Queerbaiting: Victim or Villain?

by Emily Langford

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

As a queer, “elder millennial” who watched as personal computers suddenly took root in our homes, I experienced the rise of online fandom firsthand. Prior to the internet, my experience with fandom was a solo one, I didn’t know anyone who had the same obsessive passion for stories and characters like I had. I was the annoying kid who would, unprompted, spew out tidbits and theories about books and movies, the weirdo who was off in her own little world where all her characters existed at my day-dreamy little whims. I was tolerated at best and I eventually learned to keep my fervor to myself. I remember the first time I entered the titles of my favorite obsessions into the search bar. Suddenly, I was very much not alone. Each of my hyperfixations had a dedicated chat room or message board with other people who understood, who shared my passions. I finally found a place of acceptance. ​

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Fandom has always been a safe haven for people to come together to obsess about any type of narrative media. Somewhere down the line, it became a utopia for the queer community. I think this stems from a combination of the phenomenon of shipping characters into same-sex couples and a historic lack of actual same-sex couples in mainstream media. We needed representational romance, and if we weren’t going to get it from the outside world, we were going to make it ourselves through fanworks. Fanfiction and fanart were our escape, our place to represent, and a place to connect with others like us. It was and still is a beautiful way to find community. 

Photo by Jeshoots.com on Unsplash

I have spent the majority of my life as a ship-happy fangirl, so I was dismayed when I began to notice something strange happening in my Tumblr feed. Where there was once fan creations, memes, and general discussion, there was a sudden shift to vitriolic posting about the writing of certain shows. I began to see a word popping up over and over again in all of these criticisms: queerbaiting. This is the term used when fans feel as though a work of fiction has queer subtext that never successfully becomes an actual part of the overall plot, accusing the writers of creating a chemistry between characters so that we will tune in for a “will-they-won’t-they” dynamic. Basically, there are legions of fans out there who are harassing writers for not making their ships canon in the actual source material.

Claims of queerbaiting in fandom have been on the rise over the last decade. There are a myriad of examples of this idea, many of which can be found here.  While I can understand a few of the points made on this list, it seems like a non-issue to me. There are real problems that face the queer community. Why are we upset about imaginary people? My theory is that some fans want to take the creative liberty found in writing fanfiction and apply it directly to the source material. This simply isn’t fair to the writers, who have no obligation to a fan-made ship, nor do they have any obligation to bend their hard work into what the fans want it to be.

Photo by Artur Voznenko

The cries of queerbaiting and bullying tactics are creating huge rifts within fandom communities, as well as real life. For example, Netflix’s Heartstopper has had some serious issues with their fans. When one of the teen actors on the show, whom the fandom presumed to be queer, was seen in public being seemingly and apparently unforgivably heterosexual, the kid was forced to address his sexuality publicly and under duress. How can anyone call themselves a “victim” of queerbaiting and use that as an excuse to interfere in someone’s private affairs? And what does being a “victim” of queerbaiting even mean? That you read a book, watched a show or movie and it- what? Wasn’t as gay as you wanted it to be? This might have held some weight fifteen years ago when we were underrepresented but queer representation is at an all time high, with no signs of slowing down.

In the age of social media, where it’s en vogue for the creators of these popular pieces to reach out and have some sort of tangible connection with their fans, it seems as though a dangerous give-and-take has been initiated. Now that the writers are more accessible, fans are able to abuse this access by clamoring that their ships become canon- regardless of whether or not it would even make sense to the overall plot. And because these complaints are coming from a section of the queer community, any backlash that writers might have against these demands could be labeled as some sort of bigotry. This doesn’t feel like representation, it feels like calculated bullying. I want writers to want to write for queer communities, not to be policed into it. That’s not my queer utopia.

 It feels like we’ve literally lost the plot. In traditional storytelling, relationships serve the plot but in fanfiction this dynamic is reversed, the ship is the story. I feel as though this is where the confusion and anger is coming from. Some fans want to see their ships and/or characters  represented in the canon the way they are represented in fanfiction- rather than just accepting the source material for what it is and going to fanfiction for the rest. I don’t see the problem with that, it’s literally what it’s there for. ​

Photo by Isi Parente on Unsplash

But maybe I am the problem with that. I am confronted with the fact that, as I grow older, I am becoming the “back in my day” curmudgeon. But you know what? Back in my day- imagination counted for something. And we didn’t even have explicitly queer content. I look around at all the incredible queer works that are out now and wonder how anyone can complain. This isn’t to say we don’t have a long road ahead, that we still don’t have equality to fight for, that we still are not fighting personal battles every day. Is it so hard to put that into perspective and to appreciate what we have accomplished so far?

The concept of queerbaiting has somehow taken hold of fandom as a whole and it’s creating issues within the community.  It is upsetting to see hard-fought queer representation being scrutinized and weaponized. I’m fearful that good writers will turn their backs on the fandoms that their work has inspired or that they will acquiesce to fanservice out of fear of being unjustly canceled. It feels like some fans have forgotten what is at the heart of fandom: connection, creativity, self-expression, and most importantly, love. We would not be in any fandoms if we did not love them. I hope that fans will eventually remember how to love their fandoms, to put trust in the writers, and to express themselves through fandom and not against it.