Why do straight women love gay romance?
This episode was produced by Alexis Williams. This episode was edited by Aaron Edwards. Our Executive Producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of Programming is Yolanda Sangweni./Getty Images
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This episode was produced by Alexis Williams. This episode was edited by Aaron Edwards. Our Executive Producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of Programming is Yolanda Sangweni./Getty Images
Heated Rivalry – the hit HBO Max series – has it all: scintillating romance, hot guys, sports (kind of), and, most importantly, portrayals of gay love and sex that don’t hold back.
Steamy, sensual TV shows aren’t new, but the Canadian series has captured the public’s attention in a way that a show hasn’t in a while. So, what’s behind its cultural resonance? What does it mean that this gay romance was written by a woman? And why are straight women and gay men equally into the sex scenes?
Michel Ghanem, TV critic and columnist of “Appointment Viewing” for The Cut, and Glen Weldon, co-host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, join the show to get into why we’re all waiting for every new episode with bated breath.
Episode Highlights
Why Heated Rivalry is hot
GHANEM: There was sort of a preexisting fanbase available to the romance genre through the history of romance being primarily written by women and catered towards women. And I got a lot of questions from my friends asking me, “Do you think it’s fetishizing gay sex? Do you find that your identity is being fetishized?” With Heated Rivalry, I feel like the bar has shifted because this is a positive story.
WELDON: The women who write this stuff write it for themselves and their audiences of women. And gay men. And that’s another way to see if there’s something sinister going on here: gay men are picking up on this online in a big, big way. They’re not the only ones, of course, but they are really leaning all in. And it’s not the thing that you might think it is. I think it’s about coming for the sex, and finding yourself in this environment. This is a place of really performative, masculinity: hockey with the brawls and the fans who are really bloodthirsty. And I’ve never been able to picture myself in that world. I don’t have these butts and I don’t have these skills. But I do have these feelings.
Does the sexuality of the actors matter?
GHANEM: On one hand, I think viewers want to know that their stories are in the hands of people that are like them. On the other hand, we are digging into people’s personal lives. Some people are not comfortable with coming out. Some people may be somewhere on the spectrum of sexuality, but don’t know exactly where they are. And some actors do identify as straight or heterosexual and still play many queer roles. And so I think Jacob Tierney did respond to that and just said, you know, it’s not really anyone’s business right now.
WELDON: And you know, again, this is a your-mileage-may-vary thing, but I think what that speaks to is queer folks wanting to know that there is someone either in front of the camera or behind it who is telling their stories, who knows their stories. It doesn’t have to be the actors. It can be Tierney, it can be the director, it can be the creator. As long as we feel seen, and not used, that’s what matters.
Why the sex is important
WELDON: That’s what the show was all about. How [the characters] deal with intimacy and vulnerability and authority. When do they cede control and when do they take control? How they deal with humor, because sex can be very funny. Can they laugh at themselves? That is something I want to know about a character. How does previous sexual experience factor into this? Do they believe that physical intimacy and emotional intimacy are the same thing, or do they just totally disconnect those things? Those are all important things. And that’s what this show gets.
