I, like so many other people I know, have recently become obsessed with a new HBO show that has reached global audiences. It is a phenomenon so big that Nikki Glaser, host of the Golden Globes, joked, “Stories like these don’t always get told. I hope that the success of Heated Rivalry is proof that American audiences are ready for more shows about hockey.”
If you haven’t heard of it (which I bet you have, by the way it’s taken over social media), Heated Rivalry is an HBO show about two hockey players who have an 8-year-long situationship.
Now that is a very brief, very bare description, but that sums up the relationship that Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams), two professional hockey players, share in this new show that has fans gripped.
It is a rivals-to-lovers story that just so happens to be about two men. Yes, it is a gay hockey show. Now, what may shock you about this show is its fan base. While Heated Rivalry is loved by many members of the LGBTQ community, women also seem to be one of the biggest demographics to love the relationship between Shane and Ilya.
Why are women so interested in a show that centers on a gay relationship (while also having some pretty explicit sex scenes)?
Quick disclaimer: I know that not all straight women like this show. I know that not every woman who likes this show is straight, and some women may argue that they don’t like the show for the sex. But there are undeniable sexual undertones to the entire series, and to not highlight why this may interest so many women would be something too important to overlook.
Feminist writer Jessica Valenti helps us unpack why straight women in particular are gravitating towards this show. She states that she thinks “women are culturally starved for depictions of sex between equal partners.” In the show, Shane and Ilya, even when there is a difference of power in the bedroom, outside of the bedroom, they “exist as equals.”
What does this mean? Well, women are so used to seeing sexually explicit content that has been catered to the male perspective. Valenti continues, “There is always a massive power imbalance. And even when the power imbalance is like turned on its head in the sex scene. If those characters are a straight man and a straight woman, thanks to the patriarchy… a massive power imbalance exists out in the real world.”
Some LGBTQ writers say that Heated Rivalry portrays unrealistic depictions of gay relationships. Though I tend to agree with The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan when she says, “there has been criticism for not showing them, a la Russell T Davies’ masterwork Queer as Folk, more realistically in love and in flagrante, though the latter I think is to misunderstand the romance genre Tierney’s show sits in.” When we watch Bridgerton, we know that the romance we are seeing is not realistic. Romance shows, and even novels, are often times not meant to be realistic; they are meant to be an escape for the viewer or reader.
But other LGBTQ writers, like Bazar’s Louis Staples, say that he understands why women are so into these relationships that they will never engage in. He points out (much like Valenti) that women crave that sense of sexual equality. He says, “It might sound diminutive to compare Heated Rivalry to porn, but it’s worth noting that the sex between Shane and Ilya seems to satisfy both of them equally. And this might be particularly appealing to women, when depictions of straight sex are so skewed toward one partner’s pleasure.”
No matter if it’s a woman or not, with the second season recently being confirmed, all fans are anxiously awaiting the next chapter in Shane and Ilya’s story, from rivals to lovers.