Queerbaiting

While we talked about LGBTQIA representation in class, we didn't discuss the concept of queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is the practice of hinting at, but not actually depicting or confirming same-sex relationships. Queerbaiting eventually ends with the relationship getting ignored or trivialized and symbolically annihilates the possibility of representation under the backdrop of heteronormativity. I came across this recent video of gay people reacting to queerbaiting examples in Riverdale, Teen Wolf, etc. In the video, Rowan Ellis says the main problem about queerbaiting is that viewers don't know where the buck stops. For some of the examples they use, the queerbaiting moments are just fanservice for the pleasure of the fans but often at the expense of LGBTQIA people. For viewers who are still determining their sexuality, this doesn't do anything to validate their identity and instead leaves them more confused. Calum also adds that most people don't consume content by analytically studying everything about a scene, instead we gloss over details. So when it comes to some of the very subtle "representation" in the video, they're very VERY implicit things that can easily be passed off under the lens of heteronormativity. If you're wondering what queerbaiting is and why exactly it's so problematic to LGBTQIA representation I'd definitely recommend watching this video.