fall apart and redefine

New Jersey Turnpike, New Jersey, USA

I get that classic jock Shane is a reactionary concept - fandom is generally both incapable of nuance and prone to gender binary stuff, so there's lots of stuff out there that completely feminizes or infantilizes Shane to the point of unrecognizability.

I just don't think it's a solution to go so far in the other direction as to strip Shane of everything that makes him an interesting character.

This can happen to Ilya too, of course. We get caveman Ilya who can't string two words together, slob Ilya who can't function in society without his nagging wife, or poor helpless Ilya who needs Shane and Yuna to swoop in and save him from poverty and bad career decisions.

But I think people are also willing to GIVE Ilya traits in compensation. Ilya's the one who is miraculously in touch with the queer community. Ilya's the one who knows what Stonewall is and can easily pass "Gaydar". Ilya reads classic Russian literature and has a secret doctorate. Ilya had romantic dreams of being a figure skater but homophobia!

But Shane? Shane is a jock. Period.

Shane has no interest in the queer community. He'd be borderline if not outright homophobic if he ever met a femme queer man (despite the fact that we SEE him meet Fabian Salah, and while his emotions are complicated, he recognizes that as something to work on.) He'd never show open support to a queer person. (Joe who? The speed skater who?)

Shane only cares about his team and their success, not about them as people. Shane only likes Hayden as a mask of heterosexuality. Except we see that's not true. He spends time with Hayden and his family willingly. He takes time out of his only vacation to talk to him. He helps take care of the kids. JJ is always vocally delighted whenever he socializes with them. Soren Miitka is in his phone by his first name.

Shane would never be interested in any subjects outside of hockey/would never be interested in talking to anyone who isn't a hockey player. And look, I definitely think there's something to be explored in the fact that Shane has stripped his life down to basically hockey + endorsements + a very tiny bit of socializing with team/family/Hayden + the secret rendezvous with Ilya. But he does have at least one friend outside of the hockey world - the aforementioned Joe or the speed skater. He can carry on a conversation with Rose Landry about her movies. He is at least aware of other topics!

Shane is stupid. And look, I get that the brainy Asian is a stereotype. It is worth noting that, aside from Kip, Shane is the only one of the lead characters that we actually see reading a book. And I acknowledge that it's probably a book about hockey. But it's still a book. (And sure, the books may tell us that he's been reading one book for a long time, but being a slow reader - whether because he's busy or because he's just slow at it - does not make someone stupid.)

Shane is a misogynist. This one, I think, has layers. But I think it's fascinating yet annoying when certain people are so quick to shove these jock stereotypes onto Shane and not Ilya. ILYA somehow gets to be this miraculously enlightened feminist who has the utmost respect for his club hookups. IF Ilya is sexist, then it's the "puts women on a pedestal/cherishes them too much" type. Sure, it's sexist, but it's sexist in the way that lets us relate it back to his personal tragedy. It's a point of empathy not criticism. And not one that's ever offered to Shane.

Shane is really the slob. This one is complicated because I think both characters, in the show, are shown to be pretty neat. And I know it's compensation for the ridiculous slob-Ilya, fishwife-Shane tropes. But at the same time, we do see Shane fold his clothes before sex. Multiple times. And even if we dismiss that as being nerves - generally if someone's instinct when nervous is to tidy something, they're a tidy person. They can BOTH be clean, tidy people.

Shane is really the masculine one in the relationship! Ilya is the ultra femme diva! And this one is particularly annoying because you're not fixing a gender binary by reversing it. But also, this again, gives a lot more layers to Ilya. In canon, both are men and pretty solidly so. Neither has shown any interest in exploring gender expression. In fanon, though, Ilya is the only one who gets to explore this. Any attempt to explore what Shane might actually want or feel under his constant, low-key terrified attempts at masculine conformity gets labeled as "feminizing him".

I'd be less frustrated if this "nothing but a jock" interpretation of Shane actually got some exploration in its own right. Shane's life has been devoted to this sport since he was a child. And in a way, his relationship with hockey is almost an abusive relationship. The sport loves him as long as he can perform, but his obsession with performance has had a detrimental or even harmful effect on so many other aspects of his life. It accepts him, conditionally, as long as he isn't too loud about all the ways he doesn't fit. His life is the sport, or branding from the sport, to the point where his personal time has been reduced to two weeks of the year. And the most private parts of his life have become a documentary that his fans can pull up on netflix whenever he wants.

Don't get me wrong, he did not react well to The Whole Thing. I'm not absolving him of ANYTHING there. But deciding that he's irredeemable, deciding he's a bad person, deciding that he's as bad as every other MTL player (save Hayden) is incredibly reductive and, honestly, I hate to say it, but it's pretty fucking immature.

Because in the real world people fuck up. In the real world, people react poorly in highly emotional situations. And it is pretty fucking important, actually if a loved one has had a bad/negative reaction, has done and said hurtful things, but then COMES BACK AND TRIES TO FIX IT, after he has had time to examine why he reacted that way. That is fucking huge. It's huge and it's RARE, and it's so, so good.

J.J. showing up on Shane's doorstep to talk it out is so fucking brave. Shane letting him in (physically and emotionally) and allowing him the opportunity to talk it out is ALSO so fucking brave. And it is truly beautiful and valuable and GOOD that the ten year friendship they have is important enough -- on both sides-- for them to do the hard work to mend it.

Repairing something that has been broken is an important aspect of any long term relationship. It's important for J.J. to see why he was wrong, and for him to be the one to reach out . It's ALSO important for Shane to understand how his secrecy (no matter how well-justified it is) and hiding and lying has impacted ALL of his personal relationships, because a huge theme of the book is that Hollanov don't exist in a vacuum, and cannot live in a vacuum!!!!!