Billie Eilish recently shared some stills from her song ‘lost cause.’ A completely normal thing to do. Except it’s the caption of the post that has the entire fandom going haywire from speculations and controversies. Just a little caption ‘I love girls,’ has stirred up a big controversy that has people wondering if this is her coming out or some problematic way of promoting her new album by queerbaiting. Many people are accusing her of using such a caption especially during the pride month to garner more views and attention to her new songs.
First, what is queerbaiting?
In media, queerbaiting often manifests in the form of a coded romance or other type of representation that alludes to being LGBTQ, but never actually confirms or depicts that representation,” Rich Ferraro, chief communications officer at GLAAD, the watchdog for fair and accurate LGBTQ media representation, tells Yahoo Life about the idea, sometimes called “gaybaiting.” “We often see it from brands or talent who are trying to market products or projects to the community and have a goal not to create change, but to profit from LGBTQ dollars.”
Further, he adds, “For a community that has historically been underrepresented in media and continues to lack enough visibility in film, television, advertising and more, queerbaiting has been called out time and again by our community and flies in the face of how to authentically and meaningfully engage with LGBTQ people.”
According to Pink News, “By adding homoerotic subtext or erotic tension between two characters, usually leads, LGBTQ audiences are enticed to tune in, unaware that there was never an intention to elevate the subtext to an actual relationship. Bleugh.” The story continues, “The powers that be use LGBTQ characters and relationships as bait, in order to appeal to the gay dollar and the queer views, without actually following through. It’s just enough to keep LGBT people interested, without having to really represent us.”
The Billie Eilish scandal
This is not the first time the star has been accused of queerbaiting. Her song titles ‘Wish you were gay’ has been in the controversies too. Initially it was thought to be a song for her unrequited love for a straight person but then we received a statement from her.
She responded, saying, “First off I want to be so clear that it’s so not supposed to be an insult. I feel like it’s been a little bit misinterpreted. I tried so hard to not make it in any way offensive. The whole idea of the song is, it’s kind of a joke. It’s kind of like ‘I’m an ass and you don’t love me.’ And you don’t love me because you don’t love me and that’s the only reason and I wish you didn’t love me because you didn’t love girls… It’s just supposed to be ‘I’m selfish and an ass.’
Her lost cause music video
Her music video released for her song ‘Lost Cause’ is also problematic. It features a bunch of girls just twerking and grinding over each other. People suggested that if she wanted people to a draw a ‘straight girls hanging together’ conclusion then she could have used other ways but showing it in this way is clear queerbaiting with the LGBTQIA+ community clearly looking for any form of representation. This matter could have rested there but this Instagram post has now added fuel to the fire.
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