minoanmiss | Fandom is Not Praxis

Today in ridiculousness: I'm actually pretty relieved that it took this long for me to run into a post about how "if you don't watch _Heated Rivalry_ you're a homophobe" although it would of course have been better if no one had said it. I've also only seen two or three "Shut up about _Heated Rivalry_" posts, which is good -- maybe people are actually curating their fandom experiences! Though again it would have been better if no one had said this.

Ah fancreatures. Our opinions and experiences inform our tastes, and I do still think it's hypocritical to be a right-winger/MAGAt and also a slash fan, *and* this show is having positive cultural impact, but just being a fan of a show isn't a direct act of political change. May it inspire people to many acts of political change, though. (Hopefully positive ones.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

From:

dewline

I know two things:

1) This show isn't meant for me.

2) That's alright. I've got friends to whom it is bringing joy/relief/both.

From:

minoanmiss

Yep and yep! I am delighted by people's delight. I just don't like hockey.

(no subject)

From:

princessofgeeks - Date: 2026-01-18 08:19 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

sabotabby

I have different circles. I get "if you like Heated Rivalry then you're a straight women with a fetish."

From:

minoanmiss

Oh I saw that too but I've been seeing that since I got into slash decades ago so I didn't even pay it mind. It's a ragged old bit of calumny with a new coat of paint.

(no subject)

From:

jesse_the_k - Date: 2026-01-18 04:28 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From:

minoanmiss - Date: 2026-01-18 07:12 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

princessofgeeks

AHAHAHAHAHA.

No.

From:

rydra_wong

FFS, humans.

From:

dialecticdreamer

What is "Heated Rivalry"? No clue here.

That doesn't make me a homophobe. (It means that I rely on free sites for streamed entertainment, most of which is pre-Y2k.)

Do you remember the wave of "gay best friend" characters that raced through the 1990s, sitcoms especially, when the door to this characterization first nudged open? I do. At the time, I shrugged and said, "It's about time! Ten percent of the population has more recent roots in Africa than I do, and about the same number prefer their own gender. I wonder what's next on their checklist?'

My most memorable fandom-related moment was between myself and my best friend, a friendship which had endured twenty years at that point.

On Torchwood in series one, the episode "Captain Jack Harkness," time shenanigans put Jack in the same dance hall as the man who is hours away from going missing on a bombing mission. There's confusion, angst, frustration (can we save him?) along with the whole "He's so closeted that no one should ever FIND the closet," problem. When our Jack asked the Captain to dance, I LITERALLY cheered. When they kissed just before the rift opened and brought the Torchwood pair back, you could probably have heard the cheering all over my block. It wasn't the romance of it, but the courage of it, for both men, for different reasons. It truly was a payoff for the plot.

I was laughing about this with that aforementioned (former) best friend-- and got a lecture about how any display of homosexuality was a support for p*d*ph*l*a.

I was flummoxed.

No amount of logic, of trying to tease apart the absolute wrongness that apparently tied the two concepts together in her mind, worked.

I still don't understand it.

And then I got the lecture about what a terrible example I was setting for my kids, who were both teenagers.

Our family conversation after the episode, by the by, was that this was a rosy-tinted wish scene, NOT the most likely results of a well-decorated Air Force officer in the middle of wartime kissing another male soldier, instead of a WAC. The conversation was sad, in that the history is so awful, but hopeful because my kids had trouble grasping the depth of the bigotry faced at the time. The illegality of certain things was laughable to them-- "What, did cops knock politely on bedroom doors or just peek in the windows?"

So, whatever I am politically and socially, I stand by it. Occasionally, I get a funny story out of it, too.

From:

minoanmiss

This is an amazing meaty comment that I should reply to at greater length.

From:

goss

Heh. Same old, same old, eh?

maybe people are actually curating their fandom experiences

Yeah, curating has really been a...game changer (no pun intended! *g*) for me this time around falling into a new fandom. HR really has been, and hopefully continues to be, my happy place. :)

From:

princessofgeeks

*cartwheels*

From:

minoanmiss

Same old same old, yeah. (and I see what you did there)

From:

dine

oh, people. somehow some folks never fail to disappoint

From:

minoanmiss

It's like, could they take a break just this once? but nooooo

From:

dialecticdreamer

I've gotten into conversations about whether normal slash is less "offensive to the canon character" than genderswapping them, and having their orientation also switch so they're no longer attracted the original way. It's a convoluted mess, so here's an example: genderswitch Harry Potter so she can get together with Draco Malfoy, or Lucius, or Snape (checks long list of pretty much every male in the series but Hagrid and the Giant Squid)--You get the idea.

And if slash fic with the last two mentioned characters exist, please do not tell me.

Anyway, I've argued that the appeal of slash to women is that the male/male dynamic is considered more powerful, and more EQUAL than m/f dynamics, and more advantageous than f/f stuff. Basically, wish fulfillment for a different relationship dynamic, rather than the homosexuality of it. Then again, I can admit that most people are curious and 'aren't those two hot together?' is a valid reason for reading fiction.

The power question is NOT a fetish question, though fetishes exist or Victoria's Secret wouldn't sell so MUCH red stock in January and February, lol.

Mulling over the sociological changes in my lifetime is FUN to illustrate with fanfic, too.

From:

minoanmiss

nod The motivation you describe -- a relationship of equals -- is one I've often seen cited. I think it's been joined by some related motivations, especially as understanding of gender grows more complex.

From:

corvidology

Not. Interested. In. Sports.

That makes me a homophobe? Today I learned...

From:

minoanmiss

Remember the Star Trek Reboot? I remember people saying that it was homophobic to like Uhura because she was Spock's canon love interest instead of Kirk. Some fanthings are truly exhausting.

(no subject)

From:

corvidology - Date: 2026-01-19 02:15 am (UTC) - Expand

Oh, how <I>inane</I>!

From:

dialecticdreamer - Date: 2026-01-19 02:23 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From:

kore - Date: 2026-01-21 03:50 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

princessofgeeks

Good heavens, I can think of like 90 trillion reasons for someone to not be interested in HR while not being a homophobe. The stupid, it burns.

From:

minoanmiss

IKR? Sigh.

From:

lunabee34

I agree with all this.

From:

bikergeek

I know it's a sin for an adopted Masshole to admit it, but I'm not really interested in Heated Rivalry because I really don't care about hockey all that much. Gay pirates, OTOH....

From:

full_metal_ox

Is there room on this bench for an Ohio native who’s indifferent to football?

(I’m on board for the gay Wuxia warrior-mages, thanks.)

(no subject)

From:

bikergeek - Date: 2026-01-20 02:16 am (UTC) - Expand

From:

xenacryst

I didn't even know about the show until ... last week sometime? But I also don't pay attention to most TV media. And anyway, I'm in the throes of a Babylon 5 rewatch. Don't be interruptin my Ivanova/Marcus shenanigans.

From:

gwydion

I am happy my friends are happy. I am happy another NHL player came out because fandom made him feel safe. I am not interested in watching it, but my fingers work okay and I can scroll past.

It's fine. Not everything is for me. Most things aren't for me.

I do wish people would stop insisting that everyone who doesn't like every single thing thing that they like is evil and bad. I wish people wound stop insisting people who like anything they don't like are evil/bad.

Fuckssake, we were begging for representation my whole life. I used to score the TV every week in hopes of something, anything even vaguely queer was on. I remember how I would watch things I did not think and weren't to my taste because so few things existed.

I remember how excited I was when we reached a point where I literally could not watch all the things with queer content on TV, because that was progress people fought so hard for for DECADES.

I am grateful I don't have to watch whole genres of things I don't care for.

I do not want to go back and I really really don't want some Neo-puritan half my age screaming at me that I'm a homophobe because I have things I would rather do than watch that one show even if it does have representation and that one actor I like.

Fandom is no activism.