What Is Queerbaiting, And Why Is It Bad?

Studios are often accused of using the practice known as queerbaiting in their films and TV shows—here’s what queerbaiting means and why it’s bad for the LGBTQ+ community and representation. The designation of a storyline, story arc, or how a character was treated by a TV series or movie as queerbaiting is much more prominent in the public discourse than in the past, with fans becoming more and more vocal when they perceive studios are employing the technique. Although queerbaiting can present itself in the way a storyline is executed, its most famous examples come in the way that a film or TV show is marketed to suggest that it will include major representation of the LGBTQ+ community while offering only crumbs to the fans, as the supposedly queer characters or moments were either secondary characters or irrelevant to the main plot.

While different kinds of products have been accused of queerbaiting, the LGBTQ+ representation J. J. Abrams d while promoting The Rise of Skywalker.

Both cases weren’t unprecedented in the entertainment industry, only among those with a bigger following. A media product is judged as queerbaiting when it implies that a character belongs to the LGBTQ+ community or is in a same-sex relationship, often developing it in a way hinted at as romantic, without the story ever stating it explicitly. As a marketing technique, it baits viewers into believing there would be significant LGBTQ+ representation in a media product, leading of the LGBTQ+ community and allies to watch the movie or TV show expecting it without losing the chance to market the same product to more conservative markets. With the release of Avengers: Endgame, director Joe Russo made a big deal about his blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance as a gay man and the movie Onward was lauded as being the first Pixar movie with an openly queer character, only for the character to be a tertiary character who briefly mentioned their partner in a single scene. While it is particularly easy to find examples of queerbaiting in Disney properties, they are far from the only ones guilty of it.

Why Is Queerbaiting Bad?

Queer representation has drastically improved in recent years; however, it is still not as common and expected as it should be if the content were to mirror reality. There are many different ways to be queer and media regularly fails to represent that. If studios promote a film by showcasing exciting LGBTQ+ representation without delivering it, they betray marginalized communities who are eager to see their realities in the media they consume.

Not only is it wrong and deceptive, queerbaiting is often motivated by financial reasons. By claiming that content includes LGBTQ+ representation, they can appear to diverse audiences, while keeping the content so small that it can be edited out for conservative markets and countries where LGBTQ+ identities and relationships are unlawful. This makes queerbaiting feel particularly wrong, as companies, rather than effectively the LGBTQ+ community, try to entice viewers without fully committing to providing representation. As both Star Wars’ Poe and Finn and the MCU’s Steve and Bucky showed, queerbaiting still isn’t as infrequent as it could be expected, despite the strides forward made to represent the different facets of the LGBTQ+ community. Hopefully, the use of queerbaiting will finally subside in favor of showing actual LGBTQ+ representation and telling more and more LGBTQ+ stories in the future.

Next: Hollywood's "Bury Your Gays" Trope Explained: History & Controversy

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