In a new piece from Rolling Stone titled "Why Queerbaiting Matters More Than Ever", the publication calls out a slew of stars like Nick Jonas, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Madonna, and more for queerbaiting aka hinting at same-gender attractions to entice an LGBTQ+ fanbase even though they themselves are heterosexual.
A few paragraphs in, it takes a quick jab a Cardi B and Normani for their new music video "Wild Side" where "the two are pictured naked and gyrating against one another." RS says that "Normani was criticized on Instagram by a user and accused of something similar, which was later shared across Twitter," though it's not clear where those accusations came from. They certainly were not widespread or even a mainstream conversation.
B didn't appreciate the sentiment and responded to the article on Twitter. "Uuummmm @RollingStone queer baiting? You do know we was trying to hide a whole baby bump right?" she wrote. "Also I’m married to a man but I have express soo much about my bisexuality and my experiences wit girls. All of a sudden 'queer baiting' is the new word & people use it to the ground!"
The 28-year-old continued:
"I don’t like this new 'queer baiting' word. I feel like it pressure artist to talk about their sexuality or their experiences that they don’t feel comfortable speaking about. If a artist kiss a girl on a video does that means she gotta show videos & text wit other women?
B has been accused of queerbaiting before. In 2018, the rapper released "Girls" alongside pop stars Rita Ora, Charli XCX, and Bebe Rexha where the women sang about drinking wine and kissing girls but were called out for being tone-deaf by the LGBTQ+ community. At the time, she clarified that she has had attractions to women.
Most recently, Eilish has been accused of queerbaiting after she posted an image from her recent music video on Instagram and captioned it "I love girls." Many LGBTQ+ fans called out the 19-year-old for perhaps meaning it more platonically than it was received.
But the question still stands; how much right do we have to the private lives of celebrities? Do they have a responsibility to prove their sexuality to the public? They are still people and they should be allowed the room to explore as they choose and feel appropriate but when their lives are up for public consumption, it can be hard to draw the line between genuinely exploring who you are and using LGBTQ+ folk's intense desire to be seen in media for album sales.
