Content tag: This post about Heated Rivalry contains references to intimate s*x, fandom bigotry, and Russia’s laws against homosexuality.
Star: Friends, Heated Rivalry, both the novel by Rachel Reid and the HBO series, is a DUCK of a great time. Forbidden passion! Rivals to lovers! A love story that spans the decades! S*x that is REAL and HUMAN! And hockey …
Duck: To be beak-to-flippers honest, Star and I aren’t big hockey fans. The mere mention of ice makes me lose my lunchtime goldfish and the acronym “ice” gives me shivers in my duck parts.
Star: So yes, we shy away from ice and hockey—AND the acronym—but that doesn’t make Heated Rivalry any less of a ducking great yarn. In fact, because of the HBO show, I read book one from the Heated Rivalry series by Rachel Reid and it plucked my tail feather in the best possible way. For those who don’t know, the Heated Rivalry story follows a secret steamy romance between famed rival hockey players Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (played by Connor Storrie) who—according to the press—completely HATE one another.
Duck: Them’s the stakes! And they’re high stakes! Happily, they’re not duck steaks!
Star: Even so, it turns out the HBO Heated Rivalry fandom includes the kind of bigotry that gets Duck’s backside steaming.
Duck: Unfortunately these days, when you’re brilliantly portraying a hot, queer, mixed race hockey star who beds his arch rival, there are those folks [not ducks] who run their beaks off in a racist, homophobic way. Which is SO not okay. I mean, what the DUCK? I almost called in the crab police—they’d have those bigots stuffed in a sandwich sooner than you could say “sideways.”
Star: Hudson Williams, who is of Korean, British and Dutch decent, plays Shane Hollander, a mixed race Canadian with a Japanese mother. The fact that the show’s fans have been racist towards him is nothing short of shocking. But Williams is bold and brave, and along with his co-stars François Arnaud and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, he recently made a statement that was supported by the show’s creator Jacob Tierney:
“Don’t call yourself a fan if you share racist/homophobic/biphobic/misogynistic/ageist/ableist/parasocial/bigoted comments of any kind. None of us need your hateful ‘love’.” —Hudson Williams
Duck: Super-ducking awesome! But it does lead us to a giant duck-shaped WHY did they have to DO that? WHY are there so many bigoted members of the Heated Rivalry fandom? Because this really boils my beak.
Star: Maybe because HBO’s Heated Rivalry has the impressive beak-holes to include powerful, connected, intimate s*x scenes between two protagonists who are not your typical pro hockey players. I mean these s*x scenes range from hot to playful to deeply romantic. We don’t watch these scenes from afar—we are intimately connected to them. Jake and I were recently saying that we’ve rarely seen queer s*x scenes on mainstream TV that are so nuanced and intimate, let alone those in which a bisexual Russian and gay Japanese-Canadian navigate their longing for one another along with their growing feelings. The show even spans the decades, going for a really deep dive. And the story is a deep dive. I mean flipper me backwards, but Ilya Rosanoff lives in a culture where same-gender s*x can get you thrown into prison. It’s literally illegal. Also Shane Hollander must navigate pro hockey as a mixed race player who’s so often in the limelight. No wonder these s*x scenes are ducking revolutionary. They’re freeing. They’re powerful. They’re personal. They’re brave. And yes, the bigots have emerged from the woodwork.
Duck: Bigoted fans of Heated Rivalry? It’s bonkers with a side of pond-slop. But every revolution begins with bravery. Ain’t no duck alive who doesn’t know that.
Star: And you know, Duck, there’s also the extreme censors—the folks who want to silence s*x altogether so that only a few people in this world get to control it. The idea that s*x might be central to art, story, or even business, can really get those geese in a twist.
Duck: Did you notice, Star, that the co-stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie got matching tattoos while they were filming Heated Rivalry? The tats apparently say “s*x sells,” and according to Connor Storrie, put the “cherry on top” of the stars’ friendship—a bond that helped them to film such intimate scenes.
Star: Well, they weren’t wrong there, were they? S*x really can sell when there’s s*x-positivity behind it. I mean, ducky doo, the HBO show’s stats are through the roof and it’s raking in the dollars, as I’m sure is Rachel Reid, talented author of the book series. HBO’s Heated Rivalry even recently won a prestigious Peabody Award.
But you know, when it comes to “s*x sells,” there’s a reason.
Duck: And what the duck is that, my friend?
Star: Money’s just energy, and humans love to invest our energy in joy. Good s*x, healthy s*x, powerful s*x is often joyful s*x.
Duck: The sort that sets the pond alight and gets the sunset glowing.
Star: High flipper to that! And right up there is activist s*x. S*x that truly changes things. Which brings us to the fact that Rachel Reid’s gorgeous page turner is a HUGE hit in Russia where, as the novel highlights, homosexuality is illegal. What’s more, according to The Independent, Russia’s equivalent of IMDb rates the HBO show as the highest ranked TV show of all time according to Russian viewers.
Duck: TRIPLE-QUACK!!! How’s THAT for (qu)activism?
Star: Speaking of, journalist Mikhail Zygar who spent his childhood as a closeted gay Russian is quoted in The Independent as saying that the story normalizes the discourse in Russia. “It shows that it is OK. That people can fall in love and it’s so beautiful. And the popularity of this TV show definitely may change some perception from the broader audience.”
Duck: We truly believe it will. It’s a duck of a wonderful story.
Star: And we look forward to season two.
Duck: Maybe it will even contain a duck!
Star: My friend, there’s always hope.
Romancey Pants 