After the release of “Wednesday” Season 2, one question plagued many  minds: when will queerbaiting end? The term “queerbaiting” emerged in the 2000s to describe a show that seemed to ‘bait’ the LGBTQ+ community into supporting media by hinting at the possibility of queer representation, without any real commitment to developing a queer relationship.

Fans of Wednesday, particularly  the ship between Wednesday and Enid, thought the way the characters’ relationship developed in the new season was reminiscent of other shows known for their popular queer ships like Supernatural (2009), Sherlock (2010) Supergirl (2016) and more. Showrunners may believe that if they announced that certain characters were queer, homophobic viewers may stop watching. However, to so heavily allude to queerness without any real commitment to representing the community it can feel just as hurtful, because the show or the company running it refuses to show real support, beyond having queer coded characters, in favor of keeping a larger potentially homophobic audience.

For shows like “Wednesday,” “Supernatural,” “Sherlock” and “Supergirl,” certain fans felt like it was about more than a silly ship between two characters, but a way to draw in the LGBTQ+ community without actually representing them. 

There currently is no dictionary definition for the term “queerbaiting,” and because of that, the term constantly develops new applications. Generally, queerbaiting t is considered a marketing tactic above all else.

Queerbaiting is just one part of the must larger issue of companies’ unwillingness to truly support the LGBTQIA+ community.  While I do recognize that the lack of support for the LGBTQ+ community is a larger global issue that cannot be easily resolved, I believe that one step in the right direction is disallowing companies and shows from using potential queerness as a marketing tactic.