queerbaiting

alternative queer-baiting · alternative queer baiting

1. slanguncountablelifestyleThe practice of creating homoerotic tension between two characters in a narrative work (particularly a television series) without the intention of ever developing it into an actual same-sex relationship or explicitly addressing the question of either character's sexuality.

   Criticism of queerbaiting also does not imply that creators need to be dictated to by fans on how to run their show; […]

   2014 June 29, Maneesha Dullewe, “A brief guide to queerbaiting”, in Ceylon Today

   3 more examples

   Queerbaiting is erasure. It’s telling queer people that they don’t exist, or that our stories aren’t worth telling, and it’s harmful.

   2013 October 7, Matthew Ellison, “Queerbaiting”, in Salient, volume 76, number 23, Victoria University of Wellington, page 39

   Some feel that fan pressure to emphasize Buffy and Spike’s relationship spoiled the last few seasons of Joss Whedon’s show, and many fans were alienated by Teen Wolf’s recent queer-baiting.

   2013 November 20, Mollie Forman, “Eat the executive”, in Post, Brown University

   And as a much better NYT comment piece on queerbaiting put it last year: “As self-serving as some celebrity caginess can be, you can’t build a world in which everyone feels free to self-identify by ordering everyone to self-identify.”

   2024 January 10, Laura Snapes, “Taylor Swift’s people shut down speculation about her sexuality – but risked rebuking her LGBTQ fans”, in The Guardian, →ISSN