I don't know when everyone somehow collectively forgot the actual definition of queerbaiting but like... yall know queerbaiting was never about REAL PEOPLE'S actual identities right? It's about the MEDIA they put out.
Queerbaiting is when media hints that there will be queer rep to lure in a queer audience with no intention of ever delivering on that rep.
Queerbaiting is NOT when a celebrity experiments with gender or sexuality without coming out. They are allowed to explore!
Queerbaiting is NOT when an author writes a queer book without explicitly stating they share the same sexual or gender identity!
Queer media is NOT queerbaiting just because you don't know the creator's sexuality or assigned gender at birth!
Is the media explicitly queer? Then it's not queerbaiting! Simple as that! No one owes you an explanation of their own identity, full stop.
Also like... queerbaiting is a marketing strategy. If something just... isn't queer or feels vaguely queer without ever confirming to your level of satisfaction that it is actually queer, that's still not queerbaiting. It is literally only queerbaiting if someone uses the promise of queerness to lure you in to a piece of media only to not actually deliver on that promise.
Things that are, by definition, NOT queerbaiting:
- Characters that feel queer not ultimately being confirmed queer in canon
- Queercoding, intentional or unintentional
- Media with confirmed canon queer characters that you don't feel are "good representation"
- Things that are not queer but never made the promise to be queer in the first place
also not queerbaiting:
canonically queer characters not ending up in your preferred ship (or any relationship)
Also not queerbaiting: unrequited love.
Also not queerbaiting: queer coding.
It wasn’t/isn’t always possible for a writer to put a queer character on screen. Sometimes those people still want a character to be queer whether because they themselves are queer, they think not being able to have a queer character is stupid, or they just think this one character they’ve made gives queer vibes. So what’s a writer/animator/director/etc. to do but put in some hints that won’t get their project cancelled/censored but will still be identifiable either to their queer audience or audience at large.
