Queerbaiting - Blog Posts

In the graveyard, Book Omens, the oldest piece of media featuring a demon named Crowley, passed a dogend back to TV Omens, the younger and the more accomplished queerbaiter.

“I can see a light,” he said. “Here he comes now, the flash bastard.”

“What’s that he’s drivin’?” said TV Omens.

“It’s 1967 Chevy Impala,” explained Book Omens. “I expect it’s a newer black car than you were expecting.”

“Dunt see why you’d drive a big black car made after the Interwar Period,” said TV Omens.

“They’ve come on a bit since then, I reckon.”

“What’s this Supernatural like?” said TV Omens.

Book Omens spat. “He’s been on television too long,” he said. “Right from the Livejournal days. Gone native, if you ask me. Drives a car he didn’t have to miracle a tape deck into.”

TV Omens pondered this. Like most media containing demons named Crowley, he had a very limited grasp of how normal cars worked, and so he was just about to say something like, I bet it actually needs petrol and he calls it ‘gasoline,’ when the Impala rolled to a halt at the cemetery gate.

“And he wears denim,” sneered Hastur, “even when he dunt need to.” He raised his voice. “Fuck gay rights,” he said.

“Fuck gay rights” TV Omens echoed.

“Hi,” said Supernatural, giving them a little wave. “Sorry I’m late, but you know how it is trying to film during COVID, getting the cast all back to Vancouver and all that, and you can’t imagine the trouble I went to getting Jensen Ackles to make eye contact with other men and then—”

“Now we art all here,” said Book Omens meaningfully, “we must recount the Deeds of the Day.”

“Yeah. Deeds,” said Supernatural, with the slightly guilty look of one who is attending church for the first time in years and has forgotten which bits you stand up for.

Book Omens cleared his throat.

“I have queer coded an angel,” he said. “As he performed magic tricks at a birthday party, children shouted homophobic slurs at him. Then, to contradict this, I placed a line in the narration explicitly stating that as a sexless being he cannot be gay unless he really wants to make the effort, all while refusing to confirm whether he has made that effort. For thirty years both authors have openly expressed discomfort with seeing shipping content, and yet I remain a cult classic among bookish queer people.”

“Nice one,” said Supernatural, helpfully.

“I have created an uncanny valley of queerbait,” said TV Omens. “I had all sorts of dialogue and film language hinting at some sort of ‘love story,’ but the surviving author refuses to confirm what sort of ‘love story’ it is either in canon or via Word of God. Meanwhile, young people desperate for queer representation lavish him with praise for something he never did and the fandom is plagued with discourse.”

They both looked expectantly at Supernatural, who gave them a big smile.

“You’ll like this,” he said.

His smile became even wider and more conspiratorial.

“I let the gay angel tell Dean he loves him and immediately killed him and sent him to Super Hell,” he said.

There was silence, except for the distant swishing of cars.

“Yes?” said Book Omens. “And then what?”

“Look, it wasn’t easy,” said Supernatural.

“That’s all?” said TV Omens.

“Look, people—”

“And exactly what has that done to bait queer people into becoming invested in you?” said Book Omens. “You made half of the ship canonically queer and then buried him! They’ll never watch again!”

Supernatural pulled himself together. What could he tell them? That thousands of Tumblr blogs that hadn’t touched the show since 2013 went absolutely feral? That in the middle of one of the most contentious presidential elections in recent memory, exacerbated by a global pandemic and widespread unrest in the wake of economic collapse, “Destiel” trended on Twitter and dragged “Putin” up with it? It was the most social media engagement he’d gotten in years, and he’d hardly had to make Jensen act.

But you couldn’t tell that to media featuring demons named Crowley like Book Omens and TV Omens. Twentieth-century minds, the both of them. Spending years picking away at a bunch of people who still read, or months tossing out empty statements that look like straight allyship if you squint hard enough. Admittedly it was craftsmanship, but you had to think differently these days. Not big, but wide. With seven billion people in the world you couldn’t pick away at people’s sanity that slowly; you had to be bold. But media containing demons named Crowley like Book Omens and TV Omens wouldn’t understand. They’d never have thought up fridging a lesbian in the same episode as you killed half of the most popular ship, for example. Or canonical nods to Wincest. Or demon deals being sealed with a kiss regardless of gender. He’d been particularly pleased with demon deals being sealed with a kiss regardless of gender.

No because the more I think about the more upset I am at the Duffers

Everyone is for a descriptive approach to language rather than a prescriptive one, until there is the slightest disagreement abot the meaning of queerbaiting. At that point, you'll have the smuggiest people in earth acting like the meaning has been uncontroversially established through decades of academic consensus, and any dissent is tantamount to denying Gravity.

Me starting season 2 of Rizzoli & Isles: Well, surely this show can't get any more gay! Plot twist: It absolutely can :)

Okay, but season 1 episode 09 of Rizzoli & Isles?! The way Jane soothingly touches Maura's arm and how Maura reacts with this very specific look, this precious combination of surprise and wonder and tenderness for Jane?! The way they sit at home and Jane reassures Maura she doesn't have one single evil bone in her body and how they hold hands so intimately?! And then the lighter scene at the very end, when they join some plumbing business with Jane's father and brother behind the bar, how Maura reaches out her hand to touch Jane,and how Jane reciprocates that gesture and it just looks so very domestic and sweet and natural?! I am going FERAL I ship them so hard it blocks the Suez canal

Dear Lord, watching season 1 episode 6 of Rizzoli and Isles is reaaally a lot to stomach for my little lesbian heart 😳 I mean, Maura and Jane basically being flirty and wifey all.the.time and going undercover together in a lesbian bar where Jane is just casually fake-dating WOMEN?! And I mean, that'sJane with her husky voice and overall gay demeanor - like gaaah how shall I be expected to cope?!

Not my gay ass becoming utterly obsessed with Rizzles in 2023 - I mean, this kind of queerbaiting is torturous 😭

i’d be really curious to know what percent of queerbaiting is 

a) an intentional marketing scheme to stir interest in the project and attract certain fanbases (lgbtq people and young women) vs. 

b) members of the creative team genuinely wanting to write queer characters but the corporate side of things force them to tone it down but they still leave little hints vs. 

c) they legitimately did not know how gay something would come across

Let’s talk about Crowley and Aziraphale’s relationship

And basically just how gay they are.

I want to start off by saying that I haven’t watched the entire Good Omens tv show but HOWEVER  I got a little too obsessed and watched all the scenes I could find. And by all I mean all. And some clips on it. And the thing that made me want to write this were the quite concerning amount of people categorising it as queerbaiting. 

I won’t say anything related to the book because unfortunately I couldn’t find the time to read it.

Okay so first of all the author confirmed that Good Omens is a story about two people in love. I do not have the time nor dedication to find where this was first mentioned but trust me on this one. But like I get it why people say it’s queerbaiting. I mean there’s no romantic interaction and all we have is subtext, right?

right?

well I, personally, wouldn’t say so. I mean yeah all we have in the actual show is pretty much subtext but there are also things that we have to take into consideration. First of all we have to remember that they are both (former or not) celestial enitites. They were both angels at some point. And what have those random posts and tiktoks taught us? Angels don’t look the way we think they look. Angels aren’t what we really think of them. 

Crowley and Aziraphale are spiritual entities, only having the bodies we see ,as some kind of vessel to help them integrate in human society. Therefore they are only human (biologically, we aren’t here to get into the entire moral structure and stuff, maybe another time idk???) by the way they look.

Now, why does that matter? Because the way we express love and the way we think about it is entirely a human thing. We basically created it, somehow, based on our biological desire to procreate. Spiritual beings don’t have the desire to procreate, cuz they don’t need to. Therefore they haven’t really evolved a way to show the romantic love, and at first or even always will be reluctant with the human ways. 

How do we know our ineffable husbands (they’re non-binary most probably, spiritual entities don’t need gender) are actually in love? OHH BOYY I haven’t even watched the show and it’s obvious that they truly share a profound bond (destiel reference to mourn after sp’s ending). I mean there are a lot of scenes, but I decide to be less professional and just say exactly why, not when.

1. I meannn the amount of times Crowley made compromises for Aziraphale and for him only, and just those sweet little things like always asking him for lunch or dinner or whatever and being careful with his books. I mean not to be sad but like my best friends wouldn’t have really been that careful with the things I appreciate. There gotta be something

2. Aziraphale was always telling Crowley (sooner or later) what he had found out and what he should do. He always wanted him to be on the right path, despite him being a demon and by definition being on the wrong path, a fallen angel.

3. Just Aziraphale being worried about Crowley and vice-versa. I mean that’s clearly a thing friends share as well but like they are basically on opposite sides. They should be fighting each other but, instead, go on cute little lunch dates together for like 6000 years???

4. Also this is a when one, but remember when Crowley asked Aziraphale to run away with him? Running aways is a gay thing, I’m sorry I’m not accepting any criticize on this one.

Anyways what did I try to prove with this long post? That love can be shown in many forms, some being sexual, some being romantic and some just being slightly romantic but not in an obvious way. Our little angle x demon ship does not do harm to the LGBTQ community, it does not practice in queerbaiting either, it just shows another way of showing love, a love that is so strong it doesn’t need to be proven. They both know it, it’s obvious, and they love each other in their own way.

Basically they’re asexual because they’re angels and honestly I am yearning for a relationship like theirs.

Anyways I’m down for any other opinions, this was just one out of hundreds.

anyways look at them I love them

can you imagine the collective rage we would all feel if the BBC decided to finally make Merlin season 6 where Arthur returns… but then they decided to give Arthur a brand new female love interest?!?

it seems like the kinda shit they would pull, those cowards, and i just know the fandom would be absolutely livid

Jenna Ortega PSA

hey, everyone. I’m going to do us all a favor and give out a PSA. To start off, Jenna Ortega is the actress for Wednesday in the new hit Netflix series, Wednesday. Wednesday is a very stoic, blank, and bluntly honest character. Jenna’s popularity has made a breakthrough, and people are now giving her loads of recognition and praise, as her acting is incredible. Does this remind you of anyone? Perhaps, Eddie Munson? And oh boy, we know how that turned out. New oddball character introduced —> quickly beloved by fans —> seemingly unknown actor portraying character makes a breakthrough popularity-wise —> a vast amount of head-cannons start to arise —> people begin to fuse actor and character into one being —> drama WIPES out the character —> character becomes cringe —> fans become cringe —> character is now unloved, cringe, and rejected by media —> actor is now stuck and forced into drama.

*sigh*… history repeats itself, sadly enough. I get this horrid gut feeling that the posts and rumors about Jenna are about to flood the media in the near future. I just get that telling vibe by the tone and subject of the posts. Jenna is already being accused of queerbaiting, and soon enough, we will have a Kit Connor situation on our hands, regardless of if she is queer or not. I have no clue of how to stop this, but we need to try and find a way, and fast. This situation could severely wound Jenna’s career, and that would be devastating at such an early point in her acting. This “quirky n’ queer” phenomenon has already taken full force, so we cannot prevent it from happening entirely. But I beg of you, no matter whatever corner of the internet we belong to, lets team up and try our hardest to secure Jenna’s future and reputation as an actor. I refuse to let the loud minority of the fans overpopulate the quiet majority. Let’s do what we do best and raise our voices enough to reach mainstream media. Fuck, we’ve done it before. With enough willpower, the internet can shine a spotlight on whatever it wishes. Repost this, write your own PSA on other sites, hell, even share this to the ones accusing her. i dont care what anyone does, but godammit we need to use the internet for A GOOD REASON and HELP Jenna out.

I'm breaking down im breaking really down. Ineverfeltsopersonallyatackedforaepisode. WHY? They killed the gay angel and send him to hell but the straight (bi?? WHY I STILL CLOWNING THIS MUCH) man GO TO HEAVEN

this is homophobia

Thank you so much guys, i should have listen to the others and lefted the show years ago. I'm just so mad and so damn sad.

OK OK I GET, IT WAS FUN FOR THEM TO HAVE US, THE FUCKING CLOWNS HYPED ON THE SHOW LIKE "wow we are making cash lol no homo tho" BUT THIS? This is fucking sad, not only for us, but for them to queerbaited the shit out of us. They killed Dean??? They don't bring my gay Angel back?? They don't even HUG???????? I'M FUCKING MAD, AND I NOT EVEN WATCH THIS SHIT YET.

Thank you, fellow clowns. We both have being played...

AGAIN.

They're laughing at our faces rn. This a nightmare?

My unhopeful Stranger Things S5 prediction is that Will will not come out to anyone and there will be no explicit romance. The Duffer Brother’s will just have laid out a bunch of queer subtext (picture Mike having his own conversation with Nancy about how he feels about Will like the teasing conversation they had about El in S1). Then, afterwards in interviews when they ask “so are they gay?” (Y’know the way they did during S4 press tour) they’ll be like “well let’s just say any context you were picking up on was intentional, but it’s up for your interpretation ;)” And then congratulate themselves on their inclusivity. I’m so excited y’all

I love 9-1-1 as much as the next person, and I love buddie, but this is so fucked up. All of season 8 they've not even been hinting at, but literally blatantly saying this could happen. The words "in love with Eddie" came out of buck's mouth. Ryan and Oliver talk about buddie in a bunch of interviews. I know people think "oh it's slowburn" a SEVEN SEASON slowburn is way too fucking long. It's queerbaiting. They're purposefully hinting at and talking about buddie to get people to watch the show. It's queerbaiting and the show isn't fun anymore. It used to be small things like bumping into each other and only being comfortable with each other but it's so much more than that now. The actors and writers have said that they don't talk to their best friends like that when talking about the "you wanna go for the title" scene. Tommy scoffed at the idea of Eddie being straight and called him the competition. They are having full on couple arguments in their shared kitchen. It's queerbaiting and I'm sick of it. It's getting to be like destiel. It's just annoying and getting impossible to watch at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if buck confessed his love to Eddie and then immediately died and went to superhell. It's not fucking fun to ship them anymore. Plus, Bobby is fucking dead. This show isn't fucking fun anymore.