#queerbaiting pieces of shit

[ignatius-pennyfeather-ix]

stranger things really said gay people being happy is less realistic than a child with telekinesis fighting a monster you can escape by listening to a song

#stranger things volume 2 #st4 #byler tumblr #steddie #eddie munson #ronance #fuck you duffer brothers #screw the duffers #duffel bags #queerbaiting pieces of shit

[redb0o]

from the bottom of my fucking heart; fuck you <3

#aimed at the duffer brothers #fuck you duffer brothers #suck my fucking dick #queerbaiting pieces of shit #stranger things volume 2 #why.

[worstversionofme]

After spending so much time watching dimension 20 I seriously don’t think I’ll ever be able to tolerate regular tv. My little gay heart has never seen this kind of queer representation in tv and it is nourishing my soul. And queerness is never the butt of any joke and the characters experiencing and figuring out their sexualities isn’t always sad and dramatic.

I have never related to something so much. This silly show of just a bunch of cool actor friends playing D&D has probably changed my life: I feel like I know who I am better now???

I am eternally grateful to Brennan Lee Mulligan and literally every person involved in Dimension 20 for giving us this show and this outlet to figure ourselves out. Also gonna be eternally annoyed with Dimension 20 every time I have to watch a straight romcom - give me gay wizards and fairies and candy people any day

#legit almost crying writing this wtf nerd #i was watching Lost before d20 and I cannot imagine going back and caring about Sawyer and Kate and Jack #lazuli and caramelinda or rue and hob or Misty Moore or Pete Conlan are all SO MUCH MORE COMPELLING and my gay heart feels represented #and the straight(er?) couples are also SO MUCH BETTER THAN REGULAR TV like Esther and Ricky or K and Evan #and the bonds between friends are also SO GOOD #regular tv has been ruined #I’ve seen downton abbey LIKE THREE TIMES I loved it - fuck that shit I’d watch ACOFAF instead if I ever wanted a period piece #who gives a shit about supernatural when you have the unsleeping city which also includes monster hunting and didn’t queerbait for 15 years #wow this is an insane post and some insane tags #dimension 20 #Brennan Lee mulligan #fantasy high #the unsleeping city #a crown of candy #a court of fey and flowers #misfits and magic #I’m missing some but that’s a lot of tags already

[dkettchen]

Did I expect the black mirror s6e3 robot astronaut episode to turn into a transphobic hate crime metaphor this quickly rather than just a working from home metaphor? Nope.

Did my frantic googling (while trying to avoid actual spoilers) to see whether the “tragedy” the plot summary was on about was gonna be some world ending cataclysm that would upset me prepare me for this? Oh it sure fucking didn’t, so this is a PSA for y’all now

#haven't finished the episode yet but oh boy these first 20 minutes huh #black mirror #black mirror beyond the sea #trans #I don't like that the cis know about us these days I just don't like it #I am never prepared #other minorities have had to deal with these 'here's a bad thing that happens to people like you but now it's a robot/alien/etc' pieces of #media for ages but we are new to it I don't like it #I get it now I'm so sorry for everyone else who's had to go through this for years and decades goodness #like better than the inaccurate negative caricatures and transvestite serial killers and all that but fuckin' hel #spoilers upcoming don't read past this if you don't want them #is it really gonna be asking robot men whether they have a dick before mutilating them #and killing their family in front of them for sharing their life with something the hate criminals deem unnatural #like really? #like really??? are we sure about this? #gosh you guys remember striking vipers #when they kinda queerbaited and then gave us some solid cishet men having existential horror about whether shit's gay instead #those were the good times x'D #anyway I shall now go and finish watching the episode so we can get this over with heck

[gregoftom]

so am i supposed to ignore that tom got riled up with shiv when she said “i’m out of your league” when at kendall’s party greg said the same thing to him about shiv herself and it ended with tom boasting his sexual skills, and that being the reason he got with/shiv is into him, being egged onto prove it and then later making some suspicious hip movements towards greg whilst mentioning said skills or what? because i’m trying to. but it’s difficult when the comparison is. like. there.

#tomgreg #they really went hard with s3 huh???? really hard. it's just interesting to me. #see like. the nero sporus thing i could. COULD. forget. or like but understand that maybe it was just some weirdass reference #or comedy or tom being weird. which. #but it's a lot harder to do that when there's so many comparisons between his relationship w shiv and his relationship w greg. #like what does it fucking mean?!?!?!?! #is greg gonna be his side slam piece?! #is greg truly gonna end up his sporus?? #it has to mean something #bc these writers are just so good i refuse to believe that it doesn't/it's just bullshit/comedy or some fucking shit #like yeah there's the whole. queerbait issue. but like. i don't know. i really don't know. #maybe i'm being a fucking idiot but this just feels different to me i don't know. like i said long ago; #if greg and tom are in each other's lives by the end of the show i'm satisfied. like the bar is that low for me LOL but still. #as long as its confirmed they're in contact i'll take that as a W

[bartimaeus]

Yesterday I told my therapist that I've been following the same TV show for the past seven months and I can't get over it (YES OF COURSE IT'S GOOS OMENS)

And her reaction was "Wow, how many episodes is it? It must be a long ass show if you haven't finished it in 7 months!"

Me: *neurodivergent silence*

Me: "No, it's not that, I've been rewatching it over and over ever since"

#the poor thing #underestimating my overfixations #just see how long I can stay over fixed on a thing #last time it was the whole 3 years between one season and another of that queerbaiting piece of shit of BBC Sherlock #good omens

[drewsaturday]

you'd think as someone who's knowingly been a lesbian for over 10 years i would've watched more than like, 4 lesbian movies by now, since there were more than a handful to choose from by that point and waaaaaaaaaaay more now.

and part of me thinks i should make it a new years resolution to watch more sapphic movies to experience the culture tm and feel those feelings.

but i also want to just go rewatch loving annabelle and call it a day.

#txt #like obviously representation was very important to me! and it still is! #but i think bc my baby gay journey began right when we started getting this explosion of rep... #rep almost got tainted for me bc i was on tumblr and it was this whole thing about You Need To Watch This Or You're Homophobic #or nitpicking everything slightly wrong with problematic representation etc and it became more of a chore #i appreciate representation i don't expect most i think. like k0rrasami happening? #instead of getting dragged into the show with the promise of rep it just... unfolded in something i was already interested in #i think representation has sorta unfolded in weird ways as well over the years since it's now profitable to queerbait and that #impacts how enjoyable/well written a thing is - see: why i love 90's subtext most bc of the authenticity of it #and i like to think maybe movies aren't as impacted by that when the focus is actually queer shit vs. shows needing to pull #people in for the long-term but idk. it's genuinely not something i've seen enough queer films to have a good idea of j;lksdkfj #i just want like. fun plots that happen to be gay and i think that desire kinda extinguishes the need to consume every piece #of queer media in existence even though i did very much have that pull at the start naturally #but of course. tumblr kinda ruined that for me at the time so now i'm 10 years in the future chilling surrounded by queer people #not having that sense of feeling alone and needing More #and i think it could be healing to check out those films (as Choice as they may be) but it's not a Need if that makes sense #ohhh and while i do get a hit of meaning from seeing any kind of lesbian rep bc the normalization etc #i just don't rly feel Seen in non age gap stuff? so that limits the amt of films that check all the boxes for me as opposed to #just being a 'normal' lesbian and most films automatically being a full course meal for u #so it almost feels like too much effort aj;lksldkjf #anyway. im grateful we're here now and we have so much i just have a complicated relationship with it all #and i wanna be able to just turn that off and try checking out lesbian films now that we do have so much #bc although i don't Need it necessarily it would be nice to actually explore now that i've ditched some of the toxic tumblr mindsets #(which also i now remember included being called problematic for watching the understandably problematic rep that came years before #which probs also explains why i stayed away so long from the old AND i was too poor/ill to go to theatres for the new) #so uhhh recs welcome? regardless of if there's age gaps or not lmao aj;klsdf #specifically for films not tv shows. ive fought that fight too long.

[siriuslydeadfr]

the reason why stiles isn't in the movie is cause if he was in the movie he would not let any of this shit happen. Especially to derek. Jeff davis you suck btw

#this is a sterek post #ive only read spoilers and based on that im concluding teen wolf is a piece of queerbaiting trash #derek my beloved you're alright in my head you always will be you'll be the sweetest dilf and the fruitiest fruit #teen wolf movie #or whatever shit show it was

[punktasstic]

FUCK harry styles

#piece of shit human #anti harry styles #fucking zionist piece of shit #his music trash too #people hype him up for no reason #how about u hype up some actual decent human beings #that are ACTUAL queer icons?? #not some cis queerbaiting yt boy

[fuzzy-w0rms]

ok genuinely what the fuck was that. duffer bros where are you i just wanna talk.

#stranger things #stranger things season 4 #stranger things spoilers #IT IS SEVEN IN THE MORNING I CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS. #THEY KILLED THE BEST CHARACTER #LYING QUEERBAITING PIECES OF SHIT #CANT HAVE SHIT IN INDIANA #MAN

[acepalindrome]

Okay, genuinely, if you need some queer joy in your life and you haven’t watched it already, watch Yuri on Ice. Even if you aren’t usually into anime! Even if you don’t know shit about figure skating! Yeah, I know it’s seven years old now, but it still holds up! It’s just a genuinely wholesome, fun piece of queer media full of lovable characters, excellent music, and a world almost identical to our own except there’s no homophobia. Not a bit! Everyone is chill about folks being gnc too! There’s a scene where a guy talks about exploring his femininity and no one has any issue with it, not even the teen who loves to shit talk him!

I was also bracing myself for being queerbaited in the first half because it’s a sports anime and that’s just how this goes, but nope! It’s GAY gay. It’s a romance! It’s sweet and heartfelt and lovely!

There’s drama, but none of it has anything to do with the characters being gay. There is no villain. Hell, there’s not an unlikable character among the whole cast! There’s a cranky, shouty coach, but he deeply cares about his kids. There’s a little edgelord teenager, but he’s 15 and is treated accordingly by the story and characters. There’s one guy who’s a cocky bastard, but he’s not a bad person and gets some great character development later on. The biggest conflict is caused by, as usual, gay people not knowing how to communicate, but everything ends happily.

AND it’s got one of the best plot twists I’ve ever seen in anything.

Also there’s a scene at the end that’s one of the most romantic things I ever seen and I’m not exaggerating a bit. Seven years later and it still melts my heart.

I remember Con O’Neill talking about OFMD and calling it kind, and that’s how I feel about this show too. It’s kind.

Go watch it. Get the opening song stuck in your head. Watch two unhappy, lonely men fall in love while expressing their feelings through figure skating. ITS GREAT.

#yuri on ice #yoi #i needed to distract myself from worrying about the season finale of my other queer joy show

[queer-reader-07]

i’m not sure i have the spoons or words to properly articulate this HOWEVER i have thoughts nonetheless

i think it’s really interesting how media like Heartstopper and Red White and Royal Blue (the show/movie not the books) result in the actors getting accused of queerbaiting. which 1) real people don’t queerbait and 2) at least in Heartstopper’s case, most of the cast is queer people.

whereas shows like Good Omens and Our Flag Means Death literally star straight male actors but nearly no one is accusing them of queer baiting

and i think there’s something to do with the average ages of the audiences for each set. because while there’s obviously older folk watching Heartstopper and younger people watching Good Omens i feel like it’s undeniable that there’s A LOT of young, new to the queer community people in the Heartstopper fandom and a lot more older, been involved in queer spaces and culture for decades people in the GO & OFMD fandoms.

and i’m talking abt all of this as a gen z person. i’m definitely in the group of young people, i’ve been out as some flavor of queer for maybe 4 years.

but in talking to older queer people and also just my general observations, there seems to be this almost inherent understanding that while yes, it is nice to see queer people play queer roles, it isn’t a necessity in order to have a good queer story. so many formative pieces of queer media, stories that are cult classics or pillars of the community star straight people or were written by straight people.

but young queer people have this tendency to want to “do queerness the right way”. (speaking from a certain level of experience, i too was a young questioning teen on the internet). so when they see people who aren’t explicitly out acting in a very obviously queer show or movie they want proof that this is “the right kind of queer show”, i.e. one that casts queer people in the queer roles. and that leads to some pretty fucked up shit sometimes (e.g. people forcing Kit Connor to out himself).

i’m not really sure where i’m going with this but just some thoughts. feel free to add on in the notes!

#there’s something there i just can’t quite place it #good omens #our flag means death #heartstopper #red white and royal blue #meta #fandoms

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ok so i was actually kinda surprised to find that looking at the ao3 stats and adjusting for how long ofmd’s existed (a year and a half) vs how long the stucky fandom’s been around (coming up on a decade), not only is gentlebeard on par with stucky but it actually beats stucky for amount of fics written. but i’m making a prediction now just based on how i’ve observed fandoms to work: i do think the gentlebeard popularity will peter out faster than stucky did

i’m not saying bc i think gentlebeard is worse or the ofmd fandom is weak or anything, i’m saying this bc in fandom it seems like the white masc queerbait ships* have like, an absurd amount of longevity that goes way beyond the general fandom surrounding whatever media said white masc queerbait ship hails from. im thinking abt the protagonist/rival ship from the TERF wizard series that nobody decent talks about in public anymore. before we all cut jkr out of our lives, people were still churning out fics abt the main character and that racist blond kid pretty regularly. and another example, we have those scientists from pacific rim that are more popular than any of the main characters from that movie. it’s been years and the newt/hermann fandom is still going strong.

and i say “newt/hermann fandom” intentionally, bc that’s the thing that i think actually gives these ships their longevity: when there are fans who are primarily invested in a piece of media because of a noncanonical masc4masc queerbait ship, they’re not really fans of the media itself. i mean, some of them might be, but if they are then that’s in addition to being fans of this alternate queer interpretation of the media in question. they’re a fan of the fandom mass hallucination that the fans collectively and collaboratively invented of a romantic/sexual/homoerotic relationship between two guys who on-screen might hug like once or twice (or sometimes even never)

and i’m pretty sure the reason this sort of fandom phenomenon tends to have so much longevity is bc the fans have already created this whole extensive romantic storyline using what is often some pretty minimal canonical material to work with. so when the movie franchise or the tv show ends and the shippers no longer have any new canonical material to work with, they can keep going for years because really, they were already making shit up from the start.

so compared to that, gentlebeard is way different bc everything the fans might have invented on our own the show pretty much already did for us, and anything the show didn’t do yet is probably coming for us this season (or in s3, fingers crossed). i’ve mentioned before how a lot of fanfiction seems to fall on a spectrum between “fix” and “expand,” and by the end of ofmd i doubt there’s gonna be a whole lot that gentlebeard fans feel like they need to “fix.” versus stucky, where there’s so much that needs to be fixed that you might as well just throw the whole canon out.

i don't really mean any of this as a criticism or an attack on fans of queerbait ships like this, im just pointing out fandom trends that i've noticed. i myself have been deeply invested in stucky, newmann, and the gay wizard boys at different points in my life. like there is something very fun abt putting on slash goggles and making queer content out of nothing. personally though, now that we're in an age where we're getting canon queer content, im not so engaged in a lot of the ships i used to care so much about, but i don't think it's inherently wrong** for people to still enjoy some classic fandom queerbait ships. it's just a very different thing from enjoying canonical queer ships like gentlebeard

*im using “queerbait ships” loosely to include popular gay ships in media that was never in a million years going to make these characters gay.

**a clarifying point: i don't think it's inherently wrong, however there are a lot of problematic elements to this kind of fandom activity, namely the way a lot of these queerbait ships will dominate a fandom while other characters who are important in canon get completely sidelined (and yes, the sidelined characters are often women/poc). also, less importantly, when people's primary media consumption revolves around strip mining canon for shipping content, this absolutely destroys their media literacy and critical thinking. again, im not saying this to attack ppl who engage in fandom primarily through fic/art of noncanonical gay ships, i myself have done the same thing. but i think ppl who do should also make a conscious effort to also engage with fan content that centers women/poc, or at the very least need to be aware of the issues around this kind of fandom activity.

#txt #meta #mine #og #ofmd #our flag means death #gentlebeard #pacific rim #mcu #stucky poll #fandom crit

[neolxzr]

imo there’s a difference between “queer coding” and very specifically playing to both sides whether or not the writers/artists/directors intended to make a character queer or not. I think that for enstars specifically, with the new valkyrie event, while people are happy that some characters such as shu and mika in the new event are being shown expressing their love for each other and their views on their sexuality and expression, people are frustrated that it is not explicitly said because of the company’s need to not confirm a character as queer in order to not alienate (homophobic!) fans. Because at the end of the day in happyele’s eyes, if that homophobic fan spends a lot of money on the game then they’re worth pandering to (shrug emoji) And I mean some people also just don’t like shumika

anon i understand where you're coming from but i think you are wildly missing the point in my original post

my point is EXACTLY that if you need the characters to walk up to the screen and say "i'm gay" or "i'm [insert some 21st century-friendly label]" or "this is my boyfriend" for it to count as queer media in your eyes than i think you need to do some reexamining about what exactly your views on queer media as a whole are

plus, they DO do this. they explicitly talk about queer themes out loud many many times in enstars. shu says to mika that they should, together, create the happiness that his grandfather was never allowed to have, after they spent the entire story detailing shu's grandfather's queer romance story. they probably kissed in hermitage, and the lyrics to acanthe talk about them kissing. rinne proposes to niki in every other story they appear in together. he told him to do a striptease during nightclub. tori has very explicitly gay feelings for eichi. arashi narukami exists. eichi, while talking to arashi in pretty mission, says "people like us," confirming himself to also be some form of queer. kuro calls keito an old word for spouse or husband. and SO many more examples. this is not "queer coding" or subtext, its just text.

in any case, authorial intent is generally of no interest when it comes to examining media. the conversation of what the author could have meant by something is wildly less interesting than the conversation about the ways in which the audience can interpret it. what the writers intended should have little to no place in the discussion. what we should be talking about is what the thing itself is saying, both implicitly and explicitly.

expanding your view on what exactly can be seen as "queer media" can only do you good. and it would do so much good to not give a shit about the possibility that homophobic people will also like the thing and interpret it as not queer. that is literally not my problem whatsoever, and it shouldn't be yours either.

what it seems like to me is that no matter what pieces of queer media will always be criticized in some capacity. if they're not explicitly queer enough, they're just bait and have no merit. if they are explicit, then they're promoting stereotypes, or its rainbow capitalism, or it's fetishization. there is no winning. the standards for queer media are absolutely absurd, but they don't HAVE to be. you don't have to look at a piece of media through this kind of silly cynical lens if you don't want to.

the discussion about a work loses so much interesting and important nuance when you try to shove it into a box of "good representation" or "bad evil queerbait." thats just really really boring way to view stories

#cryn answers #anon #enstars #i hope this clarifies my point more #also im not going to turn anon off but come on out dont be shy we can have a conversation face to face #media analysis

[bylrlvr]

since we’re reaching nearer towards The Big Day, i wish a very good night to all the citizens of byler nation, including:

the fanfic writers, you got us through the toughest times, fed us when we needed the most

the brains of the fandom: the analysts who make long-ass posts and 30k essays that are some of the most well-written pieces of literature i have ever read, you are healing the world

the byler stans who are also el stans, you are slaying

the people who will be under the duffers’ bed if it’s a queerbait, you go besties

the believers of the ‘mike/will gets vecna’d’ agenda, you are on the right side of history

the ones who don’t participate in ship wars, you are legends

the artists, you are doing god's work

the willel enthusiasts, you will always be famous

the shit-posters, your posts are making the planet a better place

the byler master doc worshippers and the person who created it, you are the chosen ones

the ‘mike wheeler i know what you are’ truthers, you are my religion

the editors, photoshoppers, gif makers, you are so goddamn talented for what

the meme makers, you will never not be funny

the byler playlist makers and the people who recommend songs that are relatable to byler, you have immaculate music tastes

the byler swifties, thank you for existing

noah schnapp, finn wolfhard, and the st cast, because they told me they are big byler shippers as well

the kaypeace truthers and kaypeace herself, hawkinsschoolcounsellor truthers and hawkinsschoolcounsellor himself, you each deserve a gold metal

the people who have full confidence in byler, that is such slay behavior

the people who have doubts and worries of being queerbaited because of past experiences, you deserve better than that, i love you

(oh and since pride month is ending soon,) a very special good night to everyone in homophobic/transphobic/unaccepting households or environments, and ones who are in the closet together with mike wheeler, you are so loved and you are not alone

but who am i kidding. no one here will have a good night, we’ll all be on panic-mode for volume 2

#byler

[ice-sculptures]

hmm. this might just be me being overly sensitive as usual but i think that regardless of how likely (or unlikely, in other cases) it is for a ship to be canon, delusional is kind of a mean thing to say about queer fans of a show hoping that a gay ship might become canon. fans of heterosexual ships never get that energy no matter how insignificant or unlikely their ship is, so why is it considered okay to say to people just because the pairing they're rooting for is queer?

and like. i feel like since because it's never actually been done before, some people (often victims of older queerbait ships like destiel or klance) have this superiority complex over ‘knowing’ that whatever newer queer ship will "never be canon." they revel in the bitter idea that since it didn't happen to them in the past, it could never happen to us in the future, but they're missing the entire point — that yes, it's never been done before, so something has to be first, right? someone has to, and one day, someone will take that first revolutionary step for queer media representation eventually, so why is it considered so outlandish for fans of ships that haven't happened yet to wish that they'll be the lucky ones and that it will one day happen for them?

do you know what i think? i think that delusional is a great word to throw in people's faces and a really quick, easy way to make them feel like shit for simply having hope that the world is changing and getting better. and that's why it feels especially cruel to me when this disdain comes from fans of ships like destiel, because you know that they were once in the same exact place of wishing and hoping, but instead of acknowledging that the world has changed significantly and recognizing that queer rep in media needs to change along with it, they're still stuck in the era where gay people were the butt of the joke and will now take every single writing decision in bad faith, often twisting and misinterpreting the narrative completely because of it.

anyway, idk, maybe it's just me, but i'd rather be the eternal optimist living in a world knowing that the first slowburn queer ship in a piece of popular media not specifically marketed as queer will happen one day than be the cynical pessimist content to never expect anything great to ever come along and who constantly tries to dash the hopes of anyone who dares to dream that things can change, making not only themselves but every single person around them downright miserable in the process.

#buddie #rae.txt