#im just tagging fandoms slash people who ive seen people make these claims against

[mbat]

real people cant queerbait. queerbaiting is the practice done by media creators, usually showrunners, of making what is essentially a couple of two people of the same gender but never confirming it, usually to keep viewership in less accepting places and at the same time keeping the viewership of those who love watching that couple, rooting for them to get together.

real people dont owe us their sexuality. they dont owe us anything, actually. especially not celebrities who are strangers to us.

"b-but theyre appropriating queer culture!" not really? men being feminine is typically in queer spaces, but i thought we wanted that to be normalized, for everyone to be allowed to express themselves however they please as long as no one gets hurt. i thought we wanted clothes and makeup and hair to be genderless, as they shouldve always been.

do we want cishet people to stop playing us in media? yeah, sure, but theyre still allowed to, its not illegal and they can still give decent performances. they dont have to match up to their identity on screen to play a role, even though it would be better for quite a few reasons. id prefer if they did but im not going to grab a pitchfork if they dont.

hell, even if someone was kissing people of the same gender in public but not confirming their sexuality, they still dont owe it to us. its their life, and literally if they are not hurting anyone, which they arent, then its not our business.

real people cant queerbait, they are not characters in a show, theyre not there for you to change and use as entertainment. theyre just as real as you and me and you need to consider real hard how it would feel to be on the recieving end of your behavior before you do something awful. hell, not even just in this situation of insisting people give their lives to us, but in any situation.

celebrities are still people, whether we like it or not. treat them like human beings, you weirdos. theyre not your friend, theyre not a character, theyre not there for you. theyre not a doll that youre playing with.

words have meanings. queerbaiting is a word for media discussion. it was made for that and it should stay for that. stop being cruel to real people because you think youre the center of the universe.