Heated Rivalry: Critical Narrative of Masculinity on TV- Part 1
- ışıl saykan
- Jan 26
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 30
Since its debut, been talking on two queer hockey players' love, desire and their rivalries on ice with the queer gaze. It's literally amazing! But how about we taking this worldwided popular tv series by the lens of critical masculinity? Especially these times in which toxic-masculinity has been getting spread fast on every spheres of lives and souls..!
We are so familiar with cliches of masculinities on TV which have been represented by non-communicational, almost always getting furious easily but not to show how he feels, seeing like men are feeling nothing types.
Masculinity has been a social and cultural builded phenomenon which is based on classifing the sex as male and female and defines the roles based on biological sexes. Thanks to feminism, women's and critical masculinity studies, we can now realize this gendered design of society and easily make sense of masculinity means authority which is provided by being in rival, being all the time good at sex (always showing high performances), obeying the hierarchy between men's world (yes, because other sexual orientations and identities have been still systematically discriminated from men's world). Showed and glorified well-shaped and fully muscled man body on TV, provides stereotypes both men's aesthetic based on physical capabilities of fighting and being thread to other males and attractive to females and also men's authority and power.
The Power of Vulnerability and Intimacy
In Heated Rivalry, creator Jacob Tierney, however, presents an (more than one actually) unusual portrayal of masculinity with lots of desire, yearning and care . Although Ilya and Shane's desire and intimacy is full of queer subtles, they are also representing two different masculinities which are not "compatible" (if you've watched the series, then you'll get it ;)) with mainstream masculinity narrative.
At the first impression and also in the first two episodes, The Boston Raiders' captain Ilya Rozanov is probably assumed that he is really close to mainstream masculinity representation. The reason is this assuming that I think, we are often see "even" in queer couples who share the roles according to gendered expectations in their relationships. So, I am trying to say that the thing is not completely about they are gay or not, is mostly dealing with how it is displayed on TV.
Let's back To HR! Firstly a very successful rookie and then a hockey player won the MVP, the lead player of Russian national team, very rival, powerful, fast, hard and of course very hot... However, again we can realize from the first scene that Ilya's priority is not to be successful hockey player. He loves hockey but not as much as love for Shane. He cares, he yearns and of course he likes Shane.
I don't think we can really say that Ilya's character changed during the first season of the series. Rather, I think that as the episodes progressed, Ilya's tough exterior gradually peeled away, allowing us to enter his emotional world and see how his love for Shane deepened. I believe the creators of the series and the book wanted to convince us from the first episode that Shane is an emotional person, while showing that Ilya's emotions were deep-seated and only became visible through his relationship with Shane.
In Russian side, works are highly complicated! His though and strict-ruled father is always reminding to Ilya that he is not capable enough to get honored by authoritarians of Russia, because for him, Ilya is not as much as successful. That is ironic, because his father is sick, not crazy, but having dementia. The one and only representation of "old-fashioned Russia" gets neurological disease! He throws back often and he remembers anything from the past, Such an irony! After losing him, making a decision to not to keep relations with his brother, Alexei (in the book Andre), Russia becomes just a memory for Ilya anymore. Does that mean a kind of salvation? Maybe, because in the next episode (ep. 6) Ilya is seen to be ready for the new life with Shane and his family!
Feeling belonging is hard for Ilya, because as a Russian, he works in the USA with working Visa and almost every summer ( not only in July of 2017) he goes back to Russia. Plus, because of though rules and bans over LGBTIQ+ in Russia, he always keeps his true sexual orientation and of course his love for Shane as a secret. Feeling belong to somewhere or somebody is a huge hardship for Ilya. That is why, we can see Ilya's accepting his love for Shane takes almost ten years, and their relations stay "a situationship" for a long. A representation of masculinity could not be such complicated, full of vulnerability and sensibility. This is truely out of common!
Shane is also sharing same strong and full-passioned feeling as Ilya and keeps his love for Ilya as a secret too. However, the relation dynamics of Shane with his family is a bit different. Shane's mother Yuna Hollander is a key character in his life and he has strong relation with her in the way both managing of his career and driving his future in hockey. He respects her vision, decisions and truely truts her in his sport life. Also, by some short scenes, we get that she has strong predictions on hockey league's future too. After his father David saw Shane and Ilya at his cottage's garden (in that scene they are kissing), Shane was literally freaking out, because he had an intention to come out to his family but not that way! It was totally out of his intentions! But one thing made me teared: Shane's freaking out was not directly dealing with the fear what will happen next, it was more dealing with shame he felt for lying to his family, especially to her mother Yuna!
That is so touchable and at the same time unfamiliar. We do not remember any "come out" scene that there is not any dramatic contexts, struggles and dilemmas between queer partners. However, even though they have many things to lose after coming out, Ilya wants to give support to Shane undoubtly from the first seconds. Ilya's support was important which was an only thing Shane needed at that moment. They are carrying the same burden with the same level of caring and responsibility.
OMG, I am going to cry !! (please read with Ilya's Russian accent :)).
Everyone Needs Sunshine!
When you look at these guys, "I'll Believe in Anything" is, too, played on behind? Am I not only one that hear this song, right? Probably not!
The 3rd episode of HR is completely focused on hockey player from NY Admirals Scott Hunter's queer identity and his lover Kip. I did not understand this episode what has actually importance for our main character's relations at first. Unfortunately, I thought like that, because I am used to see supporting roles serve to main characters and their context. And a whole episode presents just Scott and Kip, without Ilya and Shane?!
This is -obviously- conscious choice. By this surprise, Jacob presents the queer narrative against the usual watching attitudes of TV viewers besides queer characters and plot! Jacob disrupts and alters mainstream narratives and plot lines with rapid time shifts, giving an entirely episode to characters who would usually be secondary. In doing so, he demonstrates considerable boldness.
However, the romance in the 3rd episode shows that there are other hidden relationships to wait for coming out. This story is not just about Ilya and Shane's romance, it is about discovering and admitting yourself. Being inspired to another even you do not know their existences in the same area by kissing your lover in front of hundreds of people after glory in the 5th. ep. ...They prove that sometimes we do not need any BOLD sentences or slogans to say "Hey, we are here and I love him/her!" Can we think Scott's and Kip's kiss as just a kiss, is that possible? Some posts say that Scott is kind of a revolutionary. Yeah, I totally agree with that.
We know how masculine sports are. In this context, Scott's declaration of love and the process leading up to it perfectly summarizes the difficulty of being yourself in a sport like ice hockey, which is considered a "man's game." Again, this will be a spoiler from the series, but assuming we've all seen it, Scott's speech when he receives the MVP award also describes how his gay identity is overshadowed by his heterosexual gender identity, drawing on jokes and conversations among athletes. He confesses how the power of his love for Kip prevails against the difficulty and fear of living in hiding.
After these speeches, the series shifts to the scene where Ilya gets into Shane's car to go to his summer house. So we move on to another couple who are afraid of revealing their true identities but are determined to overcome this fear with their love. HR is truly a touching, memorable, and elegant series filled with many details!
We watch a series in which usual elements of heterosexual dramas are out of play and oppositely queer people and their romance take the main place. Heated Rivalry is a touchstone TV series. And it is definitely my top!
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