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Attracting the largest audience -

Queerbaiting is a marketing technique in which creators or celebrities hint at, but are not explicit about, LGBTQ+ representation. It's a way to 'bait' queer or queer-ally audiences without pushing away other audiences.

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Vagueness with commercial benefit -

The key to queerbaiting is that one benefits from appearing queer (it could be in terms of social capital, more albums sold, more movie roles, more advertisement appeal, etc.) without actually claiming the community explicitly.

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Avoiding marginalization/discrimination -

If someone simply appears queer but provides no confirmation, they can both benefit from the appeal it offers them as well as avoid facing any of the real discrimination or marginalization that people in the queer community face, most of whom have had to hide their sexuality at one point or another.

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A problem for the LGBTQ+ community -

Real figures and creators from the LGBTQ+ community can lose out on opportunities, performances, and potential profit when people who appear queer (but remain largely cisgender-heterosexual in public) become the easier, safer, more widely appealing option for big productions, events, and brands who can then still market themselves as queer without fulfilling any real service to the community.

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Harry Styles -

The internet has been abuzz ever since Harry Styles addressed the longstanding accusation that he is queerbaiting. Many have taken issue largely with the fact that a white cisgender man who has only publicly dated women is being praised for his gender-fluid fashion (meanwhile the out queer trailblazers remain unsung to the same degree), while others think he's purposely trying to seem queer for commercial gain.

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Harry Styles -

The issue came to a peak when Styles was cast as the lead role of a gay cop in 'My Policeman,' as many think his vague sexual identity helped land him the part. Styles told Rolling Stone, "Sometimes people say, 'You've only publicly been with women,' and I don't think I've publicly been with anyone. If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn't mean you're choosing to have a public relationship or something."

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Harry Styles -

People appear to be split online about whether it's harmful to the LBGTQ+ community to essentially force someone to be explicit about their sexual identity, or whether Styles' purposeful vagueness is doing even more harm. He remained vague with Rolling Stone, adding, "I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it."

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Ariana Grande -

Ariana Grande was criticized by fans for queerbaiting in 2019 after her song 'break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored' contained references to bisexuality in both the lyrics and music video, where she comes very close to kissing another woman.

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Ariana Grande -

Grande was called out for capitalizing on and participating in the hypersexualization of queer women, while also perpetuating the stereotype of bisexual people being more likely to cheat in relationships.

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Ariana Grande and Victoria Monét -

On their song 'Monopoly,' Grande and Monét sing the line, "I like women and men." Grande tweeted afterwards that she doesn't feel a need to "label herself," meanwhile Monét tweeted plainly that she is attracted to women. This brought into suspicion the "cop out," as many called it, of refusing a label when faced with accusations of queerbaiting.

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Nick Jonas -

In the mid-2010s, Nick Jonas was quite successful in queerbaiting, from lifting up his shirt on stage in gay clubs to playing coy about if he had ever experimented with men. He actually spoke to Pride Source in 2014 about his very conscious marketing strategy to reach out to his gay audience ahead of the release of his self-titled album.

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Nick Jonas -

"There's a general awareness that I am straight but totally embracing of the gay community," he said at the time, though the interviewer asked what he thought of those who think he's using his body to bait the gay community. He called it "unfortunate" that people had to find a negative despite his heart being "in the right place," and ultimately called his accusers "kind of ignorant."

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Nick Jonas -

But public opinion took a turn when Jonas got on stage at a vigil held at the Stonewall Inn in New York on June 13, 2016, to honor those lost the day prior in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. His speech was viewed as "shortsighted" and full of canned platitudes like "love is love" and "we are all equal," reports Daily Beast. Since then, he has toned back the gay marketing.

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Bella Hadid and Calvin Klein -

In 2019, Calvin Klein released a video of heterosexual-identifying model Bella Hadid kissing CGI Instagram influencer Lil Miquela for their #MYCALVINS campaign, and fans called them out for not only queerbaiting, but also failing to cast actual lesbian- or bisexual-identifying models in the ad.

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Bella Hadid and Calvin Klein -

Calvin Klein later issued an apology. "As a company with a longstanding tradition of advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, it was certainly not our intention to misrepresent the LGBTQ+ community. We sincerely regret any offense we caused," the company's statement reads.

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Katy Perry -

Katy Perry's 2008 song 'I Kissed a Girl' raised concerns because many viewed it as an appropriation of the gay identity to simply attract attention. Not to mention, it was on the heels of 'Ur So Gay,' which encourages a metrosexual man who's "so gay and you don't even like boys" to "hang yourself with your H&M scarf."

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Katy Perry -

'I Kissed a Girl' writes off her same-sex kiss as "not what good girls do," but 10 years later Perry told Glamour she "would probably make an edit" if the song was released again to change "a couple of stereotypes in it." Perry also said in 2017 while accepting the National Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that she has done "more than [kissing a girl]" but grew up in an extremely religious environment that was pro conversion camps.

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James Franco -

Before allegations of his misconduct towards several women began to surface and he receded from the spotlight, James Franco was publicly hinting at his queerness across gay and straight press, Jezebel reports. From posing in drag on the cover of Candy Magazine in 2010, to his 2016 book 'Straight James/Gay James,' which included musings about identity and sexuality, he had a clear marketing strategy.

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James Franco -

And he did profit from it, as he produced and starred in a film called 'King Cobra' about a homosexual porn killer, and he conceived the story for the Lifetime movie 'Mother, May I Sleep With Danger' as a teen lesbian vampire film. He also infamously published a piece in which his straight persona interviewed his gay persona, coining the phrase "gay in my art and straight in my life."

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James Franco -

When confronted with the question of his sexuality directly, Franco replied, "I guess it depends on how you define gay. If it means whom you have sex with, I guess I'm straight." Summing up the exploitative nature of his actions, Billy Eichner tweeted in 2016, "James Franco is the Rachel Dolezal of gay people."

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Rita Ora -

Rita Ora was called out by fans in 2018 for queerbaiting after her song 'Girls'—which also features Bebe Rexha, Cardi B, and Charli XCX—has her singing "I ain't one-sided, I'm open-minded… I'm 50-50 and I'm never gonna hide it," while Cardi B raps, "I steal your b—h, have her down with the scissors." Ora then sings about drinking red wine and subsequently wanting to kiss girls.

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Rita Ora -

Listeners pointed out how the lyrics trivialized bisexuality and perpetuated harmful stereotypes. Out singer Hayley Kiyoko tweeted, "I don't need to drink wine to kiss girls; I've loved women my entire life. This type of message is dangerous because it completely belittles and invalidates the very pure feelings of an entire community. I feel I have a responsibility to protect that whenever possible." Kehlani, another out singer, also tweeted about the "awkward slurs, quotes, and moments," and wrote, "Don't make this personal… there. were. harmful. lyrics. period."

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Rita Ora -

In response, the British singer apologized and actually publicly came out. "'Girls' was written to represent my truth and is an accurate account of a very real and honest experience in my life… I have had romantic relationships with women and men throughout my life… I am sorry (if) how I expressed myself in my song has hurt anyone," she tweeted.

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Madonna -

Madonna is an interesting figure because she's considered by many to be a "gay icon," she's been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, and she has openly admitted, "I wouldn't have a career if it weren't for the gay community." But her queerbaiting became an issue when she decided to compare herself to Lil Nas X.

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Madonna -

When Lil Nas X kissed one of his male dancers on stage at the 2021 BET Awards, Madonna posted a photo collage of that event alongside her infamous kiss with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV VMAs. Instead of celebrating the groundbreaking moment of a Black gay man living his truth on stage, she wrote that she "#diditfirst."

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Madonna -

Thousands of fans started calling her stunt queerbaiting and quickly reminded her that a white woman kissing for the male gaze is not nearly as revolutionary as Black queer men expressing themselves truthfully. Famous Instagram account Diet Prada wrote about her comments, "White cishet people have always been given the space to do whatever they please...including, but not limited to queerbaiting."

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Charlie Puth -

The singer has been accused of queerbaiting largely because of his social media teasing. In one TikTok he uses a top-or-bottom filter and pretends not to know that the filter was designed for the queer community, and another time he tweeted, "All I want is one of those cream pies" before later clarifying he meant the Little Debbie snack cake variety.

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Charlie Puth -

Critics say Puth seems to be following in the footsteps of Nick Jonas' queerbaiting with his increasing near-nudity and references to queer slang and vernacular, which specifically ramped up around the release of his two new 2022 singles.

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Billie Eilish -

After releasing the music video for her single 'Lost Cause' in 2021, which features Eilish and a group of girl friends at a slumber party with occasional sensual moments, some critics accused her of queerbaiting. Eilish then shared images from the video's filming and wrote in the caption, "I love girls," which many saw as a response. In an interview with Elle magazine she spoke about the scrutiny and said, "Like, oh yeah, that's everyone else's business, right? No. Where's that energy with men?"

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The controversy at the center -

The major problem appears to be the conflict between the fact that no one owes an explanation about their sexuality because it is a private and fluid thing, and the fact that major public figures making money off of queerness without owning up to queerness off-camera is indeed often exploitation.

Sources: (Rolling Stone) (Out) (Pride Source) (Billboard) (TheThings) (The Daily Beast) (Jezebel)

See also: The most iconic LGBTQ+ music artists in history

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