AMOTM

Male version of Rarity

[ing] I wanted to draw the MLP characters in their male versions, so here we start with Rarity... Obviously, he's going to be a total diva. Who will be next??...🧁

How Shane Hollander feels about being outed, about losing his captaincy and about moving teams are all decided for him by the author.

Whether or not Shane Hollander has trauma is decided for him by the author. Whether or not Shane Hollander experiences racism is decided by the author. Whether or not Shane Hollander 'understands the dark side of hockey' is decided by the author.

If the author is not interested in exploring how Shane Hollander's race intersects with his career, with his relationship, and with the homophobia he experiences (if in fact he experiences it at all and it's not just 'rivalry phobia'), then it simply will not be explored.

okay i know this is just hate but i'm going to use it to clear up some things anyway.

I don't hate Rachel Reid. I don't know her, and don't have any insight into her psyche to do that.

I think she is great at a lot of things. She has created characters that are just so interesting that many many people are obsessed with them. HR the tv show is an adaptation of her work, and i will always always give her credit for that. Even in TLG, I have my moments which i really like - the wedding with pike children, Shane standing up to the commissioner even when he had no supportive team behind him (bared teeth you don't get to take him away from me etc etc) and so on. There are some great plot beats in her book, and even when handled clumsily, she did try to write these books as a critique of hockey culture which i think is very admirable.

This is also why i don't really spare her the scrutiny around the choices she made regarding the one hockey player of color in the series. You cannot meaningfully engage with the toxic masculinity inherent in a white sport like hockey without understanding that white supremacy is deeply intertwined with it. So many of the ways she wrote Shane, both choices made within the story and choices regarding what the story should be about ('going into TLG it was important to hold onto how selfish Shane had been') further racist, ableist and homophobic ideas and i think we as a fandom should be able to discuss that.

While I myself have not really seen this, i don't really doubt that there is a section of fandom being misogynistic towards her. Fandom has always had it toxic elements and i think we should call it out. But it is not misogynistic to say she handled very heavy themes poorly and specifically the way she handled them promotes some terrible stereotypes.

I don't really think she made any of the writing decisions she made out of malice so much as just not caring. She did not care enough how her handling of Shane's race will come out because she did not think about it. I also don't think she expected her audience of smutty sports romance to care about it. Similarly, how she handles Shane's arc in TLG i think again just comes down to her writing herself into a corner and not caring enough about his arc to resolve it satisfyingly. And regarding the ending, she herself has said she wanted to get the book over with. So Shane's arc suffers, and i am going to hold your hand when I say this. This is at least implicit racist bias. The Character of color's arc being sacrificed at the altar of the HEA is a tiresome trope and POC fans have a right to mad about it. Especially because we are not just like. misinterpreting the narrative or reading uncharitably, she told us that the point of the book was that Shane was selfish.

Jim Jordan

Ron DeSantis

Ted Cruz

Lindsey Graham

Ya know what these fuckasses have in common? They are all openly racist and queerphobic and have all been clocked on Grinder.

Let's go even simpler:

Let's get dirty.

A. When we look at boys' will be boys', especially through the Western cisgender heteronormative lens Asian men are historically stereotyped as physically smaller, less aggressive, and sexually passive. Oh wow. Would you take a look at that. What were the fucking characteristics that Reid so happily thrust onto Shane?

Anyways: Through Barrett's initial and immediate sexualization of Shane and Ilya — without even knowing that Shane is gay and Ilya is bisexual and they're in a relationship, Barrett is immediately stuffing them into the archetypes that y'all racist fanfiction writers love to throw them in:

I will preface this by saying there is abso-fucking-lutely nothing wrong with choosing to be, or being comfortable with presenting yourself in the manner you see fit.

Shane: submissive/prey/soft/effeminate

Ilya: dominant/predator/rough/masculine,

Again everything Reid so enthusiastically promotes. Let's not fucking forget, at this point, Barrett's nextdoor neighbor are still Mr. Tumnus and Aslan.

B. That's why what Barrett says takes on a dual deflection: he's mocking Shane for being gay, solely on Shane's race. Quick reminder: Barrett doesn't know Shane outside of the rink. Why would Barrett deflect through Shane and Ilya's friendship? Yes toxic masculinity culture pushes for it because there's no reason for them to be together so a reason has to be made, but why Shane? Why did that automatically come out as the first thing he thinks of when he sees Shane?

Let's move on to the Dallas Kent part of the equation. Kent, renforces that he's a homophobe through the "Gross" and then says that Ilya "...would never [be gay]...." (emphasis mine).

This does 3 things for the both of them:

Reinforces the hyper masculine, vodka-drinking, homophobic stereotype for Ilya.

Establishes Ilya's unquestionable heteronormativity and once established, shows that Ilya and Shane can only be friends.

Aligns Barrett and Kent with Ilya's heteronormativity

C. Barrett doesn't just attack a closeted gay man, he attacks a Bi-racial Asian man to exploit the locker room's pre-existing racism. He knows that his teammates are more likely to laugh at a racialized sexual joke than a purely homophobic one. The multi-layered slurs make the joke so brutally "straight" that no one would ever suspect him. The Russian stereotype acts as his shield; by insisting on the Russian's inherent straightness, Barrett creates a grotesque "logic" that protects the straight-passing men (himself and Ilya) while sacrificing the visibly "other" man (Hollander).

Yes, through all of this Barrett is terrified that if a hyper-masculine Russian could be gay, then his own hyper-masculine performance wouldn't protect him either. So, he doesn't just mock Shane; he reassures himself out loud that Ilya is straight, desperately trying to convince his own psyche that the disguise still works. It’s survival through layered bigotry because Barrett is using race and nationality as extra bricks in his glass closet.

Hell I'll play Devil's Advocate on my own fucking post: well Troy thought Shane was cute so he was trying to repress his feelings. Then why the fuck bring Ilya into it? If he was so scared, why even bring up the topic? Hell I'll do y'all one better: if Troy felt weird about Shane and Ilya's friendship and he was bringing it up because of the homoeroticism it brought out in him then why highlight the queer undertones??????