Queerbaiting: What Is It And How Can We Fix It?
Queerbaiting is something that’s been going on in the media for dozens of years and even though we’ve been seeing better representation in recent years for the LGBTQ+ community, there is still a long way to go. LGBTQ+ voices must be heard so we can put the act of queerbaiting to rest permanently and ultimately create a world more accepting that reflects representation in the fiction we watch and read.

What is queerbaiting?
Queerbaiting can be defined as a marketing ploy used by actors, musicians, writers, directors, companies, etc. to catch the attention of LGBTQ+ people by promising or alluding to LGBTQ+ representation. This practice has been around for many years and while it can apply to both real-life and fictional representation, in recent years the term has become more focused on the representation of LGBTQ+ characters and relationships in the television and movie industry. Queerbaiting doesn’t just include the absence of representation in a show or movie, it also includes harmful queer representation such as when LGBTQ+ characters are villainized, stereotyped, or marginalized in some way (Green 32).

What is queercoding?
Queercoding while similar to queerbaiting, is not the same thing and not nearly as harmful. Queercoding is when a character or relationship is coded to be LGBTQ+ without ever being outright confirmed or hinted at by writers, directors, producers, or actors. While queerbaiting is undebatable, queercoding can be up to interpretation. Many people who don’t understand the harmful effects of queerbaiting may actually think it’s the same thing as queercoding, which could explain why many non-LGBTQ+ people perceive LGBTQ+ people getting upset over queerbaiting as an overreaction.

Why is queerbaiting harmful?
Queerbaiting can be harmful in many different ways to all sorts of different people, even those that aren’t a part of the LGBTQ+ community. The importance of realistic LGBTQ+ representation in the media can be beneficial to LGBTQ+ people who are out, in the closet, or who haven’t even realized their own identity yet because fictional stories can give voices to those to feel they aren’t heard and in turn impact real people in a very influential way. Stories inspire people and putting LGBTQ+ characters in stories especially as protagonists can help to inspire LGBTQ+ audiences to pursue challenges as that fictional character does (Heath & Heath). This use of good representation can also make those who are not LGBTQ+ more accepting and supportive of those who are because they’re less alienated from the idea after being exposed to LGBTQ+ people on screen. Queerbaiting and giving viewers either harmful LGBTQ+ representation or no representation at all gets rid of all of those benefits and either just takes them away or could actually create more homophobia and transphobia if LGBTQ+ people are represented in a negative light. Queerbaiting tactics used to trick queer people into thinking they’re getting representation can also add to the depression and anxiety LGBTQ+ people already experience in their day-to-day lives because of the homophobia and transphobia in the real world (Murphy.)

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Examples of queerbaiting:

    NO REPRESENTATION:

  • Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
    Back in 2007 author of the Harry Potter series J. K. Rowling revealed that she had always thought Dumbledore was gay and that he had been in a romantic relationship with Grindlewald (Harrington). In the sequel to the Harry Potter spin-off, the audience is shown this younger version of Dumbledore as well as introduced to Grindelwald however absolutely nothing over the course of the movie suggests that they had ever been in a romantic relationship. This is a prime example of queerbaiting because Rowling essentially said that Dumbledore was gay and had been in love with Grindlewald to get LGBTQ+ fans of the Harry Potter franchise excited, but when they went to see the actual film they were sorely mistaken and disappointed with the lack of representation.

      HARMFUL REPRESENTATION:

  • Loki (2021)
    In Marvel’s new Disney+ series Loki, the writers, directors, actors, and others involved with the show greatly publicized how Loki’s gender-fluid identity would be making an appearance in the show. This however did not end up as anyone expected when instead of making the character gender-fluid the writers decided to instead include a “female” version of the character from an alternate universe as his love interest. The point of making this alternate version of Loki “female” was to prove his gender-fluidity but that would mean the romantic relationship between the two variants who are supposedly the same person is practically incest, in turn making a mockery of the genderfluid community. “My interpretation of it is that they’re both Lokis, but they aren’t the same person. I don’t see them as being like brother and sister,” Kate Herron the show’s director said this when responding to the incest allegations (Labonte). So if they’re not the same person then how does Sylvie’s character contribute to Loki’s gender-fluidity?

  • The 100 (2014-2020) and Supernatural (2005-2020)
    In The 100, the protagonist Clarke Griffin and Lexa have a romantic relationship that develops over the course of two seasons, but as soon as the two make their relationship official less than one minute later, Lexa is shot dead she is accidentally shot, resulting in her death. In Supernatural Castiel suffers a similar fate to Lexa, dying after he confesses his love to Dean and in his final moments expresses his gratitude and love towards Dean for changing him, similar to how Lexa did with Clarke. This tragic end for Castiel was the ultimate evidence fans of the show needed to prove that they’d been being queerbaited for a whole 15 years (McEvoy). In The 100 Lexa’s death is not her last appearance unlike Castiel’s, she also appears at the end of season three and in the series finale. However, this choice to put Lexa in the finale after seasons without mentioning her felt like fan service to many fans of the character as it seemed as though the writers were trying to make up for their queerbaiting in season three.



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    Examples where they didn’t queerbait:

      NO REPRESENTATION (but no queerbaiting… sort of):

  • Star Wars – Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
    As the movies from the newer Star Wars trilogy came out, the characters Finn and Poe became a relatively popular ship among the fanbase. The actors who played the roles of these characters, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac, were well aware of these speculations as well as the director, J. J. Abrams and they discussed as such in an interview published a few weeks before the premiere of The Rise of Skywalker, confirming that the relationship would not be made canon. “Personally, I kind of hoped and wished that maybe that would’ve been taken further in the other films, but I don’t have control. It seemed like a natural progression, but sadly enough it’s a time when people are too afraid…” Oscar Isaac said (Vary). Even though the relationship was never made official, it was refreshing to hear the honesty from those involved rather than teasing that it might happen. Unfortunately, at the end of the interview, Abrams does hint at LGBTQ+ representation in the film when this “representation” ended up being two unnamed female characters kissing for a few seconds which in the eyes of pretty much everyone who watched the movie, does not count as actual representation.

      GOOD REPRESENTATION:

  • Sex Education (2019-2021)
    The Netflix original series Sex Education has been a great source of educational and realistic LGBTQ+ representation including a non-binary character as well as several LGBTQ+ relationships both with varying sexualities including relationships between a gay man with a bisexual man, a pansexual woman with a bisexual woman, a non-binary character and a male-identifying character, etc. Sex Education does an amazing job of introducing characters with lots of different sexualities and genders and is probably one of the most diverse LGBTQ+ TV shows ever made. Even when there is a “stereotypical” gay character such as Eric, he is a multifaceted character with much more depth to him than just his homosexuality. Several people involved with the show are LGBTQ+ as well which could help contribute to the show’s representational success in the LGBTQ+ community.

  • Love, Simon (2018)
    Love, Simon was a movie adaptation of a book called Simon v.s. The Homosapiens Agenda written by Becky Albertalli that follows a teenage boy by the name of Simon as he explores his sexuality. The movie ended up being a very heartwarming and relatable story as Simon comes out to his friends, family, and eventually gets together with his love interest after facing the struggles of homophobia, high school, and being a confused teenager overall.

  • Happiest Season (2020)
    The movie Happiest Season was a Christmas movie that came out last year, following the relationship of two women as they visit one of their families for the holidays. Although they’re both put through a lot of turmoil, it was refreshing to watch how realistically it portrayed their relationship and the difficulty many people go through to come out to their families. Harper’s family is accepting in the end giving it a happy ending like other Hallmark-esque Christmas movies but with the twist of showing the struggle that many LGBTQ+ relationships go through. Kristen Stewart, a bisexual woman that plays Abby in the movie discussed how telling queer stories as a non-queer person can be a lot more difficult, leading to queerbaiting and other issues but having queer people involved, doing research, and being open to criticism can help solve this problem within show business (Aurthur).

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    How do we stop queerbaiting?

      As a creator:

  • Include LGBTQ+ writers, directors, actors, etc. that can act as a voice for writing stories for characters that share the same identities as them
    There are several different methods that could be used to stop queerbaiting, but I believe that the most effective methodology would be to always have LGBTQ+ people working on LGBTQ+ projects. Of course, not all LGBTQ+ characters must be played by LGBTQ+ actors but it’s important that queer people are the ones telling queer stories so there should always at the very least be queer people behind the scenes of these projects.

  • Be open to criticism from the communities you want to represent and actually make changes from the feedback you receive
    Too often in the film and television industry are there heterosexual cisgender people who attempt to write LGBTQ+ stories, receive rightfully earned backlash, and do nothing about it. If you’re going to tell somebody else’s story without their permission and input, you must do the proper research and get feedback from real-life LGBTQ+ people if you want to successfully tell a queer story without queerbaiting.

  • Do your research to make the representation realistic and beneficial to both LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ people watching
    There are a plethora of great sources online that depict how to write good LGBTQ+ representation, education about queerbaiting, and even LGBTQ+ people themselves can be used as a source. These sources need to be used and implemented when anyone goes to write a queer story depicting an identity they don’t identify with.

  • Don’t tease LGBTQ+ content without providing actual LGBTQ+ representation
    If you’re aware that there will be no real LGBTQ+ representation in a project, there should be no teasing that there will be, whether that be from the people working on the show or in the subtext of the show itself. There is absolutely never an excuse for doing this and it’s become extremely obvious how it’s nothing but a manipulative marketing ploy that homophobic and transphobic people use to make money off of the queer population.

  • Evaluate the close relationships between people of the same gender to determine whether they’re just friends, or if they’re only written that way because they aren’t a duo with opposite genders
    Often viewers see close relationships between two men or two women and wonder, what if one of them is the opposite gender? Would they be love interests? If so, there may be some queerbaiting to address.

  • All LGBTQ+ characters should have more to them than just harmful stereotypes
    It is important to make any LGBTQ+ characters three-dimensional so that even if they do appear to be a stereotype of some kind, for example, a flamboyant gay man, there is more to them than just their sexuality or gender.

      As a consumer:

  • Whether you’re LGBTQ+ or not, showing your interest in properly represented LGBTQ+ characters and relationships will help to show creators what we want as an audience
    Queerbaiting is often thought to be a problem that can also be solved by creators, but consumers going out of their way to read, watch, and listen to queer stories written by queer people will help to increase popuaIt’s also important to be open to criticism/feedback if you are someone who is not queer telling a queer story.

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    Works Cited:

    Aurthur, Kate. “Kristen Stewart on ‘Happiest Season’ and the ‘Gray Area’ of Only Gay Actors Playing Gay
    Characters.” Variety, Variety, 3 Nov. 2021, https://variety.com/2020/film/news/kristen-stewart-happiest-season-interview-1234838342/.

    Brennan, Joseph. “Queerbaiting: The ‘Playful’ Possibilities of Homoeroticism.” International
    Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 21, no. 2, 2016, pp. 189–206., https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877916631050.
    Green, Michael. “Screenwriting Representation: Teaching Approaches to Writing Queer
    Characters.” Journal of Film and Video, vol. 65, no. 1-2, 2013, p. 30., https://doi.org/10.5406/jfilmvideo.65.1-2.0030.

    Hanckel, Benjamin. “Representations of LGBT Youth: A Review of Queer Youth and Media
    Cultures.” Journal of LGBT Youth, vol. 13, no. 4, 2016, pp. 410–413.,
    https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2016.1185764.

    Harrington, Delia. “Fantastic Beasts 2 Is Queerbaiting That Puts Dumbledore Back in the Closet.” Den of Geek,
    20 Nov. 2018, https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/fantastic-beasts-2-queerbaiting-dumbledore-back-in-the-closet/.
    Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. “Chapter 6: Stories.” Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Take Hold And Others Come
    Unstuck, Random House Books, London, 2009.

    Kaur, Tessa. “All Types of LGBTQ Representation in Media: A Comprehensive List.” Heckin’
    Unicorn, https://heckinunicorn.com/blogs/heckin-unicorn-blog/queer-representation-in-media-comprehensive-list-breakdown-lgbt?currency=USD.

    Labonte, Rachel. “Loki Director Responds to Sylvie Romance Incest Accusations.” ScreenRant, 22 July 2021,
    https://screenrant.com/loki-show-sylvie-romance-incest-backlash-director-response/.

    McEvoy, Jordyn. “Queerbaiting: Our Life Is Not Yours To Profit From: An Anaylsis – Hollywood Insider.” Hollywood
    Insider – News Entertainment & Culture, 20 Mar. 2021, https://www.hollywoodinsider.com/queerbaiting-analysis-shows-movies/.

    Murphy, Colleen. “Queerbaiting Is Harmful to the LGBTQ+ Community and Society as a
    Whole-Here’s Why.” Health.com, https://www.health.com/mind-body/lgbtq-health/queerbaiting.

    Vary, Adam B. “’Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’: Finn and Poe Aren’t Boyfriends, but J.J. Abrams Hints at
    LGBTQ Representation.” Variety, Variety, 4 Dec. 2019, https://variety.com/2019/film/news/star-wars-finn-poe-not-boyfriends-lgbtq-representation-1203423286/.