Queerbaiting / Slashbaiting

[erilyn]

Yo, what are some good examples of queerbaiting / slashbaiting fans (eg shows/TPTB try to have their cake and eat it too, by appealing to fans who want to see non-heterosexual characters/couples/storylines, but without actually, you know, making it canon

Comments

[eponymous]

Two characters acting in gay in every way except for actually being romantically involved with each other? That's pretty much my definition of slashbait.

And I'm afraid I have to disagree that the film is some kind of big middle finger to homophobes. The gayness is played for laughs or pathos. Have one of them try to kiss the other and then we can talk about the film being progressive.

I don't know, I get kind of emotional about this stuff. I feel like a lot of media gives queer-friendly viewers these teases of homosexuality because they want us to be into what they're making (and thus give them money), but god forbid they actually show a romantic relationship between two people of the same gender because OMG GAY. It's like the way there's often one black character in a group of television or movie friends. But only one. And that should be enough for you, viewers of colour. You want to make a movie that appeals to a queer-friendly audience? Make a movie with an actual LGBT character or two in it. Otherwise, I feel what they're doing is kind of a co-opting of queerness, a cultural appropriation, and it's increasingly something that makes me uncomfortable.

To loop this back around to slashbaiting in general, it's for these reasons I'm not keen on what Teen Wolf is doing with Derek and Stiles. They get a big pass from me, though, because the show has an actual gay character in Danny who has been shown (albiet briefly) to be in a gay relationship, and he's about as rounded as every other secondary character, and they've had scenes set in gay bars and gay dudes making out in the background of party scenes and whatnot. They treat homosexuality as normal on that show, and they never use gay panic humour. That's far more progressive to me than the shenanigans of having a paralysed Stiles fall on top of a paralysed Derek.

[lastrega]

What she said. Too much of the time it's "Pretend gay is HILARIOUS but real gay is R-rated and will scare the kiddies" kinda bullshit, which is actually Not Cool.

[erilyn]

I've found the show itself comparatively unproblematic in terms of slashbaiting, it's mostly just been stuff external to the show from showrunner and cast that has me concerned (eg my icon).

[shinetheway]

I think...okay, this may not make sense, but...I agree with you that I don't like that it's a joke played for laughs, but I think a joke played for laughs is better than a secret shameful subtext that may never dare mention its name.

"Gay" is gaining the same kind of acceptance as a descriptor as "geeky" or "neat freak" or "strong and silent type" or, I don't know, "smart alec" as a way to describe (and have fun with/poke fun at) a character's presentation on a show. I don't think that's GOOD, absolutely not. But in the grand scheme of things, I do think it's BETTER. It's a step in the right direction. And when it comes to civil rights and these sorts of media depictions reflecting the culture that created them, I hate it but I'm an incrementalist. In ten years, twenty years, thirty years, gay has already gone from taboo to subtext to minor characters to major characters to entire shows to major storylines. In another ten, twenty, thirty years there will be more and more Real Gay People Leading Real Complex Gay Lives and less and less slashbaiting (or, to put it a slightly different and somewhat more positive way, Look How Harmless Gay Is! And How Hilarious! Do You REALLY Have A Problem With It? Didn't Think So).

To sum: do I like that RDJ and JL played the drag scene for laughs? Not really. Although I'm somewhat mollified by a) they played the dance scene absolutely [cough] straightfaced, and b) so did the entire rest of the ballroom. But do I like a drag scene played for laughs more than Starsky and Hutch-levels of emotional constipation where the homoerotic subtext was treated by TPTB as a rather shameful reason that people watched the show, where TPTB couldn't afford to lose it but they couldn't bear to openly acknowledge it? Yes. Definitely.