The Appropriation of ‘Queerbaiting’: Where Do We Go From Here?
A look at how the social justice term became a weapon
The discourse around “queerbaiting” (i.e., whether a work is using a queer “aesthetic” to attract queer fans without ever intending to validate such identities ) has been going through a bit of a moment over the past couple of years. If you go online, you will see many commentators telling their viewers or readers that the usage of this term has gone too far.
“The Problem With the Internet’s Obsession With Queerbaiting,” goes the title of a Them article by James Factora.
“Taking media out of context is in bad ‘taste,’” argues the Lanthorn Editorial Board.
There is a building consensus among social critics that we shouldn’t use this phrase anymore, and I wanted to talk about how we have arrived at this point and what it means for our language more broadly.
A brief queer history
Traditionally, queerbaiting has been a marketing tactic. It had to do with the creators and marketers of a text providing cues that are familiar to queer viewers but can be missed by everyone else.
A classic example is Teen Wolf characters Derek Hale (Tyler Hoechlin) and Stiles Stilinski (Dylan O’Brien), who had…
