Gender & Sexuality dictionary
lesbian-baiting
[lez-bee-uh n beyt-ing]
黑料网 does聽lesbian-baiting mean?
Lesbian-baiting is the practice of labeling women 鈥� particularly feminists or those who do not conform to traditional gender roles 鈥� as lesbian, regardless of their sexual orientation. It is often used to discredit or undermine women.
Where does lesbian-baiting come from?
Lesbian-baiting emerged in queer and feminist discourse in the early 1990s, though the practice is much older. Lesbian is a term for a female homosexual, while baiting, for “stirring up,” draws from terms like race-baiting.
Lesbian-baiting happens when someone shames a woman into behaving in traditional, patriarchally feminine ways by labeling them as lesbian. If you’ve ever witnessed a woman be called a “dyke” for wearing short hairstyles or a pantsuit, or “butch” for fighting on behalf of gender equality, that’s lesbian-baiting.
This practice is inherently both sexist and homophobic. Because of that, it’s frequently used against women in positions of power as a way to detract from their authority or exert male dominance over them.
Lesbian-baiting shouldn’t be confused with queer-baiting, which is when TV shows or films tease homosexual relationships between characters without ever realizing them.
Examples of lesbian-baiting
Who uses lesbian-baiting?
The phrase lesbian-baiting is primarily used in feminist, queer, and sociological discourse, including academic and internet writing on sexism and homophobia. But given the greater movement toward gender and sexual equality in the 2000s, lesbian-baiting spread somewhat into the mainstream lexicon by women and queer people disturbed and disillusioned by the phenomenon.
A friend brought up that the new Doctor being a woman will likely result in transphobic jokes and lesbian baiting.
Now I'm sad, because yeah— Coopacabra (@MermanMurdoch)
Case in point… CANADA is not lesbian baiting. Flannel is pretty predominant here as part of our winter 'fashion'. :)
— RedBearVex痰叹叹蛡蜐eD馃惢鈽旓笍 (@RedVexeDesigns)
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of lesbian-baiting like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of lesbian-baiting that will help our users expand their word mastery.