Queerbating: What it is and is not
By Ava Piliang
Queerbating is a common pop culture term that is used to describe a person onThe term queerbaiting refers to the practice of implying non-heterosexual relationships or attraction (in a TV show, for example) to engage or attract an LGBTQ audience or otherwise generate interest without ever actually depicting such relationships or sexual interactions. (1) For Example, if 2 same-sex people are heavily suggested to be in a relationship but are never explicitly said to be in a relationship. Another example of queerbaiting, is when a straight actor plays a gay charecter, For example in the 1999 film ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ where a cisgendered actress Hilary Swank plays a trans man named Brandon Teena (2). This is where things start to get blurr because, when actors who has not explicitly disclosed sexuauality, the actor often gets accused of queerbating as they are assumed to be straight. Aftyer the actor gets aaccused of queerbaating, two things can happe. First, the actor could ignore the accusations, and second, the actor could be forced to come out and defend the character that they play. The second senario above is the most damaging for the actor and the character that they play alike. This is because if an actor is assumed to be straight but is forced to come out through accusationions of queerbating it can not only greatly alter thier professional carrer, whether its facing backlash from their management or fans or causing harm to current projects because of the press regarding thier sexuality. The second senario discussed above can also greatly impact the actors personal life as the actor may not be out personally and the public accusations of queerbating can for an actor to come out privately which can harm that actors relationships privately, something that can be extremely damaging to a persons mental heath. While it is important to make sure that charecters are getting accurately represented on TV, it is also important to recognize that gender ands sexuality are not black and white and that it is extremely imporant to recognized that gender andv sexuality are fluid things and to respect an actors right to come out when they choos, instead of bullying them into coming out before they are ready.
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