#and then it'll never be acknowledged in the same way a het love confession absolutely would be

[teacupsandcyanide]

in all seriousness when i say “queerbaiting” i mean the phenomenon it actually refers to, this SPN nonsense of repeatedly manipulating the viewers - in an arguably deliberate way - into thinking queer stuff is going to be canonised and played out. and by that i mean having Cas tell Dean he loves him late enough in the game that they didn’t have to play it out, but early enough that they could wring in some more viewers for the finale - and then not acknowledging that moment at all. capitalising on the queer audience’s desire to be included and validated in order to up the success of their show, but not actually truly including or validating the queer audience. 

it’s a very specific set-up of ‘baiting’ and then setting the goalposts back, or (at the end of the show) acting as though those scenes never happened in the first place. the homoerotic moments have no effect on the plot, the relationships, the arcs - they are not significant or meaningful, but narratively identical heterosexual/normative moments are treated as significant and meaningful.

i understand that what qualifies as “baiting” is so subjective that people now overuse queerbaiting to mean "homophobic writing of any kind,” or even “presence of any level of queer subtext without direct canonisation” - which is wider thing that queerbaiting exists as a subset of. and personally i think that that wider thing isn’t always bad, isn’t always good, whereas queerbaiting is by nature insidious and homophobic. but i think “queerbaiting” is a very useful word that describes a specific  phenomenon and it’s good to remind ourselves what it actually means, so as not to lose the word all together.

#it's still pretty damn subjective and like i know there's some things i consider queerbaiting that others don't #and some things others consider queerbaiting that i don't #depends on where you draw lines #but it would be nice to talk about that phenomenon without it getting muddle with #'ship that has queer subtext but isn't canonically queer' #or #'ship that has queer subtext and it's unclear if it's canonical' #like i think queerbaiting requires SUCH overdoing of the baiting part #often using the parasocial relationship between creators and fans #to tease that queer things will happen and then not delivering #and it's a long term and often cyclical thing #where the queer ship or character is brought to focus whenever ratings are going pear-shaped #there's a direct line between Queer Content Promised and 'Profit' #and then the content not being queer or being really homophobic and non-committal #like yes #maybe the angel will confess hi love #but then he'll immediately die #and then it'll never be acknowledged in the same way a het love confession absolutely would be #and you'll never see the ramifications of it play out at all #it'll be as if it never happened #or a very gay moment will be uh #immediately followed by a moment that loudly corrects it back to heteronormativity #without acknowledging the double standard of moment 1 meaning nothing and moment 2 being Significant #honestly queerbaiting is just bad writing adjklsjdf bc it leads ur viewers in circles #bc it's DELIBERATELY confusing and unnconnected #hmp12