#aristemo

Su elección de palabras hizo que Diego pensara en tres cosas, primero: molestar, Mensostóteles no tenía ni idea de lo que se le vendría encima, –ugh, no– de lo que se le avecinaba, Diego iba a molestarlo a diestra y siniestra por convertirlo en un voyeur en contra de su voluntad. Segundo: en ningún momento dijo –ni Temo– que ya no lo volverían hacer, Ari solo dijo que serían cuidadosos. Tercero; le recordó de golpe que los encontró en la sala, sala que compartían con Diego y que hasta él había tenido la decencia de no profanar, los encuentros sexuales que había tenido en el depa se habían quedado entre las cuatro paredes de su habitación, como tenía que ser si tenías roomies.

The term Queerbaiting blew up since the last decade. It’s replacing coded representation from the 20th century which was when laws were prohibiting lgbtq representation and productions could only gives hint at a potential same sex relationship. There are multiple definitions of queerbaiting but what I am talking about here is showing sexual ambiguity between two characters whether it’s flirting, some sort of attraction or other people mistaken them as a couple and never denied by the pairing but the couple never came to fruition. It’s not the same as shipping a non-canon pairing as basically every character can be shippable with other characters even with the ones they barely interacted with. It’s really the consistent interaction that look similar to how characters behave when they are attracted to someone.

Reason 1 : have the cake and eat it too

I also call it the Albus Dumbledore method which is basically trying to please lgbtq people and straight ally by giving something queer but not showing anything because of the risk of losing a conservative audience or receive backlash. One exemple we can give is with the character Dumbledore on the Harry Potter saga where nothing about his sexuality was hinted neither on the movies or the books and it’s the author that revealed it to fans after the last book was published in 2007. People let it pass for the Harry Potter saga as it was a different time but it received criticism when the crimes of Grindelwald showed only a former platonic relationship between Grindelwald and Dumbledore when the author during the press tour described their relationship as «  a passionate love affair ».

Reason 2 : Queer characters can never be the leads

Most of the pairing known for its queerbaiting are the leads of their respective show (Destiel, Sherlock and Watson, Merlin and Arthur and many more). When we look at all the canon gay couple, they are either recurring characters or main characters part of an ensemble full of straight. Unless the movie or the show is about the coming out story and center around the lgbtq experience (Love Simon/Victor, Pose, Alex Strangelove), the queer characters will always only be the sidekick on the side and the spotlight will be on the straight characters/couple. Of course they are some exceptions where the main is queer and the plot of the show has nothing to do with their sexuality (the politician and the magician) the problem is those shows are not mainstream as they are either on a small cable channel or not popular with the general public which can be the reason why they were able to put the main character as queer as they have a lesser reach to the audience.

Reason 3 : the refusal of the show/actors

The persistence of the fans always reach the ears of the showrunners/producers/actors and it always end in denial, saying how they never meant to hint at anything romantic and the pairing are going to stay platonic. It’s definitely a refusal from them to canonised the convoited pairing as ton of straight couple got put together when it was not in the plan but just fans liking the ship is enough to make them canon. Even Joey and Rachel of Friends got a storyline at the end of the show and they make little to no sense. It can be the higher up refusing because they already have enough lgbtq representation (and we all know that they have a certain limit while straight are unlimited) or the fear of losing viewers by introducing a new gay storyline. But something never talked about it’s the actors refusing to be paired in a gay relationship, we know from other actors playing queer roles that during the casting search the roles are detailed, the actors have to know it’s a gay character and have no problem with same sex intimacy. While fans demand might sometimes be approved by the creators, the actors has to accept the new relationship when they signed for a straight role and unfortunately there are still a lot of actors not wanting to play a gay role. My personal opinion but I suspect it’s what happened for Destiel and Buddy, the showrunners of supernatural literally said they took months to talk to Jensen ackles about the confession scene because they feared his reaction and said the scene could only go on if he gave his consent and nothing happened in this scene beside a man crying about an unrequited love and dying the next second. For buddy, we all know 9-1-1 is an lgbtq friendly show with multiple queer characters so yes it can be because there are enough lgbtq representation for them,like I said, but I think it’s coming from the actors and now that they are estranged to each other’s, it’s never going to happen.

But now let’s look like at what happen when a straight character become queer or a pairing shipped by fans become canon :

Eve and villanelle (killing Eve)

Actually they got criticised and accused of queerbaiting for the portrayal of the relationship during the two first seasons. But in season 3, they decided to make them kiss and the kiss got well received which show once again that there is nothing risky with having two leads being queer.Notice that they are the only couple from an American show in the list.

Christian and Oliver (Verbotene liebe)

The show verbotene liebe is a soap opera from 1995 to 2015. The character Oliver Sabel ( Purple shirt) was introduced in 1999 and left in 2002 and then came back in 2007. The character Christian Mann came in 2006 and was established as straight only paired with women while Oliver was Bi but more attracted to men. When Oliver came back, the head writer decided to pair the two together and this storyline proved to be a gold mine for the show as they received a huge international following with their cut on YouTube having millions of views and are considered a supercouple.

Aris and Temo ( El corazon nunca se equivoca/ Mi marido tiene mas familia)

The character Aris (middle) appeared in Mi marido tiene familia as a straight character and Temo (left) character came in the second season called Mi marido tiene mas familia, Temo was written as gay since his introduction but he was meant to be paired with Diego (right). The fans liked Aris and Temo better together as Temo had a crush on Aris that the pairing changed and what did they got : an extreme international attention, got noticed by Ricky Martin, became the first ever gay couple to have a telenovela, with 2 millions of viewers in average, won awards and had sold out concert.

Bitch that’s not a dream, that’s ‘Juntos él corazón nunca se equivoca’, a series by ‘Las Estrellas’, from Mexico.