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If you have any form of social media, then chances are you may have stumbled across the hot hockey show that has taken the internet by storm. With topping charts as one of the best new shows, earning near-perfect scores on IMDb, Heated Rivalry has easily become one of the most popular shows of 2025. Season one of Heated Rivalry follows world-renowned hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov throughout their battles on the ice (and in the bedroom), spanning across nine years as they wrestle between their careers and queer identities. The show portrays erotic and sexual moments between the two boys as a buildup to the passionate and all-consuming love that they develop in the season finale, so why have I, and many other straight women, found ourselves so deeply invested in this romance as someone who has no physical similarities to the characters?
For many women, Heated Rivalry has been their “toe dipping into the puddle” experience into the world of queer male media, but for me, it’s all too familiar. I hold a special place in my heart for movies like “Brokeback Mountain” and “Red, White, and Royal Blue”, shows like “Heartstopper” and “Young Royals”, and even FanFictions about Larry Stylinson and Byler (it will happen, I believe).Â
As I consumed and tried to understand the spectrum of queer male relationships, each romance, no matter how drastically different, all had one obvious similarity: both characters were males (duh), but the more I binged, the more I truly found myself envious of them and who they get to be in relation to each other.Â
I never have and never will get to experience the freedom to relate to someone without already being positioned as lesser. Shane and Ilyas’s relationship may have been secretive, but it was powerful because they were still equal; there is no inherited power-dynamic between them, no underlying expectations that one must be softer and easier. They are both allowed to be strong, vulnerable, and masculine simultaneously without the repercussion of threatening each other’s gender. Their intense masculinity is never weaponized and does not dominate. It is rare for me to watch the men in my life be willingly soft without feeling like they are losing power because they share the same human feelings as women.Â
A woman’s role in heterosexual romances stems from being desired; if there is no competition for the man, then she is “too easy”; she must perform and be consumed. In Heated Rivalry, their desire is not only symmetrical, but no one is the object, no one is the prize. I crave the equal devotion Ilya and Shane have for one another that is never performative, neither emotional nor physical. The show contains countless vulnerable and raw sex scenes that spiked women’s interest. I personally found it so intriguing because there was no threat of violence. No one was being harshly dominated or abused, hidden behind the label of a “kink” and both were satisfied (a rare occurrence for women in the bedroom). These scenes have become women’s hidden desires, not fetishes.Â
Misogyny will always play a role in my relationship, and every heterosexual relationship. It is so deeply rooted in our society that seeing a love that defies it feels life-changing yet unattainable. I hate that I will always have to navigate power before intimacy and grieve a relationship built upon loving on an even playing field.Â