We Need To Talk About Nick Jonas’s Queerbaiting
When ex-Jonas Brothers bro Nick Jonas dropped his pants for Flaunt magazine earlier last month, the Internet went wild. Here was our beloved Disney star, our curly-haired, purity ring-wearing role model showing off his abs, ass crack and crotch-in-hand for a magazine spread. The photos were a prelude to Jonas’s self-titled debut solo album — a Maroon 5 rip off, in our humble opinion. They intended to mark the death of a beloved child star and the birth of a new, provocative brand. While there’s nothing new to say about Jonas’s growth spurt, it’s worth exploring how this transformation opened the doors to a regressive, potentially dangerous, but all in all familiar form of celebrity branding: the queerbaiter. And this year, Nick Jonas is the ultimate one.
Earlier this fall, Jonas went on an extensive tour of New York’s gay clubs to promote his self-titled album, released Nov. 10. He played a couple of tracks, flashed his abs and performed a few strip teases–all for his quickly growing gay fan base. Since doing this, Jonas has asserted his admiration for his queer following and has vehemently denied what critics are calling a clear instance of “queerbaiting,” a term popularized by Tumblr users to describe a subtle but eventually repudiated queer presence on TV shows such as Supernatural and Sherlock. Interpersonal relationships in these series remain subtextual, and what is alluded to is never explored.
In the case of Jonas, we essentially have a straight male (something Jonas has publicly affirmed) who is relating to his audience in a highly inappropriate and deceptive manner. In a recent interview he spoke about his queer fans, saying that “After a few drinks, anything can happen.” While this sounds all good and nice, his words actually tease, devalue and fetishize.
He may insist he’s doing nothing wrong, explaining how his “heart is in the right place,” but in its artificiality his act–and queerbaiting in general–comes off as parody. He’s cashing in on something he’s not, and, in a way, perpetuating the “no homo” joke that so many of us were haunted by in high school. It’s the grandest form of teasing, and it fucking hurts.
In addition to being a cocktease, Jonas’s actions and words also have a greater consequence. In his statement, Jonas simultaneously degrades sexual relations outside the heteronormative realm–implying that he would only partake if inebriated–and glamorizes queerness. He makes himself a martyr (and a marketable product) for what he views as the highest form of open-mindedness.
It’s by no means a new sales tactic. Madonna, Lady Gaga and James Franco, as examples, have made their careers queerbaiting, fashioning themselves as champions and “part of the struggle.” And, to throw morality aside for a second, it does make sense from a financial perspective. In 2013 LGBT buying power was projected to be at about 830 billion dollars. Although it disgusts us, it explains how the queerbaiter was made into a popular brand.
Nevertheless, it’s also a nuanced form of a homophobia, one that “serves primarily to further exoticize queer sexuality, frustrating members of the queer community who are living out lives and facing the embedded dangers that come along with that — to those who live honestly and face the consequences,” as explained in a Village Voice essay.
There’s something inherently reductive to what Jonas, Franco, and most recently, One Direction’s Harry Styles do. If they’re actually queer, fantastic. But if they’re not then they’re making a fad out of a group of people’s lives. Their perceived ideas of acceptance and tolerance are, instead, hurtful, false and not sexy.
Image via
