What is your opinion on idols "queerbaiting"? (1 Viewer)

[kisshuhua09baby]

I'm certain you've heard of the phenomenon of queerbaiting in K-pop but as a part of the community myself (hehe gay) I feel like the term gets a bit lost in translation.
With that being said I think it's necessary to give the definition
According to Wikipedia, (I know it's not the best source for information but hush)
"Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at,
but do not depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ+ representation."
So in essence, the term is more commonly used with books, movies, and television.
So let's look at what K-pop fans define as queerbaiting.
To spare you the details, they usually use this term to describe any idol friendship they dislike because it isn't the conventional platonic friendship. So if you just happen to be besties that like to kiss because you're close and comfortable doing that then stop it because a random little kid from Ohio thinks you're being homophobic. And people also fail to realize the culture in South Korea takes part in this. In East Asia in general but especially there it's more common to be touchy or more intimate looking to the blind eye. SHIT, TWICE have even briefly shared how they've showered together as well as SKZ. So I don't think it's queerbaiting I think this is just a matter of ignorance and having different cultural backgrounds putting a filter on your perception of things like this.

 

[Ahsoka]

I don’t think it’s possible to outright say “everyone’s queerbaiting” or “no one’s queerbaiting”. I’m sure there are cases where said idols are just touchy naturally, and I’m sure there are cases where the idols or company know that people ship certain idols and they act more touchy than they would otherwise to appeal to those fans. The cultural difference could very well cause some confusion, but I don’t think it accounts for all cases.

 

[DaisySkies]

this reminds me of minsung and hyunlix.....people who ship them to the point where they think that they should marry each other......idols are human too....
i do platonic shipping if i do ship at all because these people have a life as well and they most likely don't feel that way abt each other (like for dating/marriage or something like that), i like to ship idols as really good friends rather than actual ship shipping because i don't want to make anybody uncomfortable and i also don't feel that way to make that statement....

 

[eclipsoul]

i don't think real people can queerbait but then again we literally don't know these celebrities so their relationships we see on camera might be different from what it's like in reality. i'd just say that it makes me genuinely mad and annoyed that this kind of interaction between same-sex kpop idols is very much welcome as fanservice and yet there is no place for openly gay people in the industry.