The Discourse on Heated Rivalry

Megan Hayes | Opinion Editor

Hockey players starting a game. / Envato.com "Pressmaster"

A new TV series is on the forefront and it is absolutely sweeping young people, especially young women, off of their feet. Heated Rivalry, originally written by Rachel Reid in 2019 as another book to the Game Changers series, was recently adapted into a series starring Connor Storrie as “Ilya Rozanov” and Hudson Williams as “Shane Hollander” in November of 2025. The plot follows a slow-burn enemies to lovers story of two rival hockey players falling in love over the years of being each other’s rivals. Back in my day, media like this would be on sites like Wattpad or Archive of Our Own – which was one of the only places for widely-read queer media. Now, you can walk into a Barnes and Noble and find a whole section on queer novels that are front and center… not tucked into a corner like they were when I was a young queer person growing up. 

But, taking into consideration how mainstream queer media is becoming, why do women specifically love reading or watching MLM (man-loving-man) fiction that is not centered around them? Why is it so refreshing to see this new side of fiction, to the point that some female readers are completely abandoning heterosexual tropes? Does it count as fetishization, or representation? These are all valid questions – but first we must look at the mechanisms of how Shane and Ilya’s love story is told. From the first few episodes, you can tend to get a sense of where the story is going – it starts as a typical slow burn story with awkward tension sprinkled here and there, but a few episodes in, things start getting steamy. While watching some of the more intense physical scenes, it felt like I was interrupting something and things got slightly uncomfortable due to the intense emotional and vulnerable nature of the content. The plot is often sprinkled with intense scenes that could make anyone blush – but still, there is a clear plot and development followed, so it can be argued that it is not all sexual content. In my opinion, I tend to air on the side of “benefit of the doubt”, where the content is not meant to be malicious and instead wants to tell a tale of two lovers, with all aspects included.

Now, it really is up for interpretation by the viewer or reader, whether Heated Rivalry is viewed as queer representation or fetishization of gay male relationships for entertainment. It is heavily debated, especially in queer book communities. In my experience of being a young person reading MLM content on the sources I had mentioned before like Wattpad and AO3, much like any other young person taking in that content – it didn’t matter that the characters were gay – what mattered was that the story was well written and it made me feel things. It made me feel a wide array of emotions as the story continued on, taking me on the twists and turns throughout the story, all the highs and lows. Material, when well written, no matter the sexual orientation of the characters, should have you on the edge of your seat looking eagerly to the next page. Things get a little fuzzy, however, when we look at viewer ratings and see that 30-40 percent of the show is estimated to be sexual content. 

The problems arise with how the fanbase interacts with the show and book. When predominantly female fanbases are thirsting over MLM sex scenes is when things tend to get uncomfortable for some, especially on social media platforms. I have come across many edits, and frankly, it’s uncomfortable to see how worked up predominantly straight female fangirls get over the show. The key issue here, in my opinion, tends to push me more away from my “benefit of the doubt” viewpoint – a lot of people just watch the show because they think it’s hot. Not because of the plot, not because they want to know what happens with the characters… because it turns them on. I believe this is where issues come in, as then we stray away from representative material about what it is like to live as a person with attraction to the same sex. Fetishization of gay men can lead to feelings of dehumanization, and feeling like one does not have an identity outside of being the object of someone else’s fantasies. Now, we are talking about fictional characters here luckily, so there is no direct imminent threat to a human person. However, had this show been about real people? There would have been a clear issue.  

There is a flip side to this though, on why women love indulging in this type of content. It strays away from typical tropes of heterosexual nature, and explores some topics like asking for consent – which, although the bare minimum, drove some women crazy after watching one of the characters ask the other for consent – which really makes you question some things about straight media. Often, we see hyper-dominant male characters and small, fragile female characters interacting with one another in very predictable ways, and sometimes, it’s nice to escape that trope and see people as equals. As I mentioned earlier, as a young reader, it didn’t matter to me what the orientation of the characters was – as long as it was well written, I didn’t care.

Although the representation in Heated Rivalry is far from perfect, it still allows queer people to see it and think “I have a place”. I think there is a lot more that the writer of Heated Rivalry can do for the gay community – there are many meaningful conversations that can be had because of media like this. When the reality of being gay can sometimes mean the end of housing, relationships with family, and more negative consequences for some, I think the community could use more representation with the struggle that coming out can be. I really wish that more of this was included in the show, for true representation of the reality that many queer people face.