commerciallyqueer-blog

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QUEER TERMINOLOGY

Queer: In the simplest sense queerness is a sexual orientation outside of heterosexuality or heteronormative themes.

Queer Coding: When media uses a collection of mostly subtextual signifiers that point to queerness. These signifiers are often based on stereotypes since they’re easily identifiable to audiences. However, they’re coded enough for them to slip through the heteronormative cracks.

Queer Baiting: When media uses queer coding so that queer viewers will become more interested in the media (usually motivated by financial gain). This practice almost always hints at queer characters and queer representation and then abandons queer storylines. (A Brief History of Subtext)

Compositional Match: This term comes from film theory, it means that when put side by side images reveal that they’re made almost exactly the same. It will be referred to in short as a “match”.

*It’s important to note that almost all of queer representation or coding in media is white.

*A lot of this queer coding is also done is some way that is meant to elicit laughter or another response as if it’s humorous. This is a way of seeing queerness and dismissing it as laughable and invalid.

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Origins of Queer coding and The effects

Between 1930-1968 the Hays Code was made to dictate what could be depicted in Hollywood films (a set of moral rules) This code stated that discussions or depictions of homosexuality were forbidden. In order to go around this set of rules films were forced to subtly suggest that a character may be queer without ever outright stating this.

These subtle signals were often queer stereotypes, to suggest a man may be queer they may be depicted as effeminate, fashion forward, have a higher pitched voice or an aversion to physical activity.

Queer coding is often used when depicting villains:

Disney is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to Queer coded villains

Jafar in Aladdin, Ursula in The Little Mermaid and Scar in The Lion King are all examples of disney’s queer coded villains, while Jafar and Scar are both averse to physical activity and prefer to use manipulative ways to get what they want, Ursula is stereotyped as the “man hating lesbian”

Ursula is modeled after real life drag queen, Divine. She is depicted as wanting nothing to do with men, loud mouthed, aggressive and angry. She is also depicted as very fat which is often a stereotype that Queer women are assigned in order to appear “butch”. 

This video on queer coded villains gives a more in depth explanation as to why this is problematic

Examples of queer coding often used:

-Flamboyant attitudes and actions in men

-Queer men are often coded as very knowledgeable of fashion (the suggestion here being that a man who does anything stereotypically “feminine” is Queer which ties into a common trope of misogyny in Hollywood)

-Loud and obnoxious (ties back into flamboyant)

-Angry at the world (often seen in villains who are vengeful because they never fit in/were othered, much like LGBT people)

-Sassy Lazy/weak (seen in coding queer men, to show the difference between them and the muscular, strong hero)

-Appearance alone is also often used to represent Queer characters, The coding in looks that often represent queer change quite often.

-In the past short hair, larger more muscular women and smaller, thinner men were meant to represent queer people

-Nose rings and colorful dyed hair were also at one point used to subtly hint that a character may be queer, while this coding is still occasionally used it has become less common since the colorful hair and nose ring trend has become more mainstream and been adopted by non queer people.

-Despite recent strides in LGBT representation and the addition of more outwardly queer characters and queer storylines (Think Moonlight, Love, Simon, Call Me by Your Name, Blue is the Warmest Color etc) Queer coding is still prevalent and often leads to Queerbaiting, this is especially relevant when looking at television shows and other forms of creative media, such as youtube.

Television shows with queer baiting

Supernatural

Riverdale

This video explains in depth the problem with queer baiting particularly on television shows

One of the most prevalent examples of queerbaiting in other forms of media is queerbaiting (using coding) on youtube:

 Dan Howell and Phil Lester are Youtube personalities and best friends whose relationship with one another and their channels are often used when discussing queer baiting. The two men Dan (26) and Phil (31) have worked together for years and have lived together since 2011. The idea of two men living together for several years and working so closely with one another has sparked a lot of rumors that the two are with each other romantically and are more than friends. While Dan and Phil have consistently refused to address these rumors or denied them, they do often play along and make jokes about their alleged relationship. These jokes along with their occasional pandering to their audience of mostly queer kids (writing fanfiction about themselves, making jokes about being domestic or married) has caused a lot of controversy surrounding fans accusing the two of queerbaiting to make money. 

It’s always tricky discussing queer coding and queerbaiting when the subjects of the discussion are real people. These are not characters in a show and thus it is harder to critique their behavior as they have lives outside of what the public or their fan base sees and it could very well be that they are together and are trying to keep that part of their lives separate. However, even if they are trying to keep their personal relationship with one another private, many believe that their jokes about their “domestic” relationship and their SIMS series where they have a sim that they call their son is pandering to an audience that is looking for queer representation in not only media but in real life. 

Dan and phil are not the only youtubers who have been accused of queerbaiting  Youtubers Joe Sugg, Ricky Dillon and  Luke Cutforth have all been accused one way or another of Queerbaiting in order to reach a more queer audience. 

Queerbaiting is inherently insidious because it takes advantage of and plays on the emotions of actual LGBTQ+ audiences who are desperately looking for some form of representation for themselves however something good has come out of certain queerbaiting situations, that being fandom culture. 

Many queer fans have formed communities around media that uses queer coding and queerbaiting, in these communities they create fanfiction, video edits and whole character arcs around these characters being queer, effectively taking what the actual creators refuse to make canon and making it for themselves, giving themselves the representation that the creators manipulated them into believing they would get. These communities gain traction and become very strong, they give young queer audiences a space that they feel safe in, a place to represent themselves effectively taking the form of media that manipulated them and creating a safe space out of it. This reclaiming of media that was marketed to appeal to and manipulate queer audiences is one of the only ways in which queer baiting has had a positive effect on queer audiences. 

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Queer Media Representation Impact — Case Study 1: Pop Girs & Kissing “Girls”

This ambitious single was clearly made for the purposes of having a successful commercial impact. The song has received far more criticism than praise.

Rita Ora is the lead artist, but Charli XCX, Bebe Rexha, and Cardi B have features, all singing problematic lyrics that fetishize LGBTQ romantic attraction.

The song is inspired by Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl”. Even Katy Perry admits she would re-write lyrics of that song to include bisexuality and fluidity given the opportunity.

Prior to the songs released, when asked if she identified as bisexual, Rita said “I think that’s very narrow-minded. I don’t think that’s what the record is. I don’t think that even matters…yeah”

Interestingly enough, a lyric she sings on the track is “I’m 50/50 and I’m never gonna hide it”

https://youtu.be/mdWcaWBxxcY

There are nine credited writers on “Girls.” Rita Ora & Cardi B are the only women on the writing team. Is it obvious?

Notable horrible lyrics include: “Last night, yeah, we got with a dude/I saw him he was looking at you”, which implies that the same sex attractions being explored in the song are only because of a man.

As well as “Now I can be your lipstick just for one night”, which very much so trivializes the lesbian identity.

Finally, the chorus: “Sometimes I just wanna kiss girls, girls, girls/red wine I just wanna kiss girls, girls, girls.” Because apparently same sex attraction only occurs with the consumption of alcohol.

Quite a few female artists who identify has LGBTQ+ have released statements on the harmful implications the song has.

Besides Kiyoko, Kehlani (who recently worked with Card B) criticized the song; “ and don’t make this personal.i have an incredible song out with one of the artists, and would love to work with the other three as well. & have met them all and respect them. there. were. harmful. lyrics. period. love y’all.”

Cardi B has frequently been criticized for being anti-LGBTQ. She has made several transphobic statements and has defended the usage of homophobic slurs.

On the other hand, Charli XCX has used her popularity numerous times to support queer voices in music.

But, other stars on this single don’t seem to value LGBTQ perspectives and are merely trying to cash in on identities that aren’t theirs.

Rita Ora has apologized for the harmful lyrics: “I have strived to be a contributor for the LGBTQ+ community my entire career and always will be.”

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Case Study #2: Do We Love “Simon”?

The first Hollywood studio film in which gay romance is at the center.

Decent box office performance and well reviewed; it holds a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.

https://youtu.be/n1vVmKwOJgM

Is this merely Hollywood’s idea of what a gay coming out narrative should be? Was it made out of good intention as honest depiction of young same-sex love?

While all in all it is an enjoyable positive film, there are certainly some aspects of it that are worth unpacking.

While the film is a gay romance, actual gay romance takes a back-seat to Simon’s coming out narrative.

The New Yorker notes there is a quite a “chaste” aspect to the film. Wholesomeness and queerness don’t exactly go hand in hand. ““Love, Simon” keeps its protagonist more firmly in check, hewing safely to the heterosexual values of teen romantic comedies, all the while earning Fox its promotional crown of backing “the first mainstream gay teen movie.”

There are only two same sex kisses in the film.

When Simon gives monologues, he’s meant to ease confusion and discomfort around gayness. The “I’m just like you” mantra is frequently implemented.

The character of Simon represents “homonormativity” — basically meaning more masculine and straight-passing.

Is the film perhaps femme-phobic? This argument can be made in relation to another gay character in the film; Ethan, who’s character to have way more potential to shine.

Jacob Tobia of the New York Times writes: “"For over a decade, the unspoken rule of gay cinema and television has been that gay men can be sexy protagonists — as long as they are masculine gay men (...) Feminine or gender-nonconforming gay men, on the other hand, are desexualized comedic relief....As a genderqueer kid who has always been too femme for my own good, I found Ethan to be the only character in the film I could relate to. And he is relegated to narrative obscurity for most of the movie. He is a sideshow, a subtle foil to show how palatable and masculine Simon is. He is the narratively irrelevant queen to Simon’s well-adjusted gay boy. Simon’s palatability hinges in large part on Ethan’s presence, and the film never really does anything to acknowledge that.A message that gay young people receive throughout our adolescence is that you need to be the “right type of gay” — masculine, not flamboyant, a man’s man — to be respected, to be affirmed by your family or to be romantically desirable. These messages hurt. They sting. They linger. And they don’t end with adolescence, evidenced by the many online dating profiles proclaiming “no fats, no femmes.”

This film is certainly valuable, but is a key example of what “commercially queer” is.

Hopefully, we will see more mainstream Hollywood films where more diverse queer identities are explored.

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Sherlock and John since the books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have been read as gay. The 2010 BBC series takes it a step further. The 2010 series explores what Sherlock Holmes would be like if he were alive today. Throughout the series, we see hints at John and Sherlock being together romantically. Nevermind that all the surrounding characters refer to them as a couple within the show. This article goes through some of the craziest queerbaiting moments from the show.

A good portion of these moments has to do with the savior complex. The savior complex in a relationship is when one person feels the need to save the other as a demonstration of love. It sets up the dynamic of one person being the hero and the other being the victim. In Sherlock, John is often having his life threatened, so Sherlock is constantly putting himself into situations to save him- like fake his own death and put himself into kidney failure all to somehow save John.

In Sherlock, a lot of the queer coding in through silence, many of the scenes that tell us Sherlock and John are together are long meaningful looks or cheeky visual scans of one another.

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Another scene from Supernatural; in this scene, Castiel tells Dean that he will follow a destiny where he will eventually fight his brother in a holy war. This scene, in particular, has a set of queer coding that is more nuanced.

Although the show focuses on biblical themes throughout, this scene is one that can be compositionally matched to a queer outing experience. Dean is directly saying that his biblical “destiny” isn’t meant for him. He goes on to try to explain to Castiel that just because it’s said in the bible doesn’t mean that it’s true. The idea of defying the biblical rules or destiny is one we often see in queer narratives since many anti-queer arguments come from the bible.

Dean also refers to the bible as a way to “keep me and you in line” which can be matched to the idea of heteronormative social norms.

Dean then says that “people and families” are what’s real, and asks why Castiel would let them be damned and burn for existing. A match to people saying that queer people are people and deserve life.

Castiel then says that Dean is confused (commonly used phrasing towards queer existence) and that in heaven he will be forgiven and at peace. A match to people who say that queer people should live life in a heteronormative fashion and will be forgiven in heaven.

Dean then explains that he’d rather have pain and guilt than follow his “destiny”. A match to a queer person saying they will continue to be queer.

Dean starts to bring up that Castiel said he would help him, and that because of religious pressure he’s now alienating Dean. Dean then mentions “Bible Camp” which can be read as a reference to Christian gay conversion camps (which still exist).

When Castiel thinks about it he says they will be hunted, which is a match to gay conversion camps not working, and their queerness to continue to be ridiculed. To which Dean says it’s something worth dying for. A match to any queer rights movements.

Dean also repeats “We’re Done” which can also be read as almost a breakup. This scene can be read as a match the break up between characters Louis Ironson and Joe Pitt from Angels in America (a breakup between two gay characters one who is a practicing very religious conservative Mormon and one who’s liberal).

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This scene has brothers Sam and Dean Winchester. The brothers are trying to contact the angel Castiel who they are friends with. Sam describes trying to contact Castiel over and over, however when Dean calls he shows up on his first try.

Castiel appears and when Sam suggests that Castiel likes Dean more, Castiel replies that he and Dean share a more “profound” bond directly hinting at something more intimate.

After Castiel proclaims their profound bond Dean makes a face. Castiel follows up with “I wasn’t going to mention it” as if there’s something to hide. This suggests that Dean wasn’t comfortable telling his brother about it, which continues to point at intimacy. 

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This scene includes James Bond and his villain Silvia. From the character Silvia we get a lot of queer coding.

We assume Silvia is gay firstly by his dress. Well dressed with the top buttons open which are a longtime queer code.

Then the voice, which the audience reads a feminine because of the pitch and tones being higher, which we associate with femininity. The thought process is feminine man = gay man.

Lastly the physical actions towards Bond which unlike the last two is explicit.

Although we automatically assume that Silvia is gay- the queerbaiting comes when Bond suggests he’s been with men before. This encourages queer viewers to not only support the James Bond series but also look for more hints at queerness throughout the movie. This gives queer people a stake in the movie- which can easily make a fan.

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Rizzoli & Isles has become a show most infamous for the lesbian tension that fans and most publications have noticed. It has been described by AfterEllen as “the gayest nongay show on television.” 

In this interview clip, Angie Harmon, who plays detective Jane Rizzoli, explains how she portrays her character and why. In her explanation, she describes her character as a tomboy because of her job. Her character doesn’t have time to worry about her nails or make up. But her explanation doesn’t really deny the chemistry that the fans and even the interviewer notice between Rizzoli and Isles. 

In this promo of the Rizzoli & Isles season premiere, we see how they are the “perfect match” for each other.  With this type of promo, it shows that the series producers seems to be okay with the sexual chemistry between its two stars and playing it up for the audience. 

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In these two scenes, we see how Rizzoli and Isles’s friendship is played up.  

Writer Janet Tamaro previously told TV Guide that “The lesbian theory endlessly amuses me, and it amuses the cast. Rizzoli and Isles have been heterosexual from the first episode, though there is no way I would want to interfere with my viewers' fantasy lives.” In other words, they are very aware of the type of fan base they are attracting. They are using queer coding in order to keep these fans watching. They use just enough coding to imply that yes they may say gay things and act in gay ways but that’s because they’re such good friends. 

Rizzoli would immediately give up her kidney for Isles over her own brothers. And again, this joke about them being the perfect match for each other is used to describe. 

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Case Study 3: Beronica, Blossom, Keller, & Jughead

Riverdale aims to be a splashy socially progressive     take on the Archie comics. In many ways, it is. 

For example, Betty &  Veronica aren’t competing for Archie’s affections; they’re best-friends  who would choose each other over Archie. 

Fans have been vocally upset regarding queer baiting on the show since before it premiered.

Some promo material hinted at a romantic relationship between Betty & Veronica, they share a kiss in the Pilot after all. But the kiss is merely meant for shock value (or lack thereof).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=27&v=RI4ZXuL7P3E

Lili Reinhart (who plays Betty) controversially explained: “They’re soulmates in a friends’ way. Our show is not meant to be fan fiction, we give them a taste of it when they kiss, but that’s all it is. People love Beronica and they want to see them together, but that’s just not our show.”

 Series cast member Sharon Purser (Stranger Things’ Barb) received a crash course in the effects of queer-baiting from fans of the series online.

A main character on the series is Kevin Keller, a sexually liberated gay teen. 

The show has used “GBF”  stereotypes with Kevin. In the first episode Veronica meets Kevin, and before he can introduce himself, she says “you are gay, thank god.”

While Kevin is a fun character, there isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking about him in  terms of media representation; he’s a hunky muscle twink with sassy one  liners. 

The show recently added the character of bisexual Toni, who is now romantically linked to the main character of Cheryl Blossom, which has been positively received.

In the Archie comics,Jughead Jones is asexual and that is a very important identity for him.

On the CW, Jughead is a     straight man attracted to Betty Cooper. 

Seeing asexual     representation on a show like this would be groundbreaking. Quite often,  asexual people are left out of queer discussions. 

The series creator,  Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, has said the show may explore Jughead asexuality, but this is now unlikely, considering Cole Sprouse has emerged as a major sex symbol. 

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Troye Sivan’s “My My My!” video and live performances have been met with praise for just how openly queer the mainstream pop is.

Sivan just released the titular track “Bloom” off his upcoming release. The song is 100% about bottoming.  

An example of coding and baiting used positively. 

This pop anthem and video is a great representation of queer liberation.  

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Commercial queerness of the future...

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