hello saw your hr mlm post totes agree thought you put everything into words very well. idk if you’ve seen the rare lol comments abt a wlw version in a more “feminine” setting eg ballet gymnastics, something where it may not be as accepted like pwhl. Got reminded when i saw your post wanted to ask what u thought bc ur v profound abt hr don’t know anyone else so into + right about it 🧘🏽♀️
first of all ive seen every comment or thought piece or edit ever. so lets get that straight 💀💀 hr content is literally my morning routine. it is possible i have a problem.
second of all, i still find it a pretty silly comparison ngl, and i think it ultimately falls yet again under "people are missing the point of heated rivalry." while a wlw story set in a traditionally "feminine" but intense environment like elite ballet or gymnastics could absolutely be powerful, tense, and brilliant if done well, it would be a different story altogether. one with no real tie or relation to heated rivalry
as i said in that post, hr is a story fundamentally about masculinity: its repression, its hypermasculine performance, and what is socially sanctioned within that world. it's about two men who were raised to equate their worth with a physically violent, casually homophobic ideal. their entire identities and careers are built on that foundation. the tension comes from the fact that the very institution that made them is the one that would destroy them for their desire. even stripped of explicit romance (like maybe platonic but innuendo to be romantic), that narrative is incredibly strong
a "wlw version" wouldn't be a version of heated rivalry. it would just be another wlw sports romance. whether it honored the specificity of its sport and queer dynamic the way hr does would depend entirely on its execution. ballet, for example, would have to be told through the lens of what's policed for women: the makeup, the costuming, the diet culture, the smiling, the specific kind of bodily control. visible strength paired with enforced thinness. not to mention, the most vocal homophobia in ballet is often directed at men in that space, not women. so the social pressure, the threat, the texture of the secrecy, it's all completely different. again not at all like hockey, or mlm dynamics, or the nhl
you cannot transplant the dynamic of hr is what it comes down to imo. a wlw ballet story would grapple with misogyny and lesbophobia, yes, but not with the cult of masculinity that is the nhl's entire ecosystem. the self loathing, the fear, the way desire gets funneled into sanctioned violence on the ice. that's a particular mlm experience the story is built to dissect
so, to be profound (lol) about it: the suggestion, even well intentioned, often comes from a place of wanting "parallel" representation. but true respect for a story is understanding that its power is in its specificity. heated rivalry is a masterclass in that, as my post analyzed. it's about these men in this machine. the second you change the machine, you're writing a different story. and that's okay! we should have that story, too. but we shouldn't pretend it's the same.
in hr, hockey isn't the setting. hockey is the antagonist. and the antagonist is specifically, irreplaceably homophobic hypermasculinity. you can't get that in ballet. you get a different antagonist
so overall, i think people should stop trying to create "versions" of heated rivalry. instead, they should learn from its lesson. the best stories (queer or not) are built from the ground up around the specific culture they're critiquing, making that culture indispensable to the tension, the desire, and the stakes.
hope that answers your question
