hockey was a mistake

i do actually think it is offensive for an author to dismiss queer characters' concerns of homophobia as just internalized shame and selfishness and self-hatred and cowardice. i do actually think it is offensive for an author to bring up homophobic legistlation in russia as a major concern for an immigrant character only to then decide it doesn't matter to him at all, actually, because writing him as an immigrant and doing any research about immigration is somehow too much to ask of ~a romance novel~.

and frankly, i think people who go "oh my god it's just a romance novel!!! you guys are asking too much/reading too much into things!!! it's misogynistic to criticize the romance genre like this!!!" are actually far too comfortable insinuating that the entire romance genre is, by default, full of homophobia, racism, and lazy writing. i actually think it's entirely possible for romance novels to treat the subjects they invoke with care.

if reid didn't want to write about closeted queer people with any compassion, and instead wanted to accuse them of only being closeted because of shame, selfishness, and cowardice, she could have made up a fictional world in which homophobia is simply not as severe an issue as it is today. instead, she chose to invoke homophobia as it exists in the real world, and then simply victim-blamed her closeted characters for being impacted by it.

ultimately, she writes as though the closet is the ultimate sin. this is why she discards ilya's immigrant storyline and doesn't care about the impacts of russia on him as soon as it no longer plays into the ~forbidden romance~ trope in hr. the closet is evil, and wanting to stay closeted is shameful, and therefore ilya (her obvious favorite character) must want to come out. the long game follows the same exact formula as game changer, just with more cruelty in its ending. (it's like if game changer included two sentences about scott getting physically hatecrimed at the end, but glossed over it immediately because he was just sooooo happy to be out it didn't even matter.)

Throughout the book, Ilya is seen to have made a tremendous sacrifice for moving to Ottawa. He’s still a huge star, he’s captain, he’s playing in the NHL and he’s paid what he’s worth. Not winning for 2 seasons is considered a huge loss to him, one that he has a lot of difficulty dealing with, and everyone understands why he’s struggling to cope with that. He sees the loss as basically choosing Shane over hockey. Shane breaks down and berates himself over it.

Shane suffers much more after tripgate and the horror is that people are HAPPY. And he himself is expected to get over the sense of loss quickly. There’s very little empathy shown towards him or outrage on his behalf. There’s no reflection on the grave injustice he’s suffered. He’s no longer paid what he’s worth, something he cares about, and all he gets is a joke about having a rich husband. Nobody is talking about how it’s not right for a player of his caliber to be paid so little. He’s lost the captaincy, and all he gets is a joke about moving to the back of the line. It’s fine if there’s a merit based discussion on the captaincy of the Centaurs in any capacity, but there isn’t. Ilya became captain of the Centaurs right away, displacing the guy who held the position before him because he was the bigger star then did a pretty mediocre job for over two years. Shane Hollander, a man who captained his team to THREE cups, isn’t even worth a discussion. His reputation is destroyed, and nobody rises to defend him. Ilya seemed more annoyed that people are implying he needs Shane throwing games for him to win rather than being outraged at the attack on Shane’s integrity. The Centaurs, supposedly the bastion of wokeness, act like they’re doing Shane a huge favor for taking him in when he’s “damaged goods” and they’re HAPPY. YOU the reader feel like it’s unjust for Shane to suffer this profound loss, but the characters in The Long Game, including “the good guys” certainly show no indication that they feel this way.

Throughout the series, this type of professional loss ONLY happens to Shane (making this seem like a Voyageurs and Crowell problem rather than more pervasive oppression). It’s brushed over when minor characters get pushed out of the league. Everyone major character who came out is just fine. For those who came out after retirement, there’s no indication of negative impacts on their legacy. In fact, part of what motivated Ilya to want to come out is seeing the other out players and how great things were for them afterwards. Organizations that are supposedly queer friendly don’t seem to face any significant pressure or sabotage from the supposedly homophobic powers that be. The Irina Foundation, a new organization that promotes diversity and employs queer coaches, faces no challenges whatsoever. Where is this oppressively homophobic league people are picturing in their minds in the actual series? YOU the reader understand the professional hockey hockey world to be homophobic and oppressive enough for queer athletes to be closeted, but Rachel Reid failed to build her world that way.