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Pride Month may be over, but you know what isn’t? Hollywood’s constant use of queerbaiting. Now, don’t get me wrong, the entertainment industry has stepped up in the last few years with LGBTQIA+ representation with works such as Schitt’s Creek and Love, Victor. However, Hollywood still has a long way to go in representing the LGBTQIA+ community.
What Exactly Is Queerbaiting?
To put it simply, queerbaiting is a conceptual marketing tool that is used within Hollywood in order to draw in an LGBTQIA+ audience and therefore make more profit. At first glance, the concept of queerbaiting does not seem at all terrible. However, once you take a dip into television shows and films that use the concept, you can see it is in fact wrong.
Typically, whenever a television show or film is queerbaiting, it is between two main leads. The relationship between the two has been given subtext to a potential LGBTQIA+ relationship. What makes it queerbaiting, though, is that the show/film runners and writers never plan to develop the relationship. To make it even worse, sometimes cast members and crew will encourage fans to create works of the queer-baited ship even though the cast and crew know the ship will never become canon.
Why Is Queerbaiting Wrong?
While some viewers don’t see the issue with queerbaiting, those within the LGBTQIA+ community, such as myself, can find it frustrating and insulting. While I cannot speak for everyone within the LGBTQIA+ community, I will say that I personally think that queer-baiting can be damaging. For instance, in my own experience, there were times in which I still wasn’t sure of my sexual identity and I had watched shows and films that featured queerbaiting.
To me, those works showed me that being anything other than heterosexual/straight was wrong. Also, it showed me that if you were part of the LGBTQIA+ community, then you weren’t worth representing on screen. Thankfully, I’ve come to realize (( with the help of videos from AreTheyGay and articles from PinkNews )) that my sexual identity is valid, and my community does deserve to be represented.
For example, in AreTheyGay’s video, (( “The Problem With Queerbaiting,” )) AreTheyGay discussed how during a 2016 San Diego Comic-Con panel on queer representation, Steven Moffat (( co-creator of BBC’s show Sherlock )) proclaimed that LGBTQIA+ representation should be subtle and not be campaigned about. Moffat’s comments from that panel had many Sherlock fans thinking that Moffat was going to confirm the relationship between Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and John Watson (( Martin Freeman )).
However, days later, Moffat cleared up his comments in an interview (( with Valerie Parker of With An Accent )). In the interview, Moffat stated that he wasn’t talking about his show and that fans are the problem and that begging for representation is trivializing the issue (of queerbaiting).
Now, whether Moffat likes to admit it or not, his statements showcase the point of what many writers and showrunners in Hollywood think: LGBTQIA+ representation within media is not needed or valid. This type of mentality can end up being damaging to fans within the LGBTQIA+ community because it shows that explicit queer representation and queer stories are not worth showing onscreen.
Examples Of Queerbaiting In Popular Media
Honestly, there are probably countless examples of queerbaiting I could use. However, I will admit that I am not familiar with most of them because I have not watched the show or film. So, I’m going to be using three examples of queerbaited ships that I am the most familiar with.
Glee‘s Rachel Berry & Quinn Fabray
Okay, I know what some of you might be thinking, “Oh my gosh. Is Joanis really outing herself as a former fan of Glee? Why are you bringing up this show? It’s 2020, haven’t you realized how problematic Glee and the cast is?” First of all, yes I am brave enough to admit that I used to like Glee. Secondly, I am aware of how this show and cast are controversial. In fact, one of their controversies is how Glee had queerbaited their audience with Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) and Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron).
Out of all the examples I’m listing, this is the one I’m still the most angry about. I distinctly remember watching Glee and seeing Rachel and Quinn’s relationship develop. From the start of the show, they started off as a bully (Quinn) and victim of bullying (Rachel) relationship. Then as the show went on, their relationship turned into friendship. There were many moments between them, though, that were definitely queerbaiting.
One specific moment that jumps out to me was when Quinn came up to Rachel after she sang and Quinn says, “When you were singing that song you were singing it to Finn and only Finn, right?” To which Rachel gives a small nod and then Quinn looks heartbroken. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a clip of the scene on YouTube, but here is a gifset of it from Tumblr user murdershegoat.) Honestly, there is no other reason for the showrunners, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, and writers to include this scene other than to queerbait.
Supernatural‘s Dean & Castiel
While Supernatural started off as a show about two brothers hunting things, saving people, and keeping up with the family business, it eventually grew into something more. Along the way, the show gained a new cast member, Misha Collins, who played the angel Castiel. At first, viewers saw that there could be a potential relationship between Castiel and Dean (( Jensen Ackles )).
However, once Supernatural‘s crew caught wind of fans shipping the two characters together, the show then started to queerbait their audience with many homoerotic subtexts. Additionally, Misha Collins revealed in an interview with HuffPost that Supernatural‘s showrunner, Jeremy Carver, gave him a note to
“[act] like a jilted lover [to Dean]”
— when Castiel is reunited with Dean and Sam in season nine.
One specific queerbaiting moment I remember is a small scene from season five of the show. In this scene (shown below), Dean says,
“Cas, not for nothing, but the last person who looked at me like that, I got laid.”
While the moment is small, it supports the fact that Supernatural is queer-baiting, especially with Castiel continuing to stare at Dean after he says that statement. Also, the wink Dean gives Castiel at the end? Yeah, there’s no way you could convince me that it was a heterosexual/straight gesture.
Once Upon A Time‘s Emma Swan & Regina Mills
I’m going to be honest. I never finished this show. However, the reason why I never finished Once Upon a Time is that I realized that they were queerbaiting me with Emma (( Jennifer Morrison )) and Regina (( Lana Parrilla )), and honestly, I did not want to put any more time into that.
Since I never finished this show or got far enough (I think I stopped watching somewhere around season four), I don’t have that many specific scenes that I can recall of the two. What I do remember, though, is their amazing chemistry and the heavy eye contact they had. Thankfully, a blog post from Outspec wrote an amazing post that showcased how Once Upon a Time queer-baited its audience. In addition, the author even compared how Emma and Regina’s relationship is different than the friendship of Grey’s Anatomy‘s Meredith and Cristina.
Will Hollywood Continue To Queerbait Audiences?
As sad as I am to admit this, I do believe that Hollywood will continue to use queerbaiting as a means since it’s been shown to give them profit. I feel like when it comes to change within Hollywood, it might take a long time for the concept of queerbaiting to even disappear. However, there is something that audiences can do to help.
One of the biggest steps that audience members can take is recognizing that queer-baiting is happening within a show or film, and calling it out. If more and more people are able to call out queerbaiting, then Hollywood will finally be forced to face the issue, start to change, and give a better representation of the LGBTQIA+ community. Hopefully, though, with more LGBTQIA+ representation being shown in the works of Hollywood, the concept of queer-baiting will start to slow.
