The show on everyone’s lips: “Heated Rivalry”. Whether you love it, hate it or are completely indifferent, chances are you’ve been seeing this show blowing up worldwide. As a member of the queer community, I make it my mission to watch as much queer media as I can. I want to see our stories being told and I want a show I can actually relate to, as many of us do. While I’ve seen a lot of love surrounding this show, I’ve also seen a lot of backlash from the queer community, especially concerning the idea that both the original graphic novel series and the television series were created and written by straight people.
Is this their story to tell? Are they doing the queer community justice? Should straight girls really be telling the stories of gay men? Should straight people in general even be watching or commenting on this?
That’s where I come in. Me. A lesbian. I seem to have no horse in this race being neither a gay man nor a straight woman, and yet, here I am writing a whole article about my opinions. Did anyone ask? No. But here I am to give my honest-to-God opinions on “Heated Rivalry” because, dammit, ALL gay voices matter when it comes to how our community is being portrayed in the media. So, without further ado, let’s get into it.
Let’s start with an obvious question: At a complete surface level, did I enjoy the show? Yes.
“Heated Rivalry” has a lot to offer as a TV show. It’s got romance, passion, yearning, tension, hot guys (that one’s not for me but that’s not why I was there). What more could you ask for? I have always been an adamant fan of the romance/drama genre especially when it comes to queer stories. “Queer as Folk,” “The L Word,” “Looking,” “POSE,” etc. These are all shows I have come to love that uplift queer main characters and highlight what it is really like to exist in the world as a queer human being, lesbian, trans, gay or otherwise. “Heated Rivalry” does not do this.
I know what you’re thinking: “Alexis, what about all those guys out there in this situation who are afraid to come out. What about their story?” When one of them wants to come forward and share their POV, I’m all ears. Plus, those guys are definitely not watching this, I promise. This is a story created by a straight woman for other straight women who subconsciously (or not) think gay men are simply there for their amusement. The “I want a GBF” crowd.
Sure, this show does give a glimpse into the hardships of being a gay man who has to live in hiding. In the sports world especially, men are expected to be the pinnacle of masculinity and they are all supposed to want to have sex with girls and drive big trucks and have muscles. Of course, I am empathetic towards Shane, Ilya and Scott for having to hide who they really are. However, the people that wrote this story truly have no idea what that is like and neither does the straight viewership. All they see are, once again, hot guys getting it on. And I’m not even going to get into how overlooked Kip is.
Like I said, I did enjoy this show on a surface level as many did. But when you really look at it from a lens of other queer shows, it just does not stack up. It was clearly not meant for queer audiences. I’m not saying every queer show needs to be the same. They don’t all need to be hard hitting dramas about the struggles of being gay. They can be light-hearted just like any straight show, but what’s the point in watching at that point. From my perspective, a good television show (or really just any piece of media) really says something. It says something about society or about the artist who made it. This show doesn’t really say anything. The creators are not coming from any place of truth because this is a subject they know nothing about. This was so completely watered down and so clearly made as a feel-good story for straight people who want to feel like an ally.
I know it sounds like I am saying that no straight people should ever write stories about gay people, I’m not. However, if they are going to, they need to redirect the narrative from “omg these guys are so hot let’s treat them like they aren’t even human” to “gays are people too.”
Really, the Kip and Scott story did at 100% better job at telling a relatable story than Shane and Ilya’s, and they got like one episode. And what an episode it was, definitely my favorite of the series (Ep. 3).
While doomscrolling on Instagram Reels the other day, I found a really interesting video by the Drag Artist Taipei (@taipeiqueen). In the video, she discusses how when queer stories are adapted by producers (especially in today’s ever suffocating capitalist hellscape) it’s primarily for monetary gain. They aren’t worried about painting an accurate picture of gay life, they want to appeal to the broadest audience they can so they can buy a new yacht and lobby to take away more of our rights. She also talks about the erasure of feminine gay men in media, except for comic relief. I’m not saying every gay show needs to be about one particular type of stereotypical feminine gay man, but I’m saying that when we are only marketing the extremely masculine ones to straight audiences, we are just reinforcing the idea that gay men should just act like “normal, masculine men” or that there is only one type of gay guy worth our attention.
The queer community deserves better, especially in the year 2026. We are already facing so much hardship right now and to be honest this feels like a slap in the face. What are the straight audiences going to do after seeing this? Invade more of our spaces and take more of our resources, probably? Will they start to fight and advocate for us? I doubt it.
This is hardly a queer story. If you plopped a woman in for one of them it would be pretty much the same. This show has exactly the same vibes as Taylor Swift posting a Biden-Harris cookie on her Instagram story or Harry Styles posing in a dress for a photoshoot. None of it is real. If you really want to see a gay story, I can recommend you about 20 other things to go watch that are just as romantic, passionate and even have hot guys (once again, if you’re into that sort of thing). But the thing is, the audience of this show doesn’t want to see that. They want to see a regurgitated image of what they think being gay should look like. But I challenge you, reader, to be different.
Go watch “POSE.” Go watch “Queer as Folk.” Go watch “The L Word.” I promise you will be a better ally for it. Just don’t act like you know our stories when you never will, unless you actually seek it out. I’m not saying you shouldn’t watch “Heated Rivalry” (because as I mentioned at the beginning of the article, it is enjoyable), I’m saying that it is what you get from it and what you do with it that is important to consider.
Read my other articles here: https://www.hercampus.com/author/alexis-butt/