You may have read the title of this article and asked yourself “what is queerbaiting?”. To get right to the point, queerbaiting is when TV and movie writers use the promise of an LGBTQ+ character or storyline to attract queer viewers and then not go anywhere with the character or storyline. A prime and popular example of this is Betty and Veronica in the TV show Riverdale, who shared a kiss in the very first episode of the show but their relationship never went anywhere romantically or sexually after that. The writers of the show used that kiss as a hook to pull in a huge demographic of viewers only to immediately let them down with Betty and Veronica getting involved with their male counterparts. This lack of representation angered many viewers who got excited that a WLW (woman-loving woman) relationship was going to be portrayed on a major television network, The CW.
Courtesy: Den of Geek
However, it should be noted that The CW does a lot of television shows with queer characters and storylines, but they usually fall through. The CW is known for The 100, a show that had a canon bisexual main character, Clarke, who ended up in a relationship with a woman named Lexa for a chunk of seasons two and three. This may sound like huge progress and not like queerbaiting at all, but The CW took that relationship that had a huge following and ended it by killing Lexa off with a stray bullet, what many fans say was an unnecessary death. This is a great example of a form of queerbaiting known as the “Bury Your Gays” trope, where queer characters are often the first or most popular characters to be killed off. The CW also runs Supergirl, which is another show known for queerbaiting its audience with the main character Kara (aka Supergirl) and her friend Lena having romantic tension but their relationship never explicitly going anywhere. Fans have stated that The CW has been playing up that romantic tension for views because fans want to see their relationship actually become canon.
Courtesy: Hypable
Queer viewers are tired of seeing the same hook, line, and sink method that TV shows and movies use to pull them in with no real promise of representation. Thankfully, there are progressive shows that actually show healthy queer relationships, characters, and storylines. Some great examples are Atypical, showing a great character arc where Casey explores her sexuality and realizes she is bisexual and pursues a relationship with her best friend; One Day at a Time, with Elena who comes out to her Cuban-American family and begins dating a girl she really likes and is overall a very wholesome portrayal of LGBTQ+ youth; and POSE (pictured below) which focuses on the ballroom scene in 1980’s New York City while enduring the AIDS epidemic and shows fully developed LGBTQ+ characters and stories that have emotional depth and range.
Courtesy: Hollywood Reporter
Obviously, TV and film have a long way to go before being able to capture LGBTQ+ folk in an accurate and healthy manner and that’s due to systematic homophobia in the higher-ups at these TV channels and film companies.
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