. Producers are trying to gain more favour with fans through fandom and fan activities, while also using tropes such as queerbaiting, in order to gain more profit. Because we are in such a digital age, these interactions are easier than ever.
Some scholars and showrunners have said that queerbaiting is not as harmful as some fans make it out to be. However, this statement is fundamentally wrong. In a 2014 article, journalist Sadie Gennis addressed the queerbaiting issue in the CW show Supernatural. She wrote that the false representation the show is putting out “are simply ways that Supernatural's creative team can deny their role in encouraging queer readings by patronizingly reducing Destiel to a cute, little quirk of its fans—and one only to be tolerated with the stipulation that the legitimate origins of it are denied”.
#queer#queerbait#queerbaiting#some people are the fucking worst#why would you manipulate so many people omgs
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queerbaiting in voltron: legendary defender
klance (keith x lance)
if the first two are *in love*, why is the third just friendship???
especially when that look comes after:
👀👀
and T H EN
there’s a sunset scene, where they talk about how far they’ve come with a sunset in the background and soft music playing...
not only is this a scene comfort scene where Lance (on the right) is being comforted by Keith:
but it’s coded and drawn with soft and romantic undertones
and then we have
try to tell me that if either of them was a girl this look wouldn’t scream *in love*
“he’s the future” he’s talking about keith after they were asked who’s most deserving to survive... are you k i d d i n g me!??!?
everything in shows, especially animation, is intentional and because this ship was getting so much love from the fans, the producers kept hinting at it and using it to gain more views, then ended up denying its existence.
#voltron#voltron lengendary defender#voltron legendary disappointment#voltron legendary queerbait#queer#queerbait#queerbaiting#klance#they deserved so much better
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the 3 types of creators
Creators who will deny any intention of creating queer content, who will also refuse to acknowledge a queer audience’s interpretation.
Creators that did not have any queer subplot planned out initially, but when they see fans find queer subtext and hype it up, they slowly embrace it.
Creators that take whatever gay subtext or context there is, embraces it, and expands upon it, recognizing that it’s there from the beginning.
sadly enough, the first is the most typical.
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movies & shows
cracks knuckles* alright this is going to be more of a rant than an analysis because i’m basing this on both my research, but also how it felt to personally be baited by these shows. there are obviously more pieces of bad (almost every horror movie) and good ones but these are the ones i’ve watched.
please keep in mind that i am but one queer and everyone has different opinions.
Supernatural (CW) 2005
This show is 15 years old and just ended. From season 5 till 15, there has been tension between two of the lead characters. They were constantly shipped together and not only did the entire fandom know about this ship but so did almost all of Tumblr. On top of that, the actors and show runners knew about it as well. Which is why it makes it ridiculous that it was constantly pushed aside while the romantic coding kept happening, even after show runners dismissed it as being intentional. The Destiel (Dean x Cas) case has been going on for years, and as the show came to its end, many fans had hope. But N O P E. Instead, we got a love confession from Cas where Dean looked like he was near constipated and the Cas was killed and sent into a fiery place that was not hell but s u p e r h e l l.
… w hy.
Sherlock (BBC) 2010
Just like Supernatural, this show was renown on Tumblr for not only how good it was, but its hinting at a potential relationship between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. But again, like Supernatural, the intentional tension between the two characters was denied by producers. This caused an uproar within the fandom, and even left some people believing that, after the last season aired, it had been a joke and the producers were hiding a “secret, unaired season” because they had felt so robbed by this show that had implied something and denied it.
The 100 (CW) 2014
We got lesbians. We got background gays. We were happy. Then, all of a sudden, one of them is killed for no reason. Did it advance the plot? No. Was she fighting and died in battle? lol no. She was doing literally nothing and got shot and died. And then the producers kept bringing her back once a season in the form of a ghost or illusion because why? Because she was a fan favourite queer character. ✨bury your gays and sparingly bring them back for profit anyone?✨
Voltron: Legendary Defender (Netflix) 2016
*deep breathe* This one is a special disaster. Not only was there romantic tension and romantically coded scenes for 7 seasons, but producers, voice actors and artists working on the show repeatedly said “don’t worry klance (Keith x Lance) shippers, you’ll be happy”
. … w h e r e??? You code one of their scenes with a sunset in the background while they talk about love and then one of them goes on a date with someone who has declined his advances for 7 seasons but now in season 8 decides to do a full 180. Not only that, but you announce at a Comic Con (a convention) that a character is gay and has a fiancé, only to kill off the fiancé and never make it explicit in the show except at the last second of the last episode where he marries a no name character.
Personally, i’d like to say a big fuck you to the show that strung me along for 2 years and never stopped saying we’d be happy to then pull the rug out from under us and call us crazy for thinking anything from the past 8 seasons was intentional.
Scooby-Doo (2002)
While not being outwardly queerbaiting, this movie’s filmmaker has just revealed some shocking news, which wasn’t at all shocking to the gays who had watched this movie over the years. In July of 2020, James Gunn, the filmmaker of Scooby-Doo, revealed in a podcast that, initially, Velma was explicitly gay in his script, but then the studio watered it down until it became nothing. This isn’t an example of baiting as much as it is changing a character’s initial design to “better fit an audience”. The worst part of all this is that with Velma’s character having been written with a l i t t l e queer subtext, people had been theorizing about if since the movie came out, but were always yelled at by the internet for “imagining something that isn’t there”. But now, even with it being said that the initial point was for her to be gay, people have no objections to still refusing to accept it. Why?? So we can’t get the subtext gays OR the confirmed gays?? Make it make sense.
Brooklyn 99 (NBC) 2013
To have the queer characters firstly introduced without mentioning their sexualities and have it brought up naturally was so goddamn nice to see, because no one does a big deal about it unless they ask for that. This show is amazing in general but the way they show their queer characters is *chefs kiss*.
She-ra and the Princesses of Power (Netflix) 2018
This. Show. My heart SOARS. It's just a remake of an old show so absolutely nothing was ever expected, but then it was sprinkled in and ENDED WITH A BANG. And it was so beautiful and real to see the struggle of two friends who care for each other and want to be together but have different visions of the world fall in love. And they also had characters with disabilities, a non-binary character and jUST SUCH A GOOD SHOW.
Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts (Netflix) 2020
This is a case where you go into it not expecting anything and are BLOWN AWAY by the bare minimum. And not because it’s bad!! It's mind blowing because this is the simple representation we need!! Not something over the top, but an every day relationship. It’s just two boys falling in love and going on dates and being nervous around each other, yet i was so stunned. Because it’s not shown enough. I should not be this excited over something that should be this normal. 10/10 though this show is so good for all kinds of representation.
Steven Universe (Cartoon Network) 2013
This show did so much for queer representation with its general message of loving everyone and loving who you want. Especially since it was aired on Cartoon Network, a channel for kids, it was able to help normalize something so looked down upon in some circles. It made it easy to watch for s o m e people because it's a cartoon but it's so beautiful to see these ladies so in love with each other, both platonically and romantically and we see them have a family dynamic that isn’t a “nuclear family”. Rebecca Sugar (creator) really said “lemme just break all stereotypes real quick”.
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network) 2010
It's the “knowing a fanbase shipped something so hard that the creators made it canon” for me. This relationship had been theorized by fans for years, but it had never been explicit in the show. When the finale episode came out and the two shared a kiss, it was a moment of celebration. The producer of the show said that it had not really been planned but when the episode was being made, the choice of what happened was given to one of the artists (bless your soul Hanna K. Nyströmthe). And as the show releases little bonus episodes, its latest was centered around Marceline and Bubblegum and their relationship. AND WE LOVE TO SEE OUR DOMESTIC LESBIANS BEING HAPPY AND IN LOVE.
Yuri on Ice!!! (anime) 2016
The fact that an A N I M E gave us a love story between two men is mind boggling and it makes me so happy!! Especially because it's a Japanese show and they’re very conservative about these things just makes it more emotional. The creators said they wanted to make the anime take place in a world where gay/straight isn’t a thing, it’s just love (ladies, you’re going to make me cry). So as the weekly episodes came out and fans start speculating, THEY GAVE US THE LAST FEW EPISODES FULL OF ROMANCE AND EMOTIONAL SCENES BETWEEN THE TWO AND THEN THEY GET R I N GS?!???!! You watch for the figure skating, you stay for the figure skaters that are in love.
Shadowhunters (Freeform) 2016
*insert me being frustrated that the actors are straight so we can move on from that disappointment*
This show really said “let’s name a whole episode after this couple because they deserve it”. But seriously, they gave us two characters whose entire plot does not center around their sexualities while still showing us the differences in a relationship between someone experienced and someone new at this. They were both powerful and amazing characters apart from each other, with their own story lines and goals but they loved each other so much omgs. SO MUCH.
It was so great to watch.
Love, Simon (2018)
There’s a lot of disagreement on whether this movie is good representation or not. However, we need to take into consideration that this was Hollywood’s first movie with a main character that was gay, where the story’s focus was on Simon’s love story. The biggest problem, for me at least, was that the actor playing Simon is a straight man and not queer. My problem is not with him, but the fact that there are other actors that are gay and that could have played Simon just as well. (the love interested was however played by a queer actor so ✨progress✨)
All in all, this movie does represent what a lot of queer kids have to go through: being outed at school, how they then come out, the bullying and doubt they go through.
The book is also really good.
Call Me By Your Name (2018)
This movie is so aesthetically pleasing and was able to capture the confusion and heartbreak felt by a boy who’s struggling with his own feelings towards a man. His inner conflict and joy and l o v e he feels but doesn’t know how to deal with is so well communicated through the screen and just breaks your heart because it feels so real.
But again, they could’ve gotten gay actors to play gay characters…
through having this list here, i want to show you that it’s not hard for creators to give good queer representation. the LGBTQ+ community isn’t asking for much, we just want to be well represented on screen as just a regular character, not some token queer kid there for the diversity points. having been exposed to so much queerbaiting and just not seeing any representation on screen, i always get over-excited when i see a queer character, and that’s not how it should be. it should be a normal thing, something you can find in most pieces of media, just like there’s a straight white cisgender person in everything.
and they seriously need to start casting queer actors for queer characters...
#queer#queerbait#queerbaiting#supernatural#they really said lets make it the worst ending ever#destiel#sherlock#johnlock#the 100#clexa#bury your gays#fuck you jason rothenberg#voltron#klance#...that was a shit show#scooby doo 2#what an icon she was tho#brooklyn 99#rosa diaz is a god you cant tell me otherwise#she ra and the princesses of power#shera#catradora#go lesbians go#kipo and the age of wonderbeasts#gave us precious gaybies#steven universe#ALL THE LESBIANS#adventure time#obsidian#bubbleine
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