I love hollanova so deeply but the one plot beat I just don't know how you would gender swap is Rose Landry. I do feel like a lot of that narrative arc rides on the fact that women are taught that they must be understanding of what a man is going through above all else. Rose is willing to do the emotional work of breaking up with Shane in the kindest way, to do the work of empathising with where Shane might be coming from, to look deeper than 'he's a nice guy but a shit lay'. Sure she's a nice person, but her empathy is not wholly innate, right? There's significant external gender socialisation that's making that happen (and rewarding her for it).
I just don't know if Jane Hollander punishing herself in a heterosexual relationship would get the same response if it was Ross Landry. Putting aside the fact that female athletes typically aren't seen as 'prizes' for other celebrity men to date (unlike the way that male athletes/female actresses get social clout from each other), you're telling me that a mid twenties famous movie star male actor cares enough to look through Jane Hollander's anorgasmia and awkwardness and conclude 'huh maybe she's a lesbian and I should be really careful and thoughtful about how I approach this' ??? Unlikely!!
I want to make it work but I do feel like I'm struggling to line it all up.
I’ve had this same thought and here’s my vision: Hollanova but Rose is still Rose. She and Jane still become friends because Rose is in Montreal shooting a movie, but it’s happening at the same time that Jane starts dating one of Rose’s male co-stars (because the canon comp het relationship arc is Important). Jane enjoys Rose’s company way more than The Guy, so the three of them are frequently spotted all hanging out together. (It gets to the point where people start making throuple jokes, but mostly in a ‘wow can you believe this guy gets to fuck the hottest woman in Hollywood and the hottest female hockey player’ kind of way.) And Rose loves her new BFF, and she thinks it’s adorable that Jane is so comically bad at Girl Talk, but eventually she realizes that everything she’s managed to get out of Jane about her sex life with The Guy (and her sexual experience with guys in general) is so unenthusiastic and so depressing that maybe something more is going on. So she sets up a sleepover, and she and Jane do all kinds of fun girly stuff, and then at some point she’s just kind of gently like “hey, babe, do you think you might not really like men?” And Jane starts crying and admits to herself and to Rose that she’s a lesbian, and Rose cries too and tells Jane they’re still best friends. (And Jane is so relieved and so happy because she’s never understood the Rules of female friendship, but Rose makes it all feel so easy.) Meanwhile, Lily is losing her goddamn mind because Jane is not only publicly dating some male movie star, but is also obviously actually secretly dating Rose Landry!!!
