#yall do not know what queerbait means

[cringefaildiaz]

listen yall buddie could never go canon and its just not fucking queer bait. even if there were nary another queer couple in sight on the show. there is just nothing about their interactions that demand romantic follow through, and nothing about ANY of their promo materials or social media postings that even IMPLY romantic follow through is coming

[texasbama]

Starting to feel like queerbait allegations are quiet now that Buck is bi, but they’re still baiting with all that clickbait articles, talking about buddie in every interview somehow. Why not talk about the newly canon relationship more?

While I will never say this show is queerbaiting (they never have), in the recent weeks since Buck’s bisexual discovery, I think shipbaiting could maybe be argued.

This onslaught of Buddie coverage in the media is not a coincidence. And while the show can’t control what media outlets do(though there is some string pulling behind the scenes. Trust me) actors can control what they say. And I think we can all agree Oliver in the past few weeks has said some wild shit. Buck being Bi has opened the door for these questions and instead of pivoting, it’s safe to now dip the toe in those waters. The question is, to what extent? How many Buddie sound bites/posts will be made before it’s just like ENOUGH.

And I mean from a marketing standpoint, can you blame him or media outlets? We fall for that shit every time. We click and watch and give them the engagement so.

Idk yall. There are things that skew my opinion on all this that I can’t speak on so I just try to keep it pushin. And I know yall love to get pissy about shit so let me say that I don’t blame Oliver for anything. I have nothing against Bi Buck. These are just things that have been floating around my head over this mini hiatus.

During this hiatus it’s been BuddieBuddieBuddie in these sound bites and headlines, meanwhile they are filming ep 9 and Tommy and Marisol are still very much around. Where are the articles about them?

[jennafur03]

How has the Gay Joke not been made yet?

So it is currently one in the morning while I am writing this, so don't come at me for how bad this is going to be, but I just need to ask: How has nobody made the gay joke yet for Buck and Eddie?

Now listen, I am aware that the gay jokes for guys and girls are vastly different. Like two girls hang around each other all the time and they are just best friends. If two boys hang around each other all the time (eh hem, Buck and Eddie) then it is irregular and therefore gay/bromance.

We all know that Buck and Eddie are pushing the line when it comes to just bromance, so why has the joke not been made?

We have had a few instances of the fourth wall almost being broken---especially by Maddie---as a means to jab at the readers. (Personally, I will never get over the "Are we the last ones to have kids?" like come on.) We have gotten moments like those, but we have yet to get a literal gay joke.

What I mean by a literal gay joke is like someone saying, "You two are basically married, you may as well date." or "Oh my god just kiss already." etc. Now correct me if I am wrong but I can't think of a single moment like that.

Now I know that with my own friends, these jokes are always being made. They are never serious, and they are never meant to be. So it is just so weird that nobody has commented yet.

I saw a post on here that speculated how much of Buck and Eddie's canon relationship the other characters actually know about. Like do they know about the will? Do they know about the constant hanging out outside of work? Because if not that could explain it, but we don't see a lot of what happens in these characters' everyday lives so could we assume that they already know?

Because if they do, where are the jokes from Hen and Chimney? The two are never afraid to tease and laugh at others' expense.

I feel like this whole situation just plays further into my narrative that the writers are queerbaiting. Because sure, they will make small jokes every once in a while, but they haven't made a full gay joke.

If they made a full gay joke the accusations of queerbaiting would go from accusations to facts. So I am saying, the day that we finally get some Buck and Eddie gay jokes in the show I will be expecting Buck and Eddie to go canon.

So yeah, my conclusion is that they haven't made the joke yet because they are too scared to get accused of queerbaiting already.

A/N: Hey guys, thought I would make this super quick to get back into Tumblr! I know it's not much and it's super thrown together, but I kind of like it. But seriously the day I see a super gay joke about Eddie and Buck it is on like donkey kong. I'm gonna immediately assume they are getting together soon. Let me know if yall have any hot takes about Buddie I can comment on because it is like my favorite thing to do! Oh on that note, please don't put any hot takes about the actors, I am not comfortable talking about that. The only thing I would consider doing is "How much of Buddie is the actors and how much is the script?" Something mundane like that. So yeah let me know if you enjoyed please, and have a good night because it is literally one in the morning right now help me god.

[thedevilmademedo1t]

Ive seen some people who are upset over the good omens 2 ending. Understandable. But yall.

Without being too spoilery (who am i kidding everyone has seen it already anyway), they did the thing. The thing that i didnt actually think they were going to do. It made me cry both happy and sad tears at the same time because seeing these two anthropomorphic personifications Do The Thing that means so much to so so many people is astounding and beautiful and ive watched the whole season four times already.

I genuinely never thought that they would do the thing. They expressed their love for eachother through this entire season and i was still gearing up to be disappointed (not queerbaited. I have more faith in Neil Gaiman than that).

The actors are completely serious and respectful about the arc, in fact, theyre happy that this is the direction their characters are going in.

I have spent 20+ years on this earth without seeing the representation that we have had in the past two or three years alone. This adds to that tally, and while i am sad about how the show ended for the season, im so happy as well. And excited for what comes next.

So yes, you may not like the ending. It ended in an awfully sad place. But its still such a step forward in the kind of media that is being produced.

I dont know where exactly i was going with this, but i needed to get it out.

Support queer media- its the only way we’ll get more of it in the future.

[moonlightcookie]

btw seamoon isnt and never was queerbaiting. theyve always been intended to be canon. never have they ever been shown in a specifically platonic light. i promise u they do not need to fuck on screen to not be queerbait. yall Dont know what queerbait means and it shows

[thewickerking]

forgot why i avoid the rwde tag... like i wanted to get other opinions from ppl critiquing rwby bc i do it myself all day long and can surely miss some things and its good to keep ur mind open etc etc.

but somebody said smn along the lines of "if rwby had come out five years earlier i wouldnt claim its as homophobic as it is" (???? awful start) "but rwby came out in 2013. you know what else started airing in 2013?? Steven universe. korrasami become canon in 2014. Something about garnet in 2015. rwby has no excuse" LIKE WHAT.... yall gay marriage wasnt even legalized in the us like....

im not defending the homophobia of cast and crew members behind rwby and whatnot but theres very little homophobia in the actual show (i am not talking about promotional material or queerbait type discussions i just mean the actual show by itself) like theres not nothing, like jaunes man in a dress thing in volume 2 wasnt great and there couldve been a much better introduction of ilia and reveal of her being a lesbian (but ultimately shes like. a misguided teen who makes mistakes and changes for the better in like. a single season) and im sure some other tidbits im missing but like.

rwby isnt super homophobic ??? and saying its only bad cause it came out at the same time as steven universe but wouldve been ok if it was older is so??? bizarre???? like steven universe discourse aside (pls do not send me asks about steven universe) like. steven universe got censored and cut short for being as explicitly gay as it was. hell the owl house is having the same thing done to it right now, several years later.

anyways ive got a long list of issues with rwby i will recite at the slightest inclination someone wants to hear it, but homophobia isnt an issue i have WITH THE SOURCE MATERIAL, EXTERNAL MATTERS ASIDE (thats a whole other can of worms) and its such a footnote compared to other issues

oh also i scrolled a few posts down after quitting reading that post and they wrre having a conversation about someone on twitter posting an image of harley quinn and poison ivy with an editted image of crackers next to them and they said the tweet was ignorant bc of harley being jewish and implied the only reason harley quinn is pale is bc of the toxic chemicals she jumped in like..... shes literally blonde with blue eyes like yes shes jewish but shes still white and jewish people arent a different race.... why would you act like they are and frame it as progressive like. you do realize not considering factually white jewish as white is like. beginners antisemitism talking point..... like im not jewish so please let me know if im overstepping but harley quinn is white and i dont think someone calling her a cracker is suddenly antisemitic (if you disagree i am completely open to listening)

[evermoredeluxe]

Yall need to stop calling Harry Styles a zionist that has literally been the disproven and the only "evidence" was:

Him lifting an Israel flag a fan gave him at a concert asif he doesn't do that with every flag he's ever been given like bffr.

An Israeli fan that asked if he would ever like to go to Israel and he said the basic celeb thing of yes I would, ill love to.

By the time people were calling him a zionist Harry and his mom had already campaigned and donated money to Palestinian children in need after the attacks of Israel. But he never publicized it so nobody ever cared.

It's like calling him queerbaiter when he just refuses to talk about his sexuality or address any rumors of any label (why do we feel entitled to celebrities identities??) Even then he has literally written songs about fucking men what else do people want?

The thing is that he is not the brightest at all. He will say some of the dumbest shit in the world and people will just spin it to mean he's hating chris pine and spitting on him??

Or how he said people like him don't win awards and turned that into what a privileged white boy when he meant that he used to be a fucking cashier at a bakery but went to an audition randomly and now he's a pop star with a grammy. Most people there were born rich or had contacts in the industry before even dreaming of starting a career.

Why can't we hold him accountable to the shit he has actually done like ignoring covid precautions for the sake of traveling and going out? Not wearing his mask properly during the pandemic and starting his tour when covid was still going strong.

We do really need to remeber celebrities are just people

im sorry for the "i support this message" and implying that and edited my original reply too. other than that, im indifferent towards him, and while i have thoughts, idc enough to make comments about him. i know people who love him and im not against them or anything. if you like him, great; if you don't, then you don't.

anyway, i wasn't even gonna reply, but im posting this to reply to the zionist thing.

[diamondcitydarlin]

ok nandermo defeatists, I have some helpful reminders for you!

we don't know anything yet. It's WWDITS so we really don't know anything. Think of all the little clues we've gotten in the past prior to a season airing, all the assumptions one could come to about any of them, and how the show always ends up doing something completely off the wall that no one ever would have guessed. Did yall see Colin collapsing in on himself and becoming a baby? No. In fact as I recall most of the fandom thought he was dead for good (I didn't, so you have to listen to me lol) I haven't forgotten all the assumptions people came to about the glimpse of the casino vow renewal glimpses before we got those and none of them were right in the end.

Season 3 established the groundwork for Nandermo in such a way that they will eventually have to come back around to it, as indeed was their intention. Guillermo being jealous of Gail, Guillermo being confronted by his feelings for Nandor and running away, Nandor believing that he's been stood up by Guillermo without an alternative explanation. All of that is building up to something, just as everything in EVERY SEASON builds up to Nandor and Guillermo having some kind of watershed moment. No this doesn't definitively prove that they'll run off into the sunset together, but it does mean we probably owe more of a benefit of the doubt to the writers, esp at this point

WWDITS is not sherlock or supernatural or any of the shows from the era of queerbait and it is absolutely a false equivalency to compare them. like I understand tumblr fandom is burned from this, but I think it's been long enough now that we can kinda identify where we went wrong in expecting certain shows to deliver on things they clearly were never going to deliver on, and I think we're older and wiser enough now to accept that WWDITS is not cut from the same cloth. Also the fact that open queerness has already been established several times over, so yknow there's that.

we're not even pulling from trailers or screencaps at this point, just press releases and things quoted/explained by journalists that are missing and might have been taken out of context. this isn't a stable enough basis to be making assumptions. I'm having flashbacks to everyone deciding Nandermo was officially over before s3 when we heard about his love quest lol

anyway, all this in mind- no, there is no definitive proof Nandermo will happen, but there's also no definitive proof that it won't. Far from it, in fact. of course, do what is best for you, prepare yourself as you see fit for your own comfort, but I'm throwing this out there for consideration as it does sort of feel like a tradition on tumblr before a new thing comes out to go around convincing each other of disappointment based on crumbs of preliminary info. In some cases I totally get it, but idk I think WWDITS deserves better than that

[incarnateirony]

i fucking wanna know where people get the idea jensens' gonna career suicide by bringing this shit back with a whole gay studio of gay figureheads and gay authors with gay characters and then het up or ignore the confession in 2022-2023 are you fucking high did exposure to pat and kelios give yall brain damage

are you people still not recognizing what I mean when I say this whole fandom discourse has been bent from the jump and yall just now figuring it out?

now go back and unpack that other shit. Start at the years of screaming queerbait at the queer authors fighting their asses off for you and go all the way to realizing how much you let a dozen fry haired middle age incest hags drive you to minimize, diminish, and attack queer content. Most of them don't even look like they've brushed their hair for years or seen the general public even when wandering out at cons and people wanna joust with them like they fucking still matter and greatly inflated hostility via internalized, pavlovian dog whistle response BULLSHIT.

like. sorry. it sucks to face. but do it. do it now.

don't bring that shit into this new place with us. This is our place. We all got trauma but we don't pee in the clubhouse on each other, jesus christ. We finally built this house and Jensen got the best of the best of queer creators and advisors. The fucking talking cat account got it, maybe the people who basically live here should rub their braincells hard enough to catch up to the cat.

[veryhiddenreki]

Why banana fish is not queerbaiting a rant(spoilers ahead) ;

Ive noticed a trend with a certain subsection of fans that keep insinuating Banana Fish queerbaited its audience with AshEiji. Im here to explain to you why thats harmful, incorrect and outright shameful to imply. Examples provided:

First of all, if you went into banana fish expecting it to be a sad “yaoi” anime you have been sorely mistaken, your misunderstanding does not make the show queerbait. Given the circumstances ash was put under its no surprise that it was not going to be a romance driven anime. Second, is your idea of a mlm relationship sorely based on sexualization? Ash’s entire life has been nothing but hell, the fact people expected him to do something sexual to imply he’s inlove with eiji is actually insane, not to mention he doesnt have to kiss nor display physical affection to show he loves someone. Third, its shown through the words spoken and his actions that imply he loves eiji and that eiji loved him back. He trusted eiji enough to let eiji comfort him after the incident in episode 22 when no one else was allowed to go near him. He showed a softer side to eiji, he trusted him enough to let him care for him. In a world that was completely against ash he finally got someone that cared for him and *EXPECTED NOTHING IN RETURN* let me reiterate that, eiji expected NOTHING in return, meaning it is no wonder they didnt do things like explicitly show physical affection. He knew everything about ash, he knew what he went through as a child and how it carried with him to adulthood. Hes been traumatized, hurt, scarred. Instead of kissing, sexual acts and words like “I love you” instead eiji spoke to him with words filled with love, saying he wants to protect him, that their souls are connected that even though they were in constant danger as long as they had each other everything would be fine. In the episode where ash sacrifcied himself to protect eiji he told blanca that for once he is the happiest person in the world because he has someone that he knows truly cares about him. Their love goes past a simple “i love you” their love is deeper than that, their need to constantly be together, to never leave each others sides, to save each other and sacrifice themselves in the face of danger just to see each other survive and thrive. That is what their love is. To imply that any of this was queerbaiting just because they werent on screen constantly kissing and saying I love you is insane. Have yall ever thought maybe that would make a survivor like ash uncomfortable? Or did your fantasies overtake you. Ash and eijis relationship is something so incredibly written, do not let your acephobic and fetishized ideas make you believe any of this was queerbaiting.

[thenon-fictiondays]

ok i know I've never posted anything about this fandom before but i know there's a lot of confusion in the sabikui fandom about who the kid on the cover of volume 8 is and im doing some digging so lemme take yall on a JOURNEY (spoilers for LN obvs)

so I know a lot of people have been hoping that this kid is a Milo-Bisco Iovechild and pointing out stuff like the blue highlights in the kid's hair, and referencing sources saying they raise a child together. This post may come as a bit of a disappointment in some ways particular for the shippers but like....I promise that whatever you're imagining, this is gonna be a wild ride.

so I was looking at some stuff online and came across an article on some of the plot points from the novel according to some of the readers (meaning ofc that the info is only as accurate as the readers' interpretation and translation skills) that Bisco and Pawoo get married and have a kid. Presumably, this kid

given that she looks exactly like Bisco and her name is listed as Akaboshi Sugar. So I was just assuming that she's Bisco and Pawoo's kid and Milo helps Bisco raise her bc.....thats what makes the most sense?? So when the sources said 'Bisco and Milo's child' what they meant was the child that they raise together. BUT. I was talking to my friend about it bc she's the one who dragged me into this fandom, and she found a summary of the volume in jpn. Now, the summary states that Pawoo is pregnant.......but it also explicitly states that Milo delivers a baby. It doesnt just say that they HAVE a kid, it says that Milo gives birth. Cue me and my friend losing our minds.

but wait there's more!

after we're done freaking out in DMs Im going about my day but in my head is just wtf wtf Milo has a baby wtf and then 3 hours later it hits me

yeah, Im dumb. this makes 8000x more sense. (But like....the word the desc used is 出産 and I've never seen that used to describe someone else helping someone to deliver a baby.) My friend and I are debating, she thinks that the kid might belong to the other Akaboshi (sexy dreds lady pictured above), I think its Pawoo's and Bisco's and we got queerbaited hard. My friend does some more digging and finds a reddit thread with commenters saying it actually IS Milo's kid via some kinda mushroom magic. I'm like please god let this be true I want this to be true so bad. but at the same time.....this is still shounen and I'm 99.99% sure society hasnt advanced far enough to allow this level of queerness in shounen. At this point we're like, okay we gotta read the novel and find out wtf is going on. So my friend bought it online and I get to work reading (ok, skimming).

First thing of note: Pawoo is indeed pregnant with Bisco's child...and by child I mean mushroom half-god half-human. Don't ask me what this means or how it works.

Second thing of note: Milo asks Akutagawa for baby names (this actually has nothing to do with anything i just thought it was really cute jdhjsjk)

at this point im like ok cool whatever the mushroom magic probs refers to the apparently super-powered mushroom baby Pawoo is carrying. Except...

Third thing of note: Milo has apparently been experiencing morning sickness. Well, it's not explicitly called morning sickness, but he's been having the same pregnancy symptoms as Pawoo and hasn't been able to find a medical cause. He's also been hiding it from Bisco so as not to worry him. Supposedly, it's a side effect of being imbued by Bisco's life force??

Fourth thing of note: Eventually he's struck with intense stomach pains and yells that there's something in his stomach. At this point I was highkey skimming bc it was very late and I had a headache, but a few pages later a child has appeared.

so.........................................yeah I think Milo just gave birth to Bisco's child

I guess I'm spending my day off doing a closer reading to try to fill in some of these gaps, lmk if anyones interested in an update 😅

[tallladypanda]

I find it very frustrating how people have taken the word " queerbait " and completely thrown its meaning out the window. A word used to describe the misleading of one's audience in order to get views IN FICTION is now used to accuse someone of doing so in real life.

A person CAN NOT queerbait in real life cause no one is entitled to representation through REAL HUMAN BEEINGS. No artist, actor or any public figure for that matter, owes you anything , not regarding their sexuality or their private life.

You have no idea of what someone's battle with their identity is and it is not for you to know unless that person , out of their own will chooses to share that with the world...

So can we please stop using queerbait as an excuse to scrutinise celebrities when they've done nothing wrong ?

Billie Eilish wants to dance with a bunch of girls and have fun in a music video ? So be it I don't fucking care what her sexuality is , and I sure as hell have no right to restrict her of anything bc of that. Harry Styles wants to dance around with pride flags and be feminine ? Well good for him, who am I to stop him from doing so ?

There are no rules to what someone can do /how someone should dress based on who they want to fuck jfc ! Yall just want to control people 🙄

[nightswithkookmin]

I think gay or not, he still will blurr out the face of the people in his photos for their own protection and for privacy so it's not telling of much to be honest.

The queerbaiting bit is too strong like you said. Queer baiting is a promise to a gay audience that they are being represented, included and at the very least celebrated.

I don't think he's doing any of that here. But he can be a bit of a troll and some times he participates in the clownry too. It's just like JK pulling Jimin's pants down in Soop when JM said he should save his energy to work later or when he asked Jimin if he wanted to eat some ramen at 1am knowing well the subtext behind it. Does he not know rumor has it he screwing Jimin? Pretty sure he do.

I mean one time he tried to unbutton his shirt on stage while staring Jimin in the eyes- won't lie it haunts me to this day.

Can't take bangtan literal sometimes. They will troll and clown you heavy.

Besides, men have male friends too. Clearly he enjoys the male company he keeps and whether that's his friend or interpreter or both or other we never know.

I get the humor and i participate in it but I'm surprised people are taking it seriously that's all.

Dude freaked out when Tae talked about bts having kids and he freaks out around certain members who are rumored to be dating. But somehow we think if he had a boyfriend he'd post them and blurr their faces to the cheers of the members he seperates. scolds. and censors. Army let's not be weird and just enjoy this for the humor that it brings.

For Jungkook, really all that his actions shows me is something I've already been saying about him consistently for years now that he is not afraid to express his affections for Jimin or anyone really.

You are talking of an ig photo but forget a whole Rosebowl happened.

You say he didn't post for JM on his birthday but did he post for RM or Tae too??? No. Hell he didn't post for any of them for a whole year going on to two but clearly he had been saving pictures of them in his camera roll all along.

And I get that because this is his personal IG and not one hybe is controlling that whatever he posts are things and moments that carry meaning to him but really all he's been doing is posting and deleting and trying to figure the app out.

And this is the most active he's been in a very long time. That's what I find most intriguing.

If he has a picture of Tae, he most certainly has a picture of Jimin in his camera roll too. And please, Tae had 4D photos of Jimin in his camera roll and didn't post them on JMs birthday😫

Didn't even post at all now did he.

I'm still salty about that. No one asked him to go get creative with it. No one😫

I hate these discussions because I feel on one hand, I'm being pushed to compare and contrast and invalidate others' relationship when that isn't and shouldn't be the case.

I'm a bit of the observant type and like to observe, understand a situation before reacting to it. I'm just taking all this in as data either enjoying it or simply pushing it into the archive for review later

I get that it can be hard to see your ship captain pilot another ship but that's between Jungkook and us his shippers isn't it?

When he's done feeding and frolicking around with other shippers he has us, his main 🐥chicks to answer to😤

Not jungkook seeing other shippers😭😭😔

Remind me to give him detention at the end of year shipper/shippee annual review dinner. Lol.

As his lesbian PA and ship clerk, I'll let him know jokers are furious and jealous and he needs to come do the gay for us too. Is Tuesday ok? Oh wait, Jinkookers booked him for Tuesday. How bout Thursday? Is Thursday alright? Whew. The ghetto. Lmho.

I think this is tame compared to the things those two can do and yall just tripping or too spoiled and entitled.

I didn't take them seriously when they said they were working on a song together. I thought it was a joke and Kook played along well. He's actually good at it even though half of the time i don't think he knows shit😫

But if there's a song coming it better be a bop about their shared love for french fries and troye sivan cos Friends is taken and Tae already has a soul mate🤺

I think us shippers need to seperate our personal ideosyncracies from the subject matter and know our boundaries.

Take accountability for your emotions.

If you are mad you are mad. If you are jealous you are jealous. To project and lashout against these boys for your emotions is wrong.

Say it with me, IT IS WRONG.

Been there done that it doesn't help nothing. And I think we could all learn to have a sense of humor about these things.

Please channel all your grievances through me. I'll forward it to kook. And maybe I'm slow and don't get it, do yall feel him posting someone else and not his boyfriend is an ass move?🤔

Or that it shakes the foundation of your belief in Jikook as a thing?? Because if that's the case then I think you need to find a new blogger cos I'm not the one for you😫

If the former is the case then I'm sure he didn't think too much of it but knowing Kook- this was a deliberate act🤷🏾‍♀️

Pretty sure there are a lot of photos he has of himself and other members and he chose to post this on his own free will.

Good for Tuktukkers🙄

But again, it doesn't invalidate Jikook so...

And if JM has a problem with this boy would he whoop someone's ass🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

He didn't post for JMs birthday, made portraits for others, didn't post him on his IG, posted another- my boy must be a masochist chilee. He really must love getting spanked and tied up cos WHY does he keep setting himself up. Lmho.

Funny thing is, he'd be out here posting lyrics about how hoes aint loyal and throwing tantrums if the roles where reversed

I just hope JM doesn't come out here posting nobody cos please we need to respect ourselves in these streets and live up to our reputation of petty mcPetty 😫😫

May be I'm projecting but I only fuck with those who fuck with me and I'm petty as fuck.

I feel it's too early to draw definitive conclusions so let's just watch how they use the app and space and trust that they are adults who know what they are doing and have free will to do what they want to do. You may not like the choices they make but you gotta respect it.

GOLDY

[baya-ni]

Renga Shouldn’t Be Canon (clickbait)

No but seriously, I hope that Renga doesn’t become canon, at least not in the way that I think a lot of people are hoping that it will. Personally, I’m not expecting anything close to a kiss and confession and that’s fine by me.

Queerbaiting is a problem in mainstream media, there’s no doubt about it, and many people both within and outside the queer community are right to feel wary about hoping for that kind of representation. Personally, I’m still caught by surprise every time a queer person or couple is depicted in a normalized and healthy way onscreen. And that just speaks to the appallingly poor representation queer people are so used to seeing.

But I think that fandom likes to throw the word “queerbaiting” around a bit haphazardly, much in the same way faux woke people throw around words like “gaslighting” and “cancel culture”. They’ve become buzz words to evoke immediate feelings of self-righteousness and to prey on person’s fear of appearing ignorant or bigoted.

Unfortunately, I worry that when the season inevitably ends without Renga’s “canonization”, people will unfairly label Sk8 as Queerbait. And I have many Feelings about this- mostly frustration.

But we’re only mid-season. I can only guess where the show is going to go and only make assumptions about fandom behavior based on personal experience, and there’s a high possibility I’ll be proven totally wrong so... take whatever I say with a grain of salt. But anyway, let’s get on with it.

Fundamentally, Sk8 isn’t shoujo, it’s not BL- it’s a sports anime. And while that doesn’t preclude a total absence of romance between its characters, ultimately those aren’t the kinds of relationships that sports anime concerns itself with. The most prominent relationships you’ll see will be more along the lines of Teammates and Rivals (there's also a third dynamic I'm calling Opponents which is Not the same as Rivals but the Opponents dynamic is less relevant to my point so I'll focus on just the first two).

However, it's not hard to see why romantic interpretations are so common among fans of sports anime. At their core, the basis of Teammate and Rival dynamics bear many similarities to that of a compelling romance. Both Teammate and Rival relationships are built upon two characters' mutual admiration and respect for one another, they involve characters learning from one another and being inspired to push themselves to be their best. There's a great deal of trust involved, as is vulnerability, communication, and empathy. In other words, all the essentials of any healthy relationship.

But context and genre are important. I think that a good romance is one that is unique to its characters specific personalities and needs, as well as is believable within the context of the setting and story. For an anime like Sk8, I would find an on-screen kiss strange and out of place (unless it was done for comedic effect which would be... bad).

I'm reminded of this quote from Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which is one of my all time favorite films:

"Do all lovers feel as though they are inventing something? I know the gestures. I imagined them all waiting for you."

And that basically sums up what I've described, albeit more poetically. Love is invention. Romantic gestures form a unique language between lovers. And if I may add, genre and narrative establish the basis for the emotional significance of these gestures.

In a genre like action/thriller, one of the most meaningful things a character can do is risk their safety or straight up sacrifice themselves for another, because bodily harm and physical risks drive the tension in these kinds of narratives. In the romance genre, confessions, physical intimacy, and grand romantic displays serve the same purpose. In something like sports anime, I argue that its gestures like physically accommodating for your teammate, supporting them when they feel dejected, and being motivated to train harder and be better for the sake of being allowed to stand beside them, that hold equivalent significance.

But this is all broadly speaking, and genre is just one element. Characters’ personalities, habits, insecurities, and trauma, as well as a story’s themes, further specify the kinds of gestures that hold the most meaning in a narrative.

Let’s look again at Portrait of a Lady on Fire, on my favorite scenes:

Portrait is interested in subverting the power imbalance inherent between the Artist and the Muse, the Voyeur and the Subject, the Looker and she who is Looked At. Heloise’s observations of Marianne hold great significance because of this theme; she disrupts the power imbalance by taking back agency as the Subject, demonstrating that she is just as capable of Looking at the Artist just as the Artist does at her. This is visually represented by the framing of the final shot. With the camera pulled back, we now see Marianne as Heloise has been seeing her, and she is now subject to being visually scrutinized in the same way that Heloise has been up to this point in the film.

This scene is so poignant because the romantic gesture it depicts ties heavily to the story’s themes, its characters’ personalities, and its existence is believable within its genre.

Now, let’s bring this all back to Sk8. In this show, what sort of gestures are given the most significance?

Skateboarding. Duh.

Basically, this line establishes that “basis for emotional significance” that I mentioned earlier, such that skating is the means by which characters and relationships are developed and the plot is driven forward, that any and everything related to skating potentially holds symbolic meaning.

And specifically, equating the act of skating to love then allows for more romantic interpretations of all kinds of scenes. Take for example, these parallel sets of shots from ep 1:

(I mean cmon look at his tiny blush, it’s fucking adorable) And:

In a show that equates skating to a “ritual of love”, these scenes can be realistically be interpreted as Langa and Reki falling in love with one another. Skating acts as both the catalyst for their relationship as well as later on being the means by which they express their feelings and develop their relationship.

Skating is their love language.

Ok, I’ll try to wrap this up since this post has gotten wayyy too long. But basically my point is that Renga is about as canon as this show could possibly make it within the confines of its genre and narrative. Romance in sports anime is different from romance in shoujo, but it’s romance all the same, in the same way that different people express love in different ways.

A kiss and confession is not the only means by which a ship can become canon. And I personally would much rather have this kind of carefully crafted symbolism than a kiss just randomly shoehorned in.

But I understand that in the face of centuries of censorship, cop-outs, and barely believable and forced heteronormativity, people want same-sex intimacy onscreen, unapologetic and normalized. I get that.

But in my opinion, Sk8 isn’t queerbait, and it shouldn’t be accused as such just because its characters won’t kiss onscreen. I think this show depicts a wonderful and loving relationship between two boys, that isn’t any less loving just because it doesn’t fit into conventional romantic tropes.

Edit: I did a followup post about Sk8 and its queer representation here, where I go more in depth into the ways that Sk8 represents queerness through beyond its implied homo-romantic relationships.

So yeah, I’d love to hear yalls thoughts :)

[stacee-not-jaxx]

A large portion of tfatws discourse was based on Bucky's sexuality and how the mcu should make him a canon bisexual cos of rep. But a lot of you are full of shit because of how misogynistic, biphobic and downright racist yall got when a Bucky/Sharon romance was rumored and when seeds of Bucky/Sarah were shown. Yall ran Sharon into the ground for weeks before the show started and said the most racist awful things about Sarah Wilson because Bucky flirted with her. A lot of you don't want Bucky to be bisexual because of representation. You want him to be bi because you know they'll never make him gay and him being bi is the closest you'll get to saying stucky is canon. This was never about representation for some of you cos yall quickly forgot the meaning of bisexuality when Bucky looked at a female character. And when Bucky/Sarah took off, yall yelled queerbait when that was NEVER the case. Malcolm Spellman did a lot of foul shit but when he said "I'm not diving down rabbit holes, just watch the show", he didn't queerbait you. He just said he's not engaging in that discourse and yall should watch the damn show. And when some gays in the fandom spoke up and told yall to stop calling close male friendships on tv queerbait, you ignored them too.

Yes, queer rep is lacking and that's on disney/marvel. But dark skin female love interests are also lacking in main stream TV. And those of us that are queer AND black (and ship sambucky) pointed out the importance of Bucky/Sarah and how it doesn't cancel Bucky's perceived bisexuality but you anti black straights and white queers ignored it all cos fuck intersectionality huh. This isn't about rep for some of you. It's about 2 particular canonically straight male characters you want to become canon. And I hope yall give the queer couple in Eternals this energy but we all know you won't and why.

Now I assume most of the people doing this are actually straight women. But some of the people who gave so much pushback to bucky/Sarah despite asking for bisexual Bucky are supposedly queer too. Apparently Bucky's bisexuality is only valid when he's with a man 🥴.

Yall can have your issues with what Anthony said or the way he said what he did, lord knows some of it was cringy but let's not pretend like there's not some truth to it.

[lilyfreshwater]

"aimsey is doing the same thing ranboo is doing with billzo with guqqie" u mean.. gay person possibly having a crush on another gay person, anon? not everything is a queerbait. i get that u n ur anons don't really like ranboo (no matter how much u claim to be neutral) but the amount of mental gymnastics yall do is funny

ok first of all i literally put ranboo critical in my pinned post (YALL NEVER FUCKING READ THAT SHIT) and i have literally never claimed to be neutral. i don't like ranboo. i am biased against him and will take most opportunities to shit on him rather than feel bad for him or god forbid praise him. idk where you got this idea that i think i do a good job of presenting both sides cause i literally do not do that on purpose. but anyway, there's a fine line between crushing on someone and relationship baiting for content. i think aimsey and guqqie are closer to the crush side and ranboo and billzo are closer to the relationship baiting side, but ultimately it's a grey area and we'll never know what's true