Does it matter* to you what the creators think?
One of the things that was so fun about Doctor/Rose was how into it the whole cast and crew were. It was a joyous tumble of "wow, they really love it as much as I do!" with hearts and flowers all over the place
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OTOH, Teen Wolf has changed how I see behind the scenes stuff, because they actually are so supportive and it seems like it could happen. And then I look at other shows with popular slash ships where behind the scenes the showrunner may tweet a pic that's cute of them together or the actors may joke about it - but there's a "no homo" vibe within the show itself. This makes me feel like the people behind the scenes are courting slash fans (because we tend to be pretty hard core fans), but really just using us. I'm not sure where the line is between honest subtext and where it becomes queerbaiting though, it's very nebulous.
It gets very confusing when there's lots of meta stuff going on to be able to differentiate it from the actual canon though, and that's where it gets a little dangerous for fandom I think. Or, maybe not dangerous, but it's a weird situation. Most viewers wouldn't know the behind the scenes meta, some fans know but care and others latch on to these things and it can change how fandom functions - and we are all seeing the same show but interpreting it all so differently.
I was thinking about fan types actually, and as in all things relate it back to sports metaphors. So let's look at the Yankees and Mets fans. First of all, some people are going to be Yankee fans just because they win a lot and so are "popular" - but they may not even know who's on the team really. They are fans more for watercooler talk then anything else. OTOH, anyone who is a Mets fan is a fan because you don't like them because they are popular. Then within the fans themselves, there are different levels. Some people know the basics, some people can rattle off stats. Some people can tell you all the women Derek Jeter has dated for the last 10 years and how each one has impacted his gameplay. You know who spends the money? The latter 2 types, but especially the last one. And that's why Jeter gets all the car commercials.
My point is that slash fans are the obsessive kind who will spend the time/money to support their show/ships and it's those people who the advertisers love to see watch. So slash fans get courted, but until Teen Wolf there's been an acknowledgement among slash fans that behind the scenes courting is enough and that expecting it in canon isn't pie in the sky, advertisers wouldn't stand for the controversy and TPTB don't have any real interest in pursuing it anyway. And it's been a mostly comfortable relationship, honestly - but now fandom is changing or the world is changing or the 4th wall is falling (maybe all those things) and young fans have more expectations. And that's when it gets very very interesting to know what the cast and showrunner think of various ships.
Hey did you see that, I actually brought it back to your original question in the conclusions! It's like a class essay where you bring it all back around.
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Yeah, that can be a hard line to figure out sometimes. Much as I do like USA's bromance shows, they inevitably have their moments where it's very clear that they're queerbaiting. And that gets frustrating. I haven't seen any of that from Teen Wolf so far and I don't expect based on the way that I've seen Jeff reacting to fandom, but you never know.
Hey did you see that, I actually brought it back to your original question in the conclusions! It's like a class essay where you bring it all back around.
*claps*
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