{"id":79356,"date":"2026-01-13T20:27:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T23:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/women-are-feral-for-heated-rivalry-what-does-that-say-about-men-sexuality\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T20:27:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T23:27:21","slug":"women-are-feral-for-heated-rivalry-what-does-that-say-about-men-sexuality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/women-are-feral-for-heated-rivalry-what-does-that-say-about-men-sexuality\/","title":{"rendered":"Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men? | Sexuality"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

T<\/span>he first time gay hockey romance crossed Mary\u2019s radar, she was warned off it. A 64-year-old non-profit executive from Toronto, Mary recalled mentioning the Canadian author Rachel Reid\u2019s Game Changers series to her son, a twentysomething queer writer and fellow hockey obsessive, a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018Have you heard of these books?\u2019 and he said: \u2018Yeah.\u2019 I said: \u2018Should I read these books?\u2019 And he said: \u2018No. They\u2019re not for you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary took her son at his word; after all, she considers herself \u201cbasically a cynic\u201d, hasn\u2019t cracked a romance novel since she threw a Danielle Steel book across the room in disgust about 40 years ago, and declares that she would have to be \u201chogtied\u201d to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie. \u201cI\u2019m divorced. I\u2019m old. I\u2019ve had men in my life and I\u2019ve had romance in my life,\u201d she said. \u201cI watch TV and I\u2019m just like, it doesn\u2019t happen like that. No.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

But when gay hockey romance entered the cultural zeitgeist with a vengeance late last year, thanks to the steamy television adaptation of Reid\u2019s Heated Rivalry by the Canadian streamer Crave, Mary, who asked to be identified only by her first name, discovered that a sexually explicit love story about two men was \u201cfor her\u201d after all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI admit I may have rewatched it more than once,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s super sexy. They\u2019re fabulous to look at. There\u2019s a huge amount of consent. I\u2019d really like to get that back in my life \u2013 that feeling of \u2018I can\u2019t keep my hands off you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Straight women, queer women, cisgender women, trans women; young and old, single and coupled, Canadian, American and increasingly every other nationality \u2013 they\u2019re all going feral for the love story between Shane and Ilya, two closeted professional hockey players on rival teams whose sexual chemistry sustains them for a decade as they learn to open their hearts and minds to the possibility of love.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander face off on the ice in Heated Rivalry.<\/span> Photograph: Sabrina Lantos\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But what does it say about gender relations in 2026 that so many women are fantasizing about gay smut? The fervent popularity of Heated Rivalry suggests that for many, the real romantasy<\/a> is not sex and romance with dragons and fairies, but sex and romance without misogyny and gendered hierarchy. If the only way to get that in today\u2019s media environment is through sex and romance without any women, they\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n

The women who love men who love men<\/h2>\n

Lillian King is the last person anyone would expect to enjoy a TV show that kicks things off with a locker room masturbation qua seduction scene and builds toward scenes of remarkably tender frottage. A writer for the NPR quiz show Wait Wait \u2026 Don\u2019t Tell Me, King is 30 years old, straight, engaged and decidedly \u201csex negative\u201d, at least when it comes to media. She\u2019s \u201csqueamish\u201d about onscreen kissing and prefers Anna Karenina\u2019s approach to representing sex scenes: \u201cTolstoy just does \u2018dot, dot, dot\u2019 and I think that\u2019s right,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen my fiance told me that Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet goes down on Gwyneth Paltrow in the ping-pong movie<\/a>, I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t need to see that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But she decided to check out Heated Rivalry when she learned, via viral TikToks, that it featured a song by the Canadian indie band Wolf Parade. She figured she could put it on in the background while she did laundry. Instead, she \u201cinhaled the first three episodes\u201d and ended up being late to meet a friend. \u201cI couldn\u2019t let it go. I just was so in.\u201d<\/p>\n