When Brokeback Mountain came out in 2005, it was allotted two on screen gay kisses and two on screen sex scenes. It has tension and yearning oozing from every interaction. It’s an absolutely phenomenal movie. Yet it didn’t win Best Picture. It became a joke, with people laughing at the most heartwrenching scenes in the movie. When the Oscars invited Ledger and Gyllanhaal to present the 2007 Oscars provided they joke about the movie, like so many others jokes about the movie, Ledger famously said “it’s not a joke to me” and boycotted the Oscars that year. He held his ground in the face of endless homophobia.
Twenty years later, we have Heated Rivalry, one of the most thoughtfully constructed pieces of queer media since Brokeback. It too oozes yearning and tension. It has countless kisses and infamous sex scenes. It’s a phenomenal TV show and it is being treated as such. The only jokes I’ve seen are people calling it porn (and we in the queer community call it yaoi). No one is turning the scenes that make most of us sob and ugly cry into jokes.
Scott kissed Kip and changed the game for queer hockey players, for Ilya and Shane and the other couples in the series.
Brokeback Mountain changed the game for queer media. For Heated Rivalry, yes, but also for Fellow Travellers, Heartstopper, Moonlight, Orange is the New Black, Call me by your name… For so many works queer media that we know and love.
If you haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain, please go watch it.
And if you have watched it and you don’t understand, please remember that this was the movie no one thought could be made because of 2 kisses and 2 sex scenes. Then go rewatch it.
HE WAS A BOY, SHE WAS A GIRL… CAN I MAKE IT ANY MORE OBVIOUS?
HE WANTED HER, BUT SHE’D NEVER TELL: THAT SECRETLY, SHE WANTED HIM AS WELL. at school, they’re practically strangers— but the moment the dismissal bell rings, he’s hers and she’s his (even if she likes to suggest otherwise).
NOW PLAYING... “sk8er boi” by avril lavigne.
LOSER!ART… who’s not really a loser in the looks department— thank god for him getting his braces off and swapping thick-framed glasses for contacts— but still falls into the archetype nonetheless. he plays his music too loud in the school parking lot, he doesn’t fall for the various cliques and their social drama, and keeps to himself whenever he and patrick aren’t glued to the hip. decent grades, but has little motivation for anything that isn’t his drum kit, his skateboard, or his video games. his guidance counselor loves to remind him that he’d have more options besides the local community college if he’d just apply himself more.
LOSER!ART… who used to play tennis but gave it up the minute he began high school, despite his father’s complaints about him having the skill to go pro. he was never playing it for himself, anyway; his parents had signed him up for lessons once he had the necessary hand-eye coordination, though having patrick suffering along with him was always a plus. the school tennis coach used to hound him to join the team back in freshman and sophomore year, but finally took the hint after art tossed a tennis ball at his head. he’d had detention for at least a month, then... worth it, though!
LOSER!ART… who can always be seen wearing either his signature red snapback or a beanie (depending on how cold it gets). the baggier the jeans, the better. loose band tees layered over thermals when it’s cold, or solo when it’s not. he lives exclusively in black converse that he’ll wear until there’s holes in the rubber soles, even if patrick claims vans are the better skate shoe. if he doesn’t have his wired headphones in his ears, they’re most likely dangling from one of his jeans pockets or from the collar of his shirt.
LOSER!ART… who would spend his entire life in his garage sat at his drum kit if he could. something about playing— hitting something and making art instead of destroying it, maybe— soothes something in his soul. hey, it’s better than hitting a ball with a racket (or hurling the damn thing at his father’s head).
LOSER!ART… who wouldn’t have given mean girl!reader the time of day if it weren’t for him finding her car pulled over with a flat during spring break. after pulling over his van in front of her much-nicer range rover— would’ve guessed it was her daddy’s if it weren’t for the hot-pink wrap on it— he’d waved off her huffing to pull out her spare and begin swapping it over. he may be aloof, but his grandma didn’t teach him to be rude— especially to women. by the time the tire’s swapped, they both look at one another a bit differently than they did before… and if mean girl!reader starts leaving notes in his locker once break’s over… loser!art’ll play along.
LOSER!ART… who loves mean girl!reader, even if she’s a pain in his ass. while she makes him work for her attention and quick to take it away if he doesn’t go along with her wishes, loser!art knows there’s more to the girl beneath the makeup and pink shield she’s built for herself— and every chance he gets to chip away at that cover, he’ll take it in a heartbeat.
꩜ aloof ꩜ smartass ꩜ honest ꩜ nonchalant ꩜ crafty ꩜ loud thinker ꩜ witty ꩜ patient ꩜ lives in the moment ꩜ loyal ꩜ rule-breaker ꩜ lame ꩜
MEAN GIRL!READER... who’s always been a bit spoiled. born with a silver spoon in her mouth, if she so much as blinked towards something as a baby, she got it. if she cried, she was picked up and held immediately. if she smiled, her parents moved heaven and earth to make sure she kept smiling. it was much easier to keep her happy than it was to cheer her up from a bad mood. needless to say… it’s very hard for them to tell her no when all she’s heard as a kid is yes, yes, yes. maybe that’s why the transition between elementary to middle school was so jarring; being bossy and demanding is only cute for so long, and definitely not when you’ve got your first pimple and lost all your baby teeth.
MEAN GIRL!READER... whose bossy and demanding traits only heightened once she became aware of the social hierarchy at school. you either got picked on people or got picked on, but she never allowed herself to accept that the latter was an option. it came to her as easily as breathing did, though she wasn’t so sure that she was glad about that or not. either way, it makes climbing the social ranks easy when you’re feared and the transition from middle to high school so, so much easier.
MEAN GIRL!READER... who loves anything that’s pink, lacy, and soft. if it’s not designer, then she doesn’t want it. lots of camisoles, lots of skirts, and a full makeup routine that she’s nearly perfected. she has a bag for every outfit— but if she doesn’t, then she’ll buy a new one. her walk-in closet is currently teeming with the clothes her father brought her from his most-recent trip to paris, but she still hasn’t unpacked everything from his milan trip last month. at the end of the day, appearances matter; all it takes is one hair being out of place or a smudge of makeup being somewhere it shouldn’t to be plastered all over the high school secrets website she and her clique run by lunch.
MEAN GIRL!READER... who, underneath all the bite and bravado, is deeply insecure. maybe it heightened in middle school, or maybe she’s always been that scared little girl wondering if who she was was enough; either way, she’s worked too hard to let herself fall now. graduation’s only a few months away, and all she has to do is play the part of the perfect student and queen bee until she crosses that stage with her diploma in-hand. just a few more months… then she can work on figuring out who she really is (or who she wants to be).
MEAN GIRL!READER... who wouldn’t have given loser!art the time of day if it weren’t for him helping her with a flat tire during spring break. triple a’s not answering and her parents are across the pond for the next three days, leaving her stranded with none of the skills necessary to fix said tire (she was not getting her hands dirty. no way). while she didn’t make it easy for loser!art to help with all her lamenting and complaining, they both look at one another a bit differently than they before the tire was swapped. his kindness in her time of need sticks with mean girl!reader… so when spring break ends, she makes first contact with the boy who barely faltered under her calculating gaze. waiting for the guy to make the first move was so last year— if she wanted something (or someone), she needed to get it (him) herself.
MEAN GIRL!READER... who loves loser!art despite the many, many fronts she puts up between them. they’re not so much of an accurate reflection of herself than they are shields to ward off those with bad intentions; she’s met plenty of people who have only wanted to get into her inner circle for the social perks, not true companionship. a lesser-willed person might’ve crumbled under all of mean girl!reader’s rules and conditions for a relationship, but loser!art’s holding in there for the time being. maybe it’s the real thing… but in the meantime, mean girl!reader’s still playing hard-to-get. besides, what was the point of being queen bee if she didn’t utilize all the eyes and ears she had around campus to spy on him?
꩜ snippy ꩜ needy ꩜ mean ꩜ keen ꩜ nitpicky ꩜ in vogue ꩜ dramatic ꩜ insecure ꩜ three steps ahead ꩜ bossy ꩜ unbothered ꩜ guarded ꩜
shoutout to my anon who suggested this… will be writing a blurb at some point but thought i’d introduce these two first!!! love you guys 💗💗💗
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