Queerbaiting

The cast and crew of Sherlock have consistently denied that the relationship between the titular detective and his flatmate is intended to be seen as romantic. Critics have called the depiction queerbaiting.[1][2][3][4]

Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but do not depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ+ representation.[5] The purpose of this method is to attract ("bait") a queer or straight ally audience with the suggestion or possibility of relationships or characters that appeal to them,[6] while not alienating homophobic members of the audience or censors by actually portraying queer relationships.[6]

Queerbaiting has been observed in popular culture and fiction such as films, television series, books, music, ads, various forms of media, but also in celebrities who convey an ambiguous sexual identity through their works and statements.[7] The term arose in and has been popularized through discussions in Internet fandom[8] since the early 2010s.[9] It comes from a larger history of LGBTQ+ discourse in media representation dating back to the 1970s from subtle marketing to LGBTQ+ people through commercials and books.[10]

  1. ^ Romano, Aja (26 April 2013). ""Sherlock" fans lash out over sunken JohnLock ship". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  2. ^ Steven Moffat talk about JohnLock and Season 3 & 4 (YouTube video). 13 May 2013. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  3. ^ Bridges, Rose (26 June 2013). "How Do We Solve A Problem Like "Queerbaiting"?: On TV's Not-So-Subtle Gay Subtext". Autostraddle. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  4. ^ Scout, Emmett (19 June 2013). "Please Do Not Bait the Queers". The Next. University of Washington. Archived from the original on 30 December 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  5. ^ Harrad, Kate (2018-10-05). Claiming the B in LGBT: Illuminating the Bisexual Narrative. Thorntree Press LLC. ISBN 9781944934613. Archived from the original on 2023-11-25. Retrieved 2021-02-13.
  6. ^ a b Fathallah, Judith (2014-07-17). "Moriarty's Ghost". Television & New Media. 16 (5): 490–500. doi:10.1177/1527476414543528. S2CID 145508280.
  7. ^ Ritschel, Chelsea (9 April 2019). "What is queer-baiting and why do celebrities do it?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  8. ^ Nordin, Emma (1 January 2015). From Queer Reading to Queerbaiting: The battle over the polysemic text and the power of hermeneutics (Master's thesis). Stockholm University. Archived from the original on 3 December 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  9. ^ Honderich, Holly (8 April 2019). "Queerbaiting - exploitation or a sign of progress?". BBC. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  10. ^ Waggoner, Erin B. (2018-11-10). "Bury Your Gays and Social Media Fan Response: Television, LGBTQ Representation, and Communitarian Ethics". Journal of Homosexuality. 65 (13): 1877–1891. doi:10.1080/00918369.2017.1391015. ISSN 0091-8369. PMID 29023204. S2CID 26208120.