Queerbaiting

Quick meaning: Queerbaiting is a noun meaning (LGBTQ, fandom slang) The practice of creating homoerotic tension between two characters in a narrative work (particularly a television series) without the intention of ever developing it into an actual same-sex relationship or explicitly addressing the question of either character's sexuality.

Meaning

(LGBTQ, fandom slang) The practice of creating homoerotic tension between two characters in a narrative work (particularly a television series) without the intention of ever developing it into an actual same-sex relationship or explicitly addressing the question of either character's sexuality.

Example Sentences

Criticism of queerbaiting also does not imply that creators need to be dictated to by fans on how to run their show; […]

Queerbaiting is erasure. It’s telling queer people that they don’t exist, or that our stories aren’t worth telling, and it’s harmful.

Some feel that fan pressure to emphasize Buffy and Spike’s relationship spoiled the last few seasons of Joss Whedon’s show, and many fans were alienated by Teen Wolf’s recent queer-baiting.

And as a much better NYT comment piece on queerbaiting put it last year: “As self-serving as some celebrity caginess can be, you can’t build a world in which everyone feels free to self-identify by ordering everyone to self-identify.”

Word Forms

• queer-baiting
• queer baiting

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include queer baiting, queerantagonism, bi-erasure, lesbophile, gayism, lesboism.

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