Women became interested in gay erotica because of the series about hockey players

There has been a tectonic shift in popular culture: stories about love between men have ceased to be niche content and have entered the mainstream. The main catalyst for this process was the series Heated Rivalry («Жаркое соперничество»), which became a cultural phenomenon among heterosexual women and opened the door to a new wave of same-sex stories on screen. In the phenomenon was investigated BBC.

The series, based on the book of Canadian writer Rachel Reid "Game Changers", tells the story of two young hockey players - Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander. Despite the fact that the heroes play for rival teams, their feud quickly develops into a passionate romance, which has been shown for ten years. What was originally intended as a modest show for Canadian streaming Crave instantly blew up the global market. HBO Max bought the rights to show a week before the premiere, and the series immediately received rave reviews: Harper's Bazaar included him in the list of the best LGBT series of all time after just two episodes.

However, the most surprising thing for many was that The main audience of the show was women, and this forced the media to seriously discuss the reasons for such interest.

Background: from samizdat to manga

Women's interest in male erotica did not arise out of nowhere – it has deep roots. Back in the 1960s, fans of the Star Trek series began writing their stories about the romance between Captain Kirk and Spock, starting the so-called "Slash" (slash fiction).

In the era before the Internet, women found each other through photocopied magazines (zines), which were exchanged at fan events. At the same time, in the 1970s in Japan, the group of female artists "Year 24" began to create Shōjo Mangu, which later evolved into the genre Yaoi or Boys' Love, stories about men's relationships written by women for women. In the 1990s, publishers like Black Lace appeared in the West, specializing in female erotica, including male same-sex stories.

Why do women like gay erotica?

Experts and researchers identify several reasons for such popularity:

1. Aesthetics: As New Statesman author Catherine Hughes succinctly noted, there is a simple answer to the question of the appeal of such shows: "What could be better than one hot man? Only Two".

2. Absence of misogyny: Same-sex stories allow women to enjoy sex on a screen that is not burdened by gender imbalances or manifestations of misogyny.

3. Psychological aspect: Researcher Lucy Neville found that more than half of the women she interviewed often fantasize about being a man during sex. This is due to the fact that from childhood, girls get used to identifying themselves with male characters in literature - from Peter Pan to Holden Caulfield.

A new era in television

Hollywood has ignored this market for a long time. After the success of the film "Brokeback Mountain" in 2005, there was no regular influx of such stories on the screens. However, the situation changed with the release of the film "Red, white and royal blue" in 2023, which has become one of the most popular rom-coms on Prime Video and has already received confirmation of the sequel.

Now the industry is preparing for the "bandwagon effect". Homoerotic motifs or open gay lines appear in projects such as:

• Season four "Industry".

• Season two "Night Administrator" with Tom Hiddleston.

• New shows from HBO and Prime Video, such as I Love LA and Overcompensating.

Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby became the prototypes of... gay hockey players in the series "Hot Rivalry"

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Community reaction: fetishization or progress?

There are sometimes concerns that heterosexual women's interest in gay culture could lead to fetishization. However, a study by Lucy Neville found that most queer men have a positive view of it. Many of them note that they are more pleased to know that their relationship is perceived as something attractive rather than disgusting, as has often been the case in the past.

The future of the genre looks promising. Studios do not have to look for ideas, since the accumulated A huge layer of raw material in the form of decades of fan fiction and modern literature in the M/M romance genre. As Lucy Neville points out, the industry is just beginning to tap into this wealth, and the success of the Heated Rivalry is only the beginning of a long journey.