I’ve seen a surprising amount of people, when talking about how JJ isn’t as bad as a lot of ppl make him to be (which I agree with. he wasn’t perfect, but he was much better than Hayden), putting a lot of blame on Shane for not having told JJ when he came to comfort him after the plane incident. And that’s so confusing to me, because, are they aware of the fact that if Shane told JJ they were in a relationship, he would out Ilya? Did he have “permission” to do that? I honestly can’t remember that from the book, maybe he could, I don’t know. Even if he could tell JJ, I don’t know if he’d be in the emotional state to be able to handle a bad reaction? Because whether or not Shane wants to admit it to himself, it has not gone well with Hayden knowing, so why would he think JJ would be different?
Yes, it would be outing Ilya. Did Shane have "permission" to out him? Debatable. But it's beside the point. It doesn't matter because Shane was under no obligation to tell JJ. Period.
This is why I am dreading JJ discourse in season 2. I will defend JJ to no end. I am 100% a JJ defender.
But I'm not going to defend him from the in-universe like most people are doing (at least, not the way they're doign it), like the people who are grasping for anything in-universe they can use to absolve JJ, especially because in the process they end up faulting Shane instead, and Shane didn't do anything wrong.
JJ, in-universe, had the right to be hurt that Shane didn't trust him enough to tell him, but he shouldn't have reacted the way he did to finding out about Shane's relationship with Ilya (especially in the locker room, in front of the rest of the team). He shouldn't have doubted that Shane genuinely tripped. He shouldn't have been hurtful about Ilya when he and Shane made up the first time.
JJ was in the wrong, in-universe. Are his reasons empathetic? Absolutely. Should that have been reflected in the writing? Absolutely. But people have empathetic reasons for being shitty all the time and it doesn't change that they did something shitty.
I want people defending JJ to defend him from out of universe. Rachel Reid made the only Black character in her book stand out in how poorly he reacted. Making the only Black character the most queerphobic in queer stories is a racist trope (textually it's rivalry-phobia but that's a whole other thing). Then she also made him the one who does the "I'm not mad you're gay in a relationship with your rival, I'm just mad you lied to me" queerphobic trope.
Then on top of that even though Hayden is far worse, beginning to end, Reid babied the fuck out of Hayden trying to salvage his image for the reader and make sure no one held the outing against him, and she didn't even include JJ making up with Shane the second time on page. She alludes to it happening but we don't even fucking see it. She made no effort whatsoever to salvage JJ's image for the reader despite the fact that JJ was nowhere near as bad as Hayden and despite the fact that JJ's reasons were far more empathetic and despite the fact that his offenses were far more forgivable and despite the fact that JJ is supposedly one of Shane's best friends, just like Hayden. It's inexcusable.
It is both extremely racist and queerphobic for Reid to have written JJ the way she did.
This is not a JJ vs. Shane debate.
This is a JJ and Shane vs. Reid debate.
This is a very helpful contextualization of the books and issues it presents. But I would still argue that this rising trend of "friends don’t owe you anything" is not true and the book does set up Shane from his mom to the post plane incident as being aware that JJ does need to hear this information from him, but he simply chooses not to. I think Hayden's constant antagonist approach to Ilya causes Shane to feel unfairly burdened by the thought of letting another friend in on his relationship.
But 100× yes on the racist tropes of making the sole Black character in the HR book react badly to Shane’s outing. Bood by contrast is fully in support of Ilya, but there's also the element of solidarity lacking. Shane and JJ are two non-white players in what is seemingly a mostly white team. For Rachel Reid to depict two characters who should have the most solidarity for one another in this way as diametrically opposed, she does a disservice to them both. Bood is supportive of his white teammate. JJ has far more reasons to be shown as supportive of his non-white friend and captain. They are the only POC captain and alternate pair in the entire GCU. This isn't addressed in the books much at all which is unfortunate because I think if she had done her research she could've really given us that element of closeness BIPOC people stuck in white centered places have with one another. Lots of missed opportunities and overall both characters are harmed by it.
