an underrated thing about heated rivalry that i love is the fact that the straight allies in this show are super well meaning but consistently miss the mark.
carter vaughn is being supportive! but he assumes that a male figure skater Must be gay based off nothing while he’s sitting next to two gay men who are hockey players. he’s being supportive and yet it hits both of the gay people that are there wrong.
elena is standing up for kip to scott in a way that pays off in the show but, can we be serious? if the friend of the secret boyfriend of a closeted nhl player told the nhl player essentially that he has to come out because he’s making his boyfriend miserable, that would be so deeply out of line. but i can totally see it happening.
this one’s super minor but it bothers me. rose. saying you wish you were a lesbian is not the woke take you think it is. dating women instead of men is not inherently easier, and you’d have to be crazy to think being a lesbian is easier than being a straight woman. it doesn’t bother shane, but it does bother me.
yuna hearing ilya and shane’s future plans and saying “oh no, that’s sad” is a perfect example of this. she’s right! it is sad! but saying this to shane and ilya, who have been grappling with this for 9 years and are fully aware of how depressing it is, obviously hits them both wrong. the look on ilya’s face, and shane’s “i know, we know.”
it’s very real to life.
