Queerbaiting

Queerbaiting is a term used for when creators hint at and code a relationship as queer, but never actually make it explicitly queer, in order to attract a queer audience. In Supernatural the charge of queerbaiting has been leveled at the relationship between Dean and Castiel.

See Meta Essays for further discussion on characters' sexuality, as well as Wincest and Destiel.

The following are articles about queerbaiting in Supernatural.

• Definition and history of Queer Baiting on Fanlore
• Supernatural Has a Queer Baiting Problem and it Needs to Stop on TV Guide
• MTV website Geek News re-posts a survey done by x-cetera on Tumblr about whether fans think Destiel will become canon.
• Dean and Castiel's Reunion and Queer-baiting on Spoiler TV.
• Supernatural fans take Show to task for queer baiting on The Advocate
• Interview: Fangasm: Supernatural Fangirls, Katherine Larsen and Lynn Zubernis on Sequential Tart
• Supernatural Needs to Admit Dean is Bisexual on Policy Mic
• Queerbaited: Homoeroticism & Homophobia in Supernatural in the Age of the Internet by Anna Campbell
• ‘Supernatural’: The Slowest Burn Or Biggest Queerbaiting? Time To Decide by Emma Dailey Mitchell
• Roach, E 2019. "Supernatural Wincest and Dean's Bisexual Panic." in Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities. Brennan, Joseph (ed). University of Iowa Press.