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Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams play two hockey superstars in Crave’s Heated Rivalry.HO/The Canadian Press
Heated Rivalry has become the most talked-about Canadian television show of the year, if not the decade.
Crave’s gay hockey romance – full of steamy sex scenes between Canadian and Russian rivals Shane and Ilya – has broken streaming records and is lighting up social media. Four episodes in, it has inspired dozens of thirsty think pieces about its appeal to both men and women attracted to men.
The Globe and Mail spoke with Jacob Tierney, the Toronto-based creator of the TV series, and Rachel Reid, the Halifax writer who wrote the books (Game Changer and Heated Rivalry) it’s adapted from, about the intersectional horniness they have sparked with the show – which has just been renewed for a second season.
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Rachel Reid attends the premiere of Heated Rivalry at the TIFF Lightbox on Nov. 24 in Toronto.Harold Feng/Getty Images
Let me start with this headline from the Cut: “Why are women obsessing over gay hockey smut?” Rachel, why are women – straight women, in particular – interested in stories about romance and sex between gay men?
Reid: Some of the feedback that I’ve gotten is that, for a lot of women, they have a hard time enjoying erotica or romance if it involves a woman – sometimes based on their own dark past with men. For women still attracted to men, it can be a nice escape to not have a character that you relate to yourself.
Tierney: There’s also something about women being turned on by male vulnerability that is not present in MF [male-female] romance, where the male roles tends to be more classic, masculine and stoic. In MM [male-male] romance, there’s much more vulnerability.
Rachel, you mentioned erotica and romance. The term that you’ve embraced on your website for your writing is “cute smut.”
Reid: It was reclaiming a word that’s usually used dismissively of this entire genre – erotic romance, high-heat romance. There’s quite a bit of sex in my books and I’m not trying to hide that. I’m not ashamed of that. But it’s separate from erotica.
Do you describe yourself as a heterosexual woman?
Reid: I don’t describe myself as that or anything publicly. I am attracted to men as part of my deal.
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The show is full of steamy scenes between the two main characters, Canadian and Russian rivals Shane and Ilya.Crave
And Jacob, how do you identify?
Tierney: Just gay. Just a boring old gay guy.
How did you feel as a gay man reading these books? Did it feel aimed at women or …
Tierney: I’m not really thinking about that. When I’m reading something, it’s just aimed at me because I’m the reader. Obviously, Rachel’s not alone in this, right? There are so many authors who write MM romance, whether it’s high heat or low heat. This a tradition that goes back a long way, too, I would argue to Mary Renault, who wrote Fire from Heaven [1969].
I feel like we know in our hearts that our allies have always been women. There’s no 100 per cent to anything, but the intersection of women and gay men wandering through a world run by straight men can be underestimated.
In terms of how Jacob’s TV show transforms the books, Rachel, what do you detect?
Reid: It is very similar. The thing that struck me, and I know it struck some my readers as well, is seeing it brought to life. When you’re reading a romance novel, you’re visualizing your own take on the characters. And I think when you’re reading romance, it’s kind of a default – maybe older, more rugged male character, no matter how they’re described. So when people have actually seen Shane and Ilya brought to life, at the ages that they actually would be, they’re much younger and more boyish and playful.
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Jacob Tierney at the Heated Rivalry premiere.Harold Feng/Getty Images
Jacob, what for you have you changed? Is there a lens, being a gay man, that is slightly different?
Tierney: For sure. Adaptation is a series of choices and a lot are subconscious, but I’m sure some of the things that I advance in the narrative are because of my lived experience. I didn’t really think of that though – I just was thinking about the story and am very faithful to the book. The main demarcation is that I did book one, Game Changer, as episode three.
To go back to women writing gay male romance – what’s actually more prevalent in pop culture, especially on TV, is the opposite, from Sex and the City to Emily in Paris.
Reid: Something that I talk about with my female friends is how a lot of things for women – like fashion, obviously – gay men have largely been kind of in charge. That’s fine, but I feel like you need to allow for it on the other side too.
Tierney: There’s this temptation towards being reductive in this conversation. It’s the same with gay men writing about women as women writing about gay or straight men: There’s plenty of ways to be wonderful with it, and there’s plenty of ways to do exactly what people don’t like about it, which is to fetishize, which is to reduce.
What the online explosion around the series been like?
Tierney: There’s not a lot of sex on TV any more. I think the sex we tend to see is sexual violence. And so I think what you’re seeing is a reaction against that – a joyfulness, like sex can be fun and horny and sweet when it’s between two consenting adults. It’s not there to punish you for watching it. It’s actually there for your enjoyment.
Rachel, has this been overwhelming?
Reid: A little bit, but you know, if I don’t look online, it’s like nothing’s happening in Nova Scotia. My mom went to the local Indigo yesterday and asked if they had any copies of my books, and they’d never heard of me. That’s my reality.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
