Queerbaiting is the incorporation of apparently queer characters into a film in order to appeal to LGBTQ+ audiences while maintaining ambiguity about the characters’ sexuality.
While considered problematic when television profits off of the “queer” characters, queerbaiting is very prominent in today’s society. Since actual representation of relatable queer characters is rare to find, queer people cling to shows that have some sort of representation. Many filmmakers capitalize off of this and incorporate seemingly queer characters or same-sex relationships to achieve a wider demographic while still conforming to their straight audience.
However, this can become harmful when filmmakers never actually confirm or deny these characters’ sexualities. While no one should be forced to confirm their sexuality, the extent filmmakers go to make “queer” people straight is simply a stab in the back for many members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The TV series Supernatural is known for being the perfect example of queerbaiting. It contains a large amount of queerbaiting, and many fans feel upset. “It was like this film was purposefully creating a loving relationship between two men who actually turned out to be straight,” senior Margaret Bailey expressed.
With suggestive dialogues and questionably long hugs for best friends, characters Dean and Castiel from Supernatural became one of the most popular fan-favorite romances. The ship name, ‘Destiel’ was the most written fanfiction relationship out of thousands in the famous fanfiction website, Archive of Our Own.
This relationship was dragged on for nine years and ends in the stereotypical ‘bury the gay’ trope, in which Castiel sacrifices himself for Dean. Supernatural toyed with queer viewers’ hearts and profited off of a relationship that never actually happened.
By doing this, Supernatural appealed to its straight audiences while stringing along its queer audience in order to obtain more views.
Misrepresentation in TV shows allows for a myopia of issues because it harms the marginalized communities. While queerbaiting is a form of misrepresentation, it highlights the flaws of Hollywood because of how filmmakers go through loops and hoops to not create a confirmed queer relationship.
By toying with the queer audience, some criticize that filmmakers are making a joke out of queer audience. “It was disheartening to watch shows that I thought had portrayed queer characters but only to watch the entire show and find out they never kiss or do anything,” Bailey expressed.
Another problem that is most prevalent in Netflix is the rise of queer characters on the cover photo of shows who aren’t in their respective relationships until later in the series. This tactic is shown throughout Netflix with series such as the previous cover photo for Netflix series, Elite and Rebelde.
One example would be the show Atypical which previously showed a cover photo of characters Izzie and Casey kissing. The photo the filmmakers got the shot from was from the last episode of the series. However, Netflix recently changed these cover photos to something less conspicuous.
When filmmakers resort to queerbaiting, it harms the LGBTQ+ audience because they may want to watch a homoromantic series in hopes of accurate representation .“Queerbaiting the audience is unacceptable because it harms the LGBTQ+ community,” senior Jackson Klingaman expressed. It harms the queer audience because they get a queerbaiting series following straight characters for a couple seasons before the actual queer relationship gets brought up. By doing this, filmmakers are wasting queer audiences’ time while further pushing them into a box.
