What Is Queerbaiting, And Why Is It Bad?

screenrant.com:

Studios are often accused of using the practice known as queerbaiting in their films and TV shows—here’s what queerbaiting means and why it’s bad for the LGBTQ+ community and representation. The designation of a storyline, story arc, or how a character was treated by a TV series or movie as queerbaiting is much more prominent in the public discourse than in the past, with fans becoming more and more vocal when they perceive studios are employing the technique. Although queerbaiting can present itself in the way a storyline is executed, its most famous examples come in the way that a film or TV show is marketed to suggest that it will include major representation of the LGBTQ+ community while offering only crumbs to the fans, as the supposedly queer characters or moments were either secondary characters or irrelevant to the main plot.

While different kinds of products have been accused of queerbaiting, Disney Studios has repeatedly been accused of queerbaiting. Disney’s subsidiaries Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios have similarly been called out for queerbaiting. One of the most notable MCU relationships that fans got behind, clearly seeing the pair as romantic and rooting for them as such, was between Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Captain America: The First Avenger established a strong closeness between Bucky and Steve, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier went even further by having Cap stop fighting the Winter Soldier and emotionally utter, “Because I’m with you to the end of the line.” Stucky—as fans dubbed the pair—weren’t alone in receiving accusations of queerbaiting, being joined by the Star Wars sequel trilogy’s Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac). Affectionately called