On Queerbaiting

‘About a month ago, Billie Eilish released the latest single off her upcoming album, Happier Than Ever. To promote it, she posted a series of screenshots and behind the scenes photos from the accompanying music video on Instagram with the caption “I love girls.” The images featured Eilish surrounded by her female dancers, all dressed in beige and denim, laughing, joking, and hugging each other. Some fans took this as Eilish connecting herself with the LGBTQ+ community, and thus accusations of “queerbaiting” began to file in. People claimed Eilish was using a lesbian aesthetic to sell her music, while others thought that if she was actually queer, she should be more forthcoming about it, as though she owed it to her fans. Eilish, cleverly, chose not to respond to the supposed “controversy” drummed up by the online press. Still, it didn’t stop the conversation around that specific term, “queerbaiting”, being opened up yet again.’

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You can read the full column here.