Why Straight Women Love the Gays: The Captivation of Heated Rivalry

Section Editor Bianca Chatterjee discusses her fascination with Heated Rivalry (2025), specifically how one demographic in particular has been especially entranced by this steamy queer romance.

Being openly and unapologetically vulnerable is an expression of bravery and courage. Carefully restrained yearning reaching climaxing into a passionate monologue in the rain is what I’ve always dreamed of. Being the object of your beloved’s affection is one thing, but the act of loving puts forth a whole other dimension to what it means to be in love. 

As children, my friends and I were raised on various depictions of what romantic love looks like, or at least, what it should look like and hence, we’d grown privy to certain expectations in the quest for love. Real life is never so simple, and growing up meant discovering how complicated things truly are. I’ve written about it before, but dating often feels dystopian, and falling in love feels like it’s only meant for a select, fortunate few. It’s comforting to know that for every broken heart, we always have the option to mend it by escaping into delightful fantasy. But there’s a very specific recipe to satiating one’s appetite for romance; the perfect blend of depictions of intimacy and connection, and watching two hot guys go at each other like Maine Coon cats in heat. 

The adapted Heated Rivalry (2025) stream series follows Shane Hollander, played by Hudson Williams, and Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie, over nine years as they navigate rivalling all-star hockey careers, complicated by their hyper-passionate yet clandestine situationship. At the height of its popularity, women all over the world, specifically straight women, were entranced by Storrie’s and Williams’ convincing performances of raw sexual chemistry. Of course, amongst well-stylised cinematography and an icy techno soundtrack, fervent yearning from both characters for the other firmly drives the plot, and keeps the girls on the edge of their seats. 

When my best friend mentioned that she was on her third or fourth rewatch, a couple of weeks after the launch of Episode 6, I had to get in on whatever had her so hooked. After my first full watch, I began to wonder why exactly women were so captivated by this MLM (‘men loving men’) smutty romance. After a post-watch debrief with her, we narrowed it down to a handful of overarching themes that kept women who date men hooked.

(Hetero) Men in Modern Rom-Coms are Lacklustre

A big issue in the modern romantic media-scape today is that we’re severely lacking in romance. After the release of 500 Days of Summer (2009), there was a palpable shift in the zeitgeist in what romance looked like in film. We began to see a lot more cynicism dressed up with a cold veneer of ‘realism’, and audiences were forced to face the music: love is either forged through countless trials and tribulations, or dead entirely. 

These ‘challenges’ that make love worthwhile often delegate heterosexual pairings to their respective gendered roles. Men are cold, avoidant and almost resentful of their partner, whilst women are perpetually under the influence of the push-and-pull dynamic, being complicit in their own dilemma and pretty annoying for it. What’s even more frustrating is that often, these women characters are those who initiate the tough conversations about getting to the bottom of the central relationship. When she is initially rebuffed by the main male character, her decision to finally let him go spurs him into action to “get his girl back”. Sometimes, he ends up refraining entirely, and they go their separate ways forever.

The emotional labour that women are burdened with in romantic dynamics understandably translates into off-screen cynicism in women viewers. In response, another Netflix Original chick-flick is made: corny, quippy repartee about how love is a deceptive and fallible scheme, between the lead pairing that quickly devolves into vanilla jackhammering, followed by more mechanical pseudo-chemistry. Being ironic about it may appeal to the odd Millennial out there; however, I vehemently disagree with that sentiment. 

In an interview with Them, Hudson Williams echoed the idea that such roles delegated to men and women in these relationships are restrictive [1]. Heated Rivalry masterfully leads us through almost a decade of Shane and Ilya building their intense romantic desires for one another, coming to a head when Ilya finally professes his love to Shane in his Russian monologue. Seeing Shane let down his walls to confess to and communicate with Ilya about how to make space for their relationship is refreshing and sweet. Ultimately, seeing equal masculine partners flexibly embodying a variety of typically gendered traits in their relationship is significant. Men who aren’t afraid to be vulnerable and honest, but who are also capable of being playful, flirty and dominant, are a refreshing take on a one-dimensional brooding, withdrawn and cynical leading man. As they literally ride off into the sunset together, Shane and Ilya prove to audiences that men are more than capable of building joyful and successful relationships. To a lot of straight women, this steamy fantasy can also be spun into a hopeful one, too.

Chemistry is Insaaane

Heated Rivalry was so magnetic because the sex scenes were amazing. It’s as simple as that.

Amongst the post-watch debrief chatter, I perused more press run interviews of Storrie and Williams, and was met with titillating banter between the two and steadfast dissections of the themes of their work. It felt so fun watching them hang out on a Teen Vogue set, being unadulterated and un-media-trained.

Bestie and I both agreed that chemistry is foundational to convincing viewers of a romantic plot line. It’s so hard to be pulled into the fantasy when the acting between the leads is stale or diluted. Arguably, it doesn’t take much to be convinced, but it has to be done right. 

There are many bad examples of poor chemistry—refer to my earlier mentions of Netflix Original films—but Heated Rivalry features anything but. 

The off-screen magnetism between Storrie and Williams isn’t choreographed, and this is translated into immersive on-screen magic. In Episode 1, the scene where Shane and Ilya sip from the same water bottle is punctuated with sensuality, simply because it feels like the two really know each other on some level. Their flirty text conversations over the years act as a meaningful plot device that highlights how tangible their chemistry really is, transcending the point-blankness of an in-person conversation. 

Even with a language barrier between the two characters, Shane and Ilya speak to one another through their bodies and perfectly executed micro-expressions, which pull us into the magic of everything they’re feeling. 

While this effect isn’t limited to the bedroom scenes, Bestie and I hypothesised that their chemistry is what made the intimate scenes all the more engaging. In a hypersexual world where women are overtly the subject of sexual spotlighting, being able to admire men’s bodies through a sensual and sexual lens is exciting. When men’s bodies are on display, it’s usually an assertion of dominance and a declaration of masculine power. This is especially true when a male body is placed alongside a woman’s, who is portrayed as a weaker, frailer collection of sexual parts. Straight women are tired of having to watch this dynamic over and over again. It’s especially tedious when there’s no chemistry, because you never even get the chance to open the door to a convincing fantasy. It feels sterile and like you’re watching just another scene where she gets fucked, and something feels like it’s missing. 

Watching perceivably gender-equal partners relish each other, and have it feel believable, is the ultimate vicarious experience for straight women who want to do the fucking. Being able to see gorgeous presentations of male bodies that aren’t designed to intimidate is like, all straight girls want (like, hello?). It just makes sense for throngs of women to want to see what happens next.

Women Side Characters and Joy in (Queer) Love Stories 

Something that really stuck out to us was that women characters were not used as obstacles in the plot. Rose and Svetlana weren’t written to threaten the relationship between Shane and Ilya. Films like Love, Simon (2018) have depicted women as being duped and scorned by their boyfriend or best friend coming out as gay. This presentation reduces straight women to one-dimensional, incapable of growth or change, and is misogynistic at its core. 

Though Rose was Shane’s girlfriend for a short period, their inevitable break-up didn’t turn her bitter or resentful, as we see Rose expressing her curiosity and extending her friendship to Shane, because she really does love him. Similarly, Svetlana is the first to point out to Ilya that though he loves her, he’ll never love her as much as he loves “Jane”, and that’s okay since platonic love extends far beyond that. Seeing women be peripheral to these central romances, in a way that portrays them as optimistic, protective and loving friends, is the refreshing representation in MLM media women have wanted and have deserved. 

Finally, Ilya and Shane embarking on the beginning of their relationship, without having to escape the clutches of homophobic parents or other societally-imposed adversities that threaten to tear them apart, was the perfect ending. It’s all too common for queer media to end with the couple we’ve been rooting for, being cruelly torn apart or brought together through sacrifice. Call Me By Your Name (2017) and Brokeback Mountain (2005) both end in devastating tragedy, and although each film had at least a couple of other problematic themes, audiences are devastated seeing another on-screen gay romance go up in flames. 

Heated Rivalry presents an alternate ending that opposes the idea that a queer romance cannot be both intelligent and joyful. We’re not forced to watch our beloved leads in any more pain than what’s necessary for a classic yearn-fueled situationship. We’re not subjected to struggle love that is all too common with depictions of queer romances. We’ve seen enough of these tropes, and Creator Jacob Tierney recognised that. As well as the straight girls, joyful queer love stories on screen are aspirational to queer women, lesbians, gay and queer men, and everyone who falls in between. 

It was really only after de-briefing with Bestie that I had understood how Heated Rivalry was a phenomenon to marvel at as a unique invention of its time; a uniting force of love and queer excellence, that happened to inspire even those who we least expected it to.

by Bianca Chatterjee

References:

[1] them. “Heated Rivalry’s Connor Storrie & Hudson Williams on Intimacy, Romance and the Female Gaze | Them.” YouTube, 19 Dec. 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3J07h-ibCg. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.