#queercatching

[03josten]

if ur gonna queerbait in the 2020s u need to queercatch too. if u air a 27 season tv show where two people of the same gender are clearly in love and lust with each other but NEVER so much as kiss and you engage with the shipping fandom behind the scenes then you NEED to follow through with an r rated spin off movie where those two characters get down and dirty for 112 minutes. u can donate the profit to like the trevor project or whatever. i refuse to let baiting be profitable anymore . do another trick

[informedisneylgbt]

Marketing, queercoding y queercatching

Haciendo el informe encontré una y mil veces revistas, páginas y videos promocionando “el primer personaje gay de Disney”. Queerbaiting es una técnica de marketing en la que los creadores insinúan, pero en realidad no representan, una representación LGBT+. Y Queercatching es una confirmación de una persona queer por fuera de la pantalla, sin representarla realmente en pantalla. Nos vendieron La bella y la bestia prometiendo que era abiertamente gay y que la película tenía un momento gay, que terminó siendo un baile entre dos chicos sin diálogos. Al igual que con Unidos, en la que si reemplazaban la A de novia por la O acababa la representación. Es agotador que cada cierto tiempo salgan titulares de “primer momento/personaje gay/LGBT+ en Disney”, para que encima terminen siendo representaciones mínimas e invisibles, que sea alguien de fondo que tenemos que entender como gay porque se viste o actúa “como mujer”. Y también que tengamos que buscar y especular para vernos representadxs, o esperar por insinuaciones en los últimos capítulos. En este punto ya es común para la comunidad que las empresas intenten lavar su imagen y vender más a costa nuestra, de forma momentánea e hipócrita para “el mes del orgullo”, porque no es un apoyo verdadero o significativo. Si de verdad se intentara apoyar al colectivo la empresa intentaría una mejor representación, un mayor apoyo a sus trabajadorxs e historias LGBT+ y a organizaciones de beneficio para la comunidad.

Es horrible sentir que el mensaje que nos dan con estas “representaciones” es de pensar en incluir a la comunidad, pero no creer que sea lo suficientemente importante para incluirlo de verdad. Que lo que hacen es suficiente sobre el tema, porque no hay nada importante que aportar. Sentir que lxs creadorxs dicen “para mí esto es un personaje queer, nada más y nada menos, porque así es la comunidad, de apoyo, secundaria. Y no nos incluye, no nos identifica, no nos pertenece, no somos eso.”

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

I'm rewatching Teen Wolf to see if the queerbaiting was that bad and with six years of separation it's not as terrible in some aspects, worse in others.

The shows biggest weakness is the reliance on increasingly bananas plotlines, the inconsistent world and character building (Derek is 19 in the first season, 24 in the third), and its inability to hold onto actors.

The characters are strong though. The narrative allows parents to be people rather than archetypes, and Lydia discovering she's a Banshee is inspired and unique. It just— it doesn't know what to do with all those character threads and even Scott becomes a plot-puppet.

The story shines when it doesn't get too concerned with pairing off its mains into neat heteronormativity and actually takes interesting risks with character development. It needed to keep its pulse on the characters as the heart of the story because, unfortunately, the plot beats become way too erratic to keep audience interest without emotional investment.

The queercatching though...

It's still egregious but without BTS baiting it feels like Stiles has another— mostly unrequited— crush. Which is fair. They're fast and loose with Derek's age but he sees Scott and Stiles as kids at the beginning (who can blame him, with his past) and they are.

I'm not saying the show wouldn't, it absolutely would and has (only no one comments when it's a minor girl with a 23 or 223 year old supernatural man), I just don't think Derek would. Even if he gets himself reasonably together enough to acknowledge his feelings for Stiles are complicated and difficult to elucidate (which they are because of the queerbaiting), he'd let Stiles grow up without putting voice to it.

Stiles's bisexuality though.

The fact this is hinted at as strongly as it is within the text to the bitter end and is never fully realised fills me with a complicated anger, difficult to elucidate.

Other observations:

- Lydia is a bi magnet and maybe polyamorous. (And I'm also still completely in love with her).

- Scott is a better protagonist than I remember. Soft and sweet and imperfect. Low-key bi. (There's a reason he and Stiles find such a kinship).

- I still dislike all the Argents. They're fascists and you can't convince me otherwise.

- Jackson was a really fun asshole. Unrepentantly terrible, humorously so without being comically evil, vulnerable when needed, and a great foil for Scott and Stiles. Strong actor.

- There are many moments where it could be said Stiles has a crush on Derek (and Scott), but it's the last episode that's the linch for me. Him imagining himself as Derek's hero with BI emblazoned clearly on his chest. I mean. Come on.

- Derek's entire character; his emotionality, his journey, his expression... It deserved more careful building. Moments of lightness, time and space to work through the everest of pain the writing kept heaping onto him.

- I wish all the highschool characters were in university. The actors playing Scott and Stiles are 19 at shows start and they're the only ones passing as teenagers. It'd make some of the plotlines less uncomfortable too.

- Teen Wolf is both misogynistic and heteronormative but also queer and fleshes out its female characters in ways irregular for 2010s tv.

- Boyd should have had a backstory. So too should have Braeden. Industry racism is evident in how they're treated. Also, Scott and Derek should be informed by their culture rather than 'ambiguously brown' and 'read as white' (respectively).

- Kira is Scott's best love interest.

[faersflower]

Hi my name is Key and I just feel like there aren't enough people talking about queercatching and the literal pinnacle example of this in Queliot from SyFy's The Magicians. In this tedTalk I will be ⁠—

[takaraphoenix]

I think that Supernatural now has the unique opportunity of coining a new fandom term, because... there isn’t really a word for what they did; not to my knowledge at least.

Queerbaiting is, very distinctively, the act of queer-coding a dynamic between two on-screen heterosexual characters and making a profit off the shippers while at no point having any intention of ever actually making either of them queer, much less dropping the “b” from their bromance. That’s the whole point of queerbaiting; refusing the queer. By making Castiel queer in the end, regardless of how badly it was handled, it kind of disqualified itself from being queerbaiting anymore.

But that doesn’t make it any less bad!

Queercatching is a variation of this, where they give you the gay, but only a little bit of gay. Supernatural would be that if Dean had actually returned the feelings, said “I love you too” and shared one last passionate kiss with Castiel before Cas went to Super Hell. They gave you the ship, but like... only a little bit, so you can’t say they baited you, because it did happen on screen! But they also really didn’t give you representation either, they didn’t give you a queer storyline or a proper relationship. However, Dean didn’t return the feelings, there was no kiss, no holding hands while soulfully gazing at each other one last time five seconds before the show ended.

There should be a term for one-sided canon, for half-assing the queercatching, for saying “look! you were right with this one... but not the other, let us drive home how very heterosexual the other one is and how very not returned the feelings are”. Many, many franchises do that - the tragic queer character who falls hopelessly in love with the very, very heterosexual protagonist. It’s cringey af, all the time.

Sure, most queers have such experiences of crushing on, or being in love with, a straight person at one point in their life, but... mirroring reality and the actual queer experience is not the goal of these storylines. These storylines aren’t about the queer character usually; they center very firmly around the straight guy, because it’s generally his story. The queer character is always a very vital and useful part to the straight character’s plotline, helping him out in huge ways, being a big support, both emotionally and in the fight. And they did it because they were hopelessly in love with the straight protagonist, as it turns out. They served a purpose in the story and that purpose is the straight lead.

These storylines, I’ve never come across them with two characters of equal rank in the storytelling; the straight character is always a more important main character, the titular protagonist, something like that.

In really bad cases, they come off as “look at that saint of a straight protagonist! how non-homophobic he is for handling that confession so well!”, usually (unlike here!), followed by “and now I can write off the gay character into his endgame gay romance”, to be done with that. They never really focus on the queer character overcoming the heartbreak, or on them both dealing with the awkward aftermath of a love-confession, they just move on and that’s what makes it feel so very dishonest. Because it’s not actually about the queer character’s feelings; otherwise we would also deal with the aftermath of rejection and with their emotions. We just move on from it, with the narrative on the straight character.

I’ve seen this plotline so often by now, but honestly, Supernatural really outdid themselves there by adding the Bury Your Gay and sending him to Super Hell, while the straight guy goes to heaven, never actually has to go through that emotional journey I just mentioned always is missing - the dealing with the feelings - instead, it all is just dismissed. And they even got to skip out on putting the queer character into a new romance to be done with him, they just got rid of him completely after he served the straight protagonist’s plot (by saving him; this time and many times before).

I’d love for the term “they sent the character to Super Hell” to catch on in fandom for this particular way of having a queer character confess to a straight character, who has no intentions of returning the feelings, and then just moving on from the confession like nothing happened. Not just in the way it is right now kind of a meme and a joke, but as an... actual lasting fandom term. That should be Supernatural’s legacy. I really hope it sticks around for that purpose.

[deadlydelicious]

Queliot and Queercatching

So in relation to the ‘is Queliot queer bait if they have confirmed sexualites?’ issue we’re all talking about, there’s a term called ‘queer catching’ that I think I ran cross in a Rowan Ellis vid, which is really appropriate for what’s happening to A LOT of ‘queer’ characters right now

Unlike Queerbaiting, queer catching is where characters are confirmed to be on the queer spectrum by creators or even in universe by self declaration, evidence of past relationships, or brief flirtations with same sex extras. However they are never shown in universe as experiencing full relationships, where both them and their partner are seen on screen as romantically interested in one another, or are fully fleshed out characters who experience a ‘romance arc’, or where one gets fridged soon into the relationship.

It’s sort of like ‘they’re gay...but not too gay’

So think Shiro’s from Voltrons only partners being a fridged flashback relationship, and an epilogue freeze frame marriage

Or Dumbledore and Grindlewald being confirmed gay by word of god, but not a word being a said about it in canon

Or La Fou dancing with a man in the background of the ballroom

The goal is to attract queer fans, or even just general young fans, with the appearance of being socially aware and LGBT friendly, but not so LGBT friendly as to alienate straight fans and executives. It leaves them patting themselves on the back for representation, and us crawling for scraps

So is having a confirmed gay character and a confirmed bi character who previously have had sex and were shown to be in a domestic partnership during a one episode montage, and then killing off said bi character before they get together queerbaiting? No not really

But you can bet your ass it’s queer catching, and it’s just as sinister

[gwydionmisha]

The Evolution Of Queerbaiting: From Queercoding to Queercatching

[kevinssecretplace4546]

If I'm watching the Magicians, what's the best place for me to stop? (I'm already at the end of season one, it's too late for me. I started watching and THEN found out about the queerbaiting.)

Hi there @the-pixie-with-seven-faces

Ah, this is a really hard question.

Having been spoiled on the queercatching maybe you can watch it and still be fine? I’m guessing you know how season 4 ends?

Possible it hurts less when you have less expectations? 

And I know there are people who are totally fine with the ending of s4, sad but fine, and still loving the show. I mean in the Physical kids weekly podcast they talked about season 5 being the strongest season yet. And I think, had I not had the hopes for a happy queer romance and feeling betrayed by the writers I would probably still enjoy season 5. maybe…

If you want to stop before it all falls apart I’d say watch until 4x10? it was the last 3 episodes of season 4 where it really started going wrong imo. 4x10 is an amazing episode!

Anyone else wanna weigh in on where one possibly should stop watching The Magicians??

[musical-theatre-encyclopedia]

"The Evolution of Queerbaiting: from Queercoding to Queercatching"

[themagiciansotp]

Summer Bishil acknowledging the fact that no one liked The Magicans season finale. When the cast have to apologize for the writing, you know somethings wrong.

[rowanellis]

presenting: my magnum opus

The Evolution Of Queerbaiting: From Queercoding to Queercatching

including all your favourites like: every Disney villain ever, Destiel, Valkyrie, Johnlock, Sterek, Le Fou, Sulu, the Yellow Power Ranger, and more!

[stele3]

The Evolution Of Queerbaiting: From Queercoding to Queercatching

[faersflower]

I can barely see my dashboard rn but seriously can we drop bury your gays, and queerbaiting, queercatching, biphobia, racism, straight up homophobia, being vague about characters sexualities so that some people on the internet can still argue that the Very Obviously Bi Character you Killed Off A Year Ago was Actually Straight Somehow, and all other likenesses behind now? I'm tired.

[iztrumy]

this isn’t queerbaiting y’all this is full on queercatching they fucking GOT US!!!! FUCK THEM THEY REALLY FUCKING DID!!!!!!!

[akui-chan]

The Evolution Of Queerbaiting: From Queercoding to Queercatching

This is honestly a good video explaining a lot of the things, that i have seen being debated on this platform in the resent week.