carter

i love shane who is just. PERPETUALLY a little suspicious of ryba and her motivations.

ryba, meanwhile??? ADORES him. cat-coded human!! hello!! where are we going? what are you looking at? what are you eating? can i sniff it? oh don't mind me i'll just sit right here-

"ilya, get your cat, she keeps following me to the bathroom"

"she doesn't want you to be lonely"

fully straight vibing and just hanging out with shane while he showers.

and shane just. TRULY does not know what the fuck to do here.

shane who has spent years sharing locker rooms and showers no problem who is suddenly VERY self-conscious in front of this cat who just invited herself into the shower with him.

The thing is, I had a Very Russian girl bff in that time period. So I know in my heart of hearts, that Lilya would not be dressing butch like I see in most fanart. If you asked her she would say that she'd actually rather die. Bc being perceived as unfeminine would be worse than death.

Ilya is very much religiously following slavic male fashion trends of the time and trying to project this macho hypermasculine image that his culture expects of him (even though it isn't his true nature), so vice versa, season 1 Lilya would not be caught dead in comfy or unfeminine clothes.

She'd actually be wearing those tacky cut up Ed Hardy tops that show lots of skin (do people remember those?) and skinny jeans she can just barely squeeze into.

She'd wear stiletto heels out shopping, in the club and even on the way to the gym, and if there's blood running down her heels every day that's just a thing you have to deal with to serve *shrug*

She's definitely highlighting her hair and I am sad to report there is quite a high likelihood she is straightening her curls :/ (moment of silence please).

She'd be worried that Jane wouldn't find her hot anymore if she shows up to a hotel night without makeup on or in non-form fitting clothes, cause she thinks it's that hyperfeminine image she projects that Jane is actually attracted to - Jane doesn't KNOW the side of her that is lazy and would like to just not put in the effort. (Jane goes absolutely feral though, when she finally gets to see Lilya without ANY makeup whatsoever for the first time, at the cottage.)

I think she'd be settled in Canada for a while by the time she allows herself to actually be seen out wearing flat shoes in a non sports setting by anyone other than Jane and it would feel really vulnurable and weird for a while.

So I can see people writing or drawing Hollanova simply flipping this. Make Ilya fem or mostly fem, and make Shane Very Fem. I get that logic.

But I personally find it more interesting to consider their gender presentations as the product of their environment. Like I said, I interpret Ilya as being as masculine as he is because he’s an NHL player who can’t be visibly queer. And it’s not any different for Shane - it just so happens Shane is also comfortable being masculine.

But tbh, even if Shane would like to be more flamboyant or fem, we know he wouldn’t be, right? He would force himself to be exactly as masculine as he is in canon anyway because conformity is safety and necessary for his career and as close as he can get to belonging.

So with Hollanova, if I’m honest, I still imagine them to want the same presentations they do in the show. Ilya slightly more flamboyant or fem than we see in canon, and Shane very butch.

HOWEVER - changing their gender and environment would change things. In the pwhl Lilya could easily be the “tom boy” whose attire is overall athletic and masculine but with feminine touches here and there, which is a pretty common presentation among women athletes, and she could present this way for pretty much her whole career, both because this would not be as likely to draw her sexuality into question but also because if it did she would also be more likely to be accepted by her team.

But with Jane, it’s completely different. Jane still has internalized queerphobia. Jane still needs to conform to be safe, to be the model minority, to look the way she’s expected in all her ads and for all her sponsorships, and it is still something that is more socially accepted than not among her team, which means even if they’d be more likely to accept her gender nonconformity or sexuality than Shane’s NHL team would be, Jane would still feel the need, for all these reasons, to be fem.

And I think she would be for years. Long hair, makeup, worried about getting too muscular, very feminine clothes outside of hockey spaces, etc. and it wouldn’t be until Ron, whose dating history is 80% lesbians, baby-bird feeds her gay awakening to her and she decides to hire a stylist to go get her girl back in Tampa, that she finally cuts that hair the first time, and wears a pantsuit instead of a dress, and from there on, baby-steps toward being butcher and butcher until post tlg she’s not even shaving anymore.