Stories, Hope, and Heated Rivalry

Do you remember TED talks? Like yeah, they still exist, but I guess they fizzzled out a little bit. 

One Ted Talk that sticks with me is one called “The Danger of a Single Story” - in a “too long won’t watch” explanation, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about how we have this historic issue where the continent of Africa is framed as one homogenous thing, when it very much is not. When we only tell one story about a people or a place, we get this flatness of reality, and this lack of reality. 

I think listening to this talk back in High School set me up for what I’m doing today. My goal is to uplift stories, important ones, so that more people might listen. I want the idea of different to not be as scary, I want important to feel less daunting. I want to give people a door to open.

Which I was also reminded of when I was listening to an episode of American Hysteria “The Art of (Psychological) War with Annalee Newitz”. Towards the end of this really insightful interview, Newitz and Weber-Smith have this conversation about how stories are central to ending culture wars. Without stories of say, rebuilding after war, we can’t always imagine what are world could look like. We need that hope and inspiration, that we can do it despite the difficulty that looms above us. 

This is why I think Heated Rivalry, in part, is so popular right now. 

We’re living in this world where harsh divides exist between acceptance and phobia in so many ways. Whether it be from sexuality, to wanting or not wanting to be a parent, a stay at home parent, or even a person who doesn’t excessively use AI, we’re caught up in this high contrast society where no one is slowing down on anything. 

Yet, here we have a story that breaks out of that, just a little bit. There’s a certain sheen of what could be at the center of this series. We all know hockey is a notoriously hypermasculine and homophobic sport, often smack-dab in the middle of progressive cities. There are Pride Nights, which are either a rainbow-bomb of wonder, or lackluster in their attempts at inclusion. Yet Heated Rivalry breaks that down a little bit. We haven’t seen it all, and we all know that there are things to come in seasons two and three because of the books - but this story isn’t one where the queerness is a life or death, I have an incurable disease type of tension. It’s a tension of being queer in a specific setting, and being public about the most intimate parts of our lives. 

The two main queer romances in Heated Rivalry give us the tension we know. Ilya Rosanov is queer and from Russia. Scott Hunter is an older, closeted man whose entire career is because of the generosity of what feels like a Catholic School scholarship. These tensions are real, and they are real to the viewers in a lot of ways. But there’s also another layer. Shane and Ilya’s rivalry romance is one where even if this was a blissful world where homophobia didn’t exist, there would be tension in their competitors to lovers arc. Were they letting each other win, ever? Would their careers be compromised by the fact that they are literally on rival teams, and are the captains of said teams?

Then with Kip and Scott, you have another type of tension. Scott Hunter is a known, wealthy face as a Cup winning captain. Kip, his romantic partner here, is an art school chasing barista with a few jobs. There’s a tension there of power from being in the spotlight and having wealth, to working multiple jobs and still living at home. We see this happening outside of queer relationships. We know what that mismatch in finances and soft power 

While the awkwardness and possible danger of coming out and living openly in this world feels daunting, the characters around these main couples also give us this parallel to a better world. Rose and Shane’s relationship is one I think is key. Women have been conditioned in a lot of ways to see themselves as a failure if a partner turns out to be gay. Rose shows Shane a level of friendship and support, and pure caring, that we haven’t seen laid out so clearly in a piece of media this big. The fact is, Shane and Rose is an example of how these loving and accepting platonic friendships lead to personal and greater acceptance. The same thing with Elena, Kip, and Scott. Elena says that both men deserve sunshine. She sees that Scott has been living this really sad existence and encourages it not just for Kip, even if that is the impetus of the conversation. She feels for this man who feels like he can’t live authentically. She wants these men to be good, not just for the sake of each other, but for the sake of their own well being. 

That doesn’t even begin to discuss how Shane coming out to his parents is also a tension of already being someone who breaks a norm in being a Japanese-Canadian hockey star - but also now he’s gay too? You see how closely he guards and regulates himself, not just because of some presumed neurospicy, but also because he’s an example and he takes it seriously. His sexuality adds a layer of complication to that in this world, but it isn’t about being accepted. I don’t think he questions whether or not his parents will accept him, at least in the TV show version. I think there’s a lot of question around what going public with that will mean, when his mom is his publicist. It’s an added layer of responsibility about something that is intimate. You see how the shame in coming out isn’t framed so much as acceptance, but more as responsibility. I think you even see it in the fact that his mom is the one who says “I’m sorry you feel like you couldn’t tell me.” That moment, partnered with an early lecture, and the soft questioning mid-series about Wimbledon and a Swedish Princess, says it all to me.

Both stories are showing arcs for how people come to terms with themselves, and how they balance that with their friends and family around them, and then their sometimes very public lives. Yet this story isn’t saying “if you’re gay, you could die of AIDS” or “if you’re queer you’re being kicked out of the only home you’ve known”. It’s saying that something this deeply personal as a public figure is always going to be difficult, but there is still a possibility for queer love and comfort at the center of it, and despite it. We can take that and water it down to a simple “you can be happy and loved queer” - because we look to these stories as aspiration, not reality. 

How often do we see this type of story take off in the mainstream, and what does this moment mean for all of us? What does it mean for Canada to have a Canadian show hit such a stride in the wake of The United States government rattling its saber about a 51st state? Espeically with how inherently international the NHL is. On the flip side, what does it mean for Americans to take this in, as a nation who at times feels whiplashed by where it’s “supposed” to stand on queer acceptance? One where we went from high ranking transgender military officers serving with pride, to one that tries to erase The Stonewall Riots? 

Stories are roadmaps of possibility and hope. They serve as both reflection and inspiration. What Heated Rivalry is telling us, is more than we probably know at this moment in time. The fact that this is doing so well, and so many people are so genuinely enthralled by positive queer relationships on screen, is a telling moment for North American culture right now. I’m thankful for it, I’m happy for it, and I hope this gives so many more artists and creators permission to write about a wider range of real and tender love that we all deserve. That means in books, movies, tv, and podcasts. 

We can go over and over about how terrible it has been to be queer. We can have stories, and a lot of podcasts do this, where queerness is an accepted fact of the world or story. We need more of this in the middle, these pinpricks of hope and light that show us a type of middle ground - and a middle ground without the overhang of the AIDS crisis or Lavender scares. We need a middle ground where we see normalcy, where we see queerness as maybe not the neutral, or even the default, but also not the source of life or death. Heated Rivalry gives us a middle ground. What else can?