The French Interview - it’s layered
I’ve watched a lot of Heated Rivalry reactions, & one thing I never see people clock is the importance of this interview clip in French.
This is a scene meant to mirror Ilya’s interview earlier. Shane is having fun with it. He’s smiling and enjoying answering questions about him being good at the game. He knows he beat Rozanov, and he maybe can’t ‘say’ it without breaking his media-trained answers, but it’s all over his giddy smug little face.
And then the reporter asks this:
“And what do you think about being compared to Tiger Woods and Serena Williams?”
Look at how fast his face drops.
Reactors tend to hear the first part of the question & take it as her confirming that Shane is a really good player, but they completely miss her follow up.
“And what do you think about being compared to Tiger Woods and Serena Williams?”
“Do you think you share any of the same challenges?”
This is yet another instance of the world around them shoving Shane being the ‘Token (W)Asian’ in his face.
Jacob does a great job of making tokenism an important but subtle part of Shane’s character. It’s an aspect of his brand that would be directly ‘harmed’ by his coming out, regardless of the other issues of Russia and his own anxiety.
It might kind of slip under the radar for people on a first watch, but this happens to Shane fairly often.
The Montreal guy on draft night being ‘excited that Shane is Asian’ is the most heinous & obvious example. But you also have:
Yuna telling Shane at the CCM commercial that people look up to him.
Rolex signing him on as the youngest player they ever have because he’s exactly the kind of young man they want, is subtle but it’s there.
Rose almost immediately bringing up him being Asian when discussing his childhood. Shane even mentions the fact that the other kids kind of forgot to make fun of him in favor of the other Asian kid, simply because he has a White last name.
I’m sure there’s more that I’m missing.
Regardless, it’s not every time he interacts with people, but it’s enough to make clear to him that people will see his race & those stereotypes first. Before they see any of his skills or personality.
& Shane is NEVER the one to bring it up. It just keeps getting thrust in his face.
There’s a reason these 2 in particular (Shane & Ilya) were chosen for this very public rivalry & it’s not just because they’re good. This is marketing.
Shane’s media persona is calculated Golden Canadian Good Boy who is continuously pitted against Bad Boy Clearly Russian Rozanov in an effort to make his image more palatable, and more White. Ilya’s obvious accent & struggles with English highlight Shane’s poise & confidence.
The majority white population is going to hone in on the ‘Russian Mobster Bad’ stereotype & sidestep most of Shane being half-Japanese. The general population’s mild Xenophobia is being used in Shane’s favor by making Ilya look like a violent outsider in comparison.
And if Shane comes out as Gay, he runs face-first into a number of roadblocks:
Now he’s got another Tokenism thing to deal with. A part of himself he’d have to perform for the cameras.
He’s no longer going to be seen as the Golden Boy - he loses respect & people are going to notice & comment even more on his heritage.
Hockey is an extremely homophobic sport, he’s now at risk of losing all support on the ice & locker rooms.
There are also a number of stereotypes surrounding Gay Asian men in particular, and he’s now going to weather all of that with little to no support.
Throwing Ilya into the mix here throws so many problems I can’t talk about it all, but in short: Russia, Ilya’s slutty image, game interference allegations, etc.
tl;dr: Shane is not being compared to these 2 bc he’s good. This is about him being Asian in a White sport & is only 1 of several instances where people shove that in his face. This extra bit of complexity to Shane’s character just adds more issues & anxiety regarding him possibly coming out to the greater world.
