[ecrea] CFP: Queerbaiting (Special Issue in Journal of Fandom Studies)

CFP: Queerbaiting

REMINDER: Deadline approaching (June 1, 2016)

Special Issue in Journal of Fandom Studies

Edited by Joseph Brennan

Fans use the term ‘queerbaiting’ to account for a television tactic 
whereby producers deliberately insert homoerotic subtext between 
characters in order to capture a queer viewership, yet never actualise 
this subtext on screen. It is near exclusively deemed by fans as an 
exploitative tactic that is harmful to queer viewers; one that teases 
queer representations, then shuts down opportunities for validation with 
‘no homo’ jokes in text and denial of the existence of any subtext in 
commentary. It has thus attained decidedly negative connotations in its 
usage by fans and a degree of cultural currency in the popular sphere, 
the hashtag #Queerbaiting an increasingly popular device on Twitter for 
shaming such tactics, for example. Cult series such as Supernatural and 
Sherlock are among the most frequently named for queerbaiting their 
audiences, which given the scholarly interest by fan scholars in these 
texts, raises important questions for our field. Recently, investigation 
has begun into some of the questions posed by queerbaiting, such as the 
activist agenda behind the term’s coinage (Nordin, 2015), its statement 
on fan-producer interactions (Collier, 2015), textual readings of 
certain texts that queerbait (Fathallah, 2015), and of how this 
relatively new term bodes for understandings of particular 
well-canvassed fan practices, such as slash (Brennan, 2016).

The recent interest by scholars in the various issues associated with 
queerbaiting make a collection of essays that situate the tactic in 
terms of the fan studies field timely. Further, a survey of such issues 
is important in light of the impassioned calls from many fans for such 
tactics to cease, and for producers to take account of the harm caused 
by queerbaiting. A key argument being that in ‘baiting’ their audiences, 
then denying actual representations, queer viewers face invalidation of 
their experiences (Sheehan, 2015). This is not to discount alternate 
readings on the practice, such as of the potential queer readings that 
‘queerbaiting’ in fact make possible, even plausible (Brennan, 2016).

This special edition of Journal of Fandom Studies aims to take account 
of why queerbaiting as a concept has gained the appeal it has, and why 
now. Not only what exactly it means to queerbait, but also the 
relationship between this term and the current media landscape, in which 
queer representations are supposedly possible in mainstream texts, yet 
still denied. Therefore, the issue seeks to take stock of the current 
state of media representations accused of queerbaiting and of the 
fannish culture that surrounds the development of this term. 
Importantly, the edition aims to consider what criticism of certain 
tactics might mean for longstanding debates within the field, among 
them: media effects, fan/producer power relations, active/passive 
consumption, fan production (slash, for example), and identity, to name 
just a few. As such, submissions are encouraged from across disciplines, 
with the aim to better understand what queerbaiting means to fans; what 
harm, if any, it causes them; and how we are to proceed with the study 
of fandoms that, some argue, are harmful.

Submission Details
Submissions of particular interest are not limited to but may address:
• Etymology of the term
• What constitutes queerbaiting?
• Queerbaiting as fan activism
• Good/bad representations of sexuality
• Mainstreaming queer representation
• Queerbaiting vs homoeroticism
• Campaigns to boycott series that queerbait
• Queerbaiting vs queer reading
• Hoyay, fan service, subtext, ‘no homo’ jokes, and other related terms
• Textual readings of particular series that queerbait, such as 
Supernatural, Sherlock, Merlin, Rizzoli & Isles, Teen Wolf
• #Queerbaiting on Twitter, Tumblr
• Fan-producer dynamics
• Methodologies for studying queerbaiting
• Queerbaiting on film (The Avengers, Victor Frankenstein, for example)
• Queerbaiting in advertising
• Queerbaiting and slash/femslash, ‘correcting’ queerbaiting
• Queerbaiting as invalidation of identity
• Cast and producer responses to accusations of queerbaiting
• Celebrity queerbaiting (James Franco, Nick Jonas, etc.)
• Capitalising on queerbaiting (the ‘pink dollar’)

This special edition of Journal of Fandom Studies will be edited by Dr 
Joseph Brennan.

Please send abstracts of 300 words and a short biographical note to 
(joseph.brennan /at/ sydney.edu.au) by June 1, 2016. Completed articles of 
6000–9000 words will be due November 1, 2016.
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