Top 5 Shows Accused of Queerbaiting

Queerbaiting is when writers, marketers, and creators of a piece of media tease a romantic relationship or sexual tension between two characters using subtext. The baiting is when a queer relationship is teased to gain an LGBTQA+ audience, yet there is no intention of making the relationship ‘canon’. Not fully committing to a homosexual pairing means that the media will not alienate any possible conservative audience.

Author’s Note: I obviously appreciate that friends of the same gender can be close and physically affectionate to one another without there being a sexual element. The TV shows listed below are (almost) universally agreed upon instances of queerbaiting.

Spoilers!

Alex x Olivia  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999- )

Known to fans as ‘The Butch’; Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is a series regular who solves sexual abuse cases throughout the series. Olivia is known, perhaps quite stereotypically, as ‘The Butch’ because for a lot of the series she has very short hair (which she rocks, by the way!) and masculine-cut clothing. Olivia is paired by fans with SVU’s permanent Assistant District Attorney: Alex Cabot (Stephanie March). Known as ‘The Blonde’ because she is (you guessed it!) blonde.

Alex and Olivia are two very powerful and beautiful women who, according to a large portion of the fanbase, are hinted at as being in a romantic relationship. For three seasons, the two work closely together and, according to some, stand too close to one another, lean on one another, and often go for ‘drinks’. There are also countless allegations of ‘eye-shagging’.

In Season 5 Episode 4 ‘Loss ‘, Alex becomes the target of a powerful drug cartel. Olivia offers to let Alex stay with her for a couple of days “until we figure this whole thing out”. Ultimately, Alex is shot by the cartel, with Olivia cradling her injured body and crying “…no, no, no. Stay with me, sweetheart”.

Interestingly, almost throughout the run of the entire series (just 26 years and counting!) Olivia is mistaken for lesbian/bi by both the public and her colleagues despite having (usually disastrous) relationships with men and declaring herself ‘straight’.

Buffy x Faith Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

A fandom not short of a few shipping wars, but one of the most contentious is the dynamic of the two Slayers; Buffy and Faith.

Faith Lehane debuted in Season 3, Episode 3, ‘Faith, Hope & Trick’ as the other Slayer. Almost right away, fans read this sassy, beautiful, and promiscuous woman as bisexual. Faith’s actress, Eliza Dushku, claimed that Faith “swang both ways” when asked at Dragon Con in 2011. At the same convention, Dushku also claimed Faith “has a thing for Buffy”. Faith’s reaction to Buffy always seemed to be the classic; she didn’t know whether she wanted to be her or be with her. Faith’s brief friendship revolved around Faith seeming very possessive of Buffy’s attention and somewhat bitter towards Buffy’s male suitors.

In Season 3 Episode 17 ‘Enemies’, the newly villainous Faith breaks away from a fight with Buffy but not before giving her ex-friend a kiss on the forehead. In the DVD commentary for this episode, writer Doug Petrie claims in the original script Faith kisses Buffy on the lips (the ones on her face; don’t start!). Dushku confirmed that due to network constraints and censorship, it was changed to a forehead kiss. 

House x Wilson House MD (2005-2012)

House MD was originally a Sherlock Holmes spin-off complete with all the baggage a Holmes and Watson-like friendship brings. House and Wilson are best buds (mostly) throughout the entire series. Despite being a self-proclaimed nihilist, House appears to have a soft spot for Wilson; combine that with the actors’ chemistry and excellent comic timing, and they make quite the duo, and many fans have shipped the two together.

In the universe of House MD, many of the characters follow the trope of mistaking the pair for a couple. There are many, many jokes (usually from House himself) about the pair being in a romantic/sexual relationship. In Season 6 Episode ‘The Down Low’, House and Wilson are living together, and Wilson is, for some reason, shocked that their neighbours believe them to be a gay couple. House reminds Wilson they are two middle-aged men sharing a condo.

Hugh Laurie describes the relationship: “Wilson is the love of his life. They were the loves of each other’s lives, just not in a physical way.”  (An Insider’s Guide, 2009)

In the series finale, House MD fakes his own death to spend Wilson’s final months with him, and after his diagnosis, Wilson tells House: “I need you to tell me you love me”. The whole series ends with the pair literally riding into the sunset together. So there you go.

Dean x Castiel Supernatural (2006 -2020)

Supernatural is another cult show that causes a lot of feelings among fans. The character of Dean (Jensen Ackles) is one of the main characters of the series. According to fans, Dean’s subtext has always been that he is a closeted bisexual. Dean embodies the familiar tropes of repressed sexuality; overcompensating masculinity, posturing, and was raised by a neglectful and emotionally abusive father.

The angel Castiel (Misha Collins) does not appear until Season 4, where he saves Dean and the pair have immediate chemistry. For years, the pair’s relationship was teased to its legions of adoring fans who were sure their ‘Destiel’ ship would come into port during the long-running show’s finale.

That’s not exactly what happened. In Season 15 Episode 18, ‘Despair’, after years of teasing, Cas finally tells Dean he loves him, and in one of the most ridiculous cases of the ‘Bury Your Gays’* trope, he is sent to a Hell dimension directly after because he has experienced true happiness (very Buffy coded). With two episodes to go until the ultimate finale, fans were convinced Castiel would be brought back, and his love requited. This did not happen; instead Dean dies (somewhat ludicrously) on a rusty nail, burying yet another queer-coded character.

Interestingly, in the Latin- American Spanish dubbed version of Episode 18, Dean is believed to have responded with “me too” to Cas’s love confession. Many fans believed this could have been from an original script or cut of the episode. Though it could just be a fan conspiracy.

John x Sherlock BBC Sherlock (2010-2017)

If you look up the dictionary definition of ‘queerbaiting’ there is probably a picture of BBC’s Sherlock. But their picture is in the Wikipedia page definition, so there’s that!

Where to start? The British series is set up like a romance; a wounded soldier, John (Martin Freeman) returns home from war, all alone in a big city (London) with no place to call home. This soldier is rescued from despair by his beautiful, enigmatic new flatmate: Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch). In the pilot episode, we are even treated to a scene of John gazing up wantonly at Sherlock, who stands atop a roof framed by the full moon. Very romantic.

Sherlock Holmes’s sexuality has been up for debate for at least a century. Asking whether Holmes and Watson did more than just solve crimes together is practically passe at this point. In BBC Sherlock Series 1 Episode 1 ‘A Study in Pink’, Sherlock seems oblivious to Molly’s attempts to ask him out but assumes John is later in the episode, where Sherlock politely turns him down. In the same conversation, Sherlock does not answer the question of his sexuality, just that women are not his “area”.

Much like another JohnLockian ship, House and Wilson, almost everybody in Sherlock and John’s life believes them to be a couple. This includes their landlady, who lived in the flat below them for years. Was she hearing ‘things’? John repeatedly tells anyone who will listen that he is ‘not gay’ but interestingly never describes himself as straight either.

Much like Supernatural, some say that the queerbaiting seems to take a rather malicious turn towards certain fanbases. Creator Mark Gatiss said that the writers had no problem with the “notion” of Sherlock and John being a couple. However, Gatiss stated “…that’s not the story we want to tell.” (Sherlock’s Home, 2016) With that in mind, viewers had to wonder just what was going through the minds of the writers during one of the final scenes of Season 3. Sherlock is saying goodbye to John on a plane runway, probably forever. He manages to stutter out that there is something he has always meant to say and never has, and since he will likely never see John again, he will say it now. After a deep breath and intense look, he confesses that the name Sherlock is actually a girl’s name…

And if you still don’t think the writers were leaning into the romantic tension, check out the Series 4 Finale Trailer #2 on YouTube!

* The ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope is a hangover from so-called morality practices in the history of Film and Television. Productions could have a queer-coded character as long as they were sufficiently punished for their orientation (usually death).