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CW: discussion of role model by Rachel Reid and sexual assault

1. Why is a narrative around sexual assault and rape culture in hockey featured around a *man* who 1.5. does not have relationships with or sex with women? Like this isn’t to say that gay men can’t participate in misogyny or rape culture but rather that the participation of bisexual and heterosexual men in misogyny and rape culture differs because they have sex with women.

2. None of Kent’s victims are named in text even though four of them agree to come forward not anonymously. And (granted this is hard because of limited third person pov) it fails the Bechdel test 😭.

3. Dallas is a serial rapist with something like a dozen known victims or something like that, which means statistically speaking the actual number is higher. I think part of the reason RR made him a serial rapist is a thing we see so much in media around rape and sexual assault which is that in order to combat the viewer/reader not believing the survivor they either introduce the volume of accusations of the severity of what happened. Why not just give Dallas Kent one victim that speaks out because:

4.1. People, even men, are a lot more likely to believe men that have multiple accusers, possibly across different states, territories, and countries. Like even in defense of other serial offenders it’s usually not people believing that the guy didn’t do the thing, rather people saying it did happen, but wasn’t a crime because X. One victim, even two or three, is more likely to result in the victims not being believed but when you have as many as Dallas did, generally it’s a numbers game because most people understand they can’t all be lying. Again yes there are outliers especially in the hockey world but like… serial rapists are low hanging fruit for participants in rape culture to be like, “see! We do hold rapists accountable!” because they criticize him. But the other reason why it’s terrible Dallas is a serial rapist is

4.2. It makes it really sus that Troy didn’t know. Because wdym you don’t know that your best friend, who you drink with, party with, go to events with, have hung out and probably spent the night in their house. Your best friend, who, crucially, doesn’t believe he did anything wrong and who believes that you, dear one, agree with him in every area? That best friend is a serial rapist and you had no idea? He never bragged to you or asked you to participate? So had suspicious behavior taking a woman home or to his room? You never realized at any point that his dehumanization of woman was dangerous?

Except, you saw a pattern of him treating women poorly and immediately believed a story of him assaulting a woman because it reflected patterns you had already seen. And you’re telling me that you didn’t notice????? That it was serial????

Like kinda the one thing that most serial abusers have in common is that most people around them know and ignore it or quietly warn people.

5. Troy’s posts on social media focus on resources for survivors and not actually addressing rape culture, whereas Troy would be a very powerful person to help pink pill teenage boys to prevent them growing up in rape culture.

6. Multiple characters in the text question of Troy knew, Wyatt even says he thought Troy would’ve participated, and Wyatt says that it was obvious to anyone they knew Kent that he was guilty, suggesting that someone even closer to Kent would probably have an even better understanding of it. And in my experiences, guys like this are not quiet about it especially when they think they’re in a safe space and can share stories freely. And when it comes to it being serial instead of a one off or a handful of times, that increases the likelihood of Troy knowing and it’s just like… the implications of what Troy was ignoring are just… fucked up.

1. there is a very good chance rr based kent’s arrest on a very real trial (that ended in exoneration despite mounting evidence of guilt). i’ll spare details, suffice to say it was horrific. look up “hockey canada trial” at your own risk. that said, 1.1 the nhl player we know for a fact was named as a defendant is still very much an nhl player who made it to the stanley finals this year and 1.2 that trial was one victim v multiple perpetrators, not one perpetrator v multiple victims. interesting how the latter can narratively communicate a loss or lack of power (many vs one) despite dallas being very rich and famous. just an observation.

2. statistically? if kent were a real person who was guilty of rape, his victim would be his current or ex girlfriend/fiance/wife and she would be his only victim. most rapists are not serial rapists and most rapists do not rape strangers. imo, making kent a serial rapist who drugs his victims turns him into more of a boogeyman we can collectively hate without hesitation. rr doesn’t do nuance — dallas kent is an evil monster that exists in a vacuum and all the other Good Men in her books cannot do the things he did because they are Good. 2.1 there’s also some inherent though not necessarily intentional victim blaming in how she writes kent and everyone’s reactions. everyone except troy (and apparently kent’s victims) could tell by looking at him that kent was a rapist, which i can tell you from experience is not what anyone wants to hear about their rapist. it implies you should have or could have seen it coming and incorrectly assumes only a certain type of person is a rapist.

3. troy’s reaction actually makes a lot of sense imo? not only because he’s so inwardly focused due to his struggle w his sexuality and various other internal conflicts, but because rape culture and homophobia are inextricably linked. it would make a lot of sense if troy’s experience with rape culture centered around fear of being victimized; players from many sports including hockey have disclosed being sexually assaulted by teammates due to their sexuality. sexual humiliation also seems to be some kind of hazing ritual in these environments (not just sports but frats, the military, etc) and homophobia is a huge part of that. it makes sense that he doesn’t see how rape culture in hockey basically created kent, at least not right away.

shane — who at this point has spent the entire book being told by literally everyone that he needs to be less mopey and anxious and to support ilya’s life more — fully compartmentalises everything and pushes all of it down. he’s never been happier, truly. yes he’d love to host the centaurs at his new house without warning. he’d love to do a photoshoot. he’d love to post a video on instagram. he’d love to be the butt of the joke. look how much fun he’s having. this is great. he just needs to be less worried about everything and it’ll all work out. ilya will take care of it. he just needs to go to the back of the line. yes, he wants another slice of chocolate cake please and thank you

the more things change the more they stay the same i guess… also worth noting that afaik garfunkel, along with streisand, was one of the first jewish americans in the industry to use their very jewy last name instead of a stage name.