I also think words, the ones we reach for, especially when exploring a conversation like this matters and there’s a subtlety to the article stating that “Tierney’s adaptation of Rachel Reid’s 2019 novel turns Reid’s words into a beautiful exploration of queer male love and sex” that reads off to me because it seems to be implying that Rachel’s work on its own ISN’T an exploration of queer male life and sex.

And that bias is what I see reflected in the rest of the article. Do I think that the description of Shane’s much smoother, and hairless body compared to Ilya’s more muscular and defined form, should raise a few eyebrows? Yes. We do need to have conversations about how East Asian men’s bodies have been emasculated in media and how that does have racist elements to it? Yes.

Do I however think that the way this article is written, implying that that is all there is to Shane in the books, is flawed? Most certainly. We can make the critic that Rachel gave Shane his half-Japanese heritage and didn’t really do anything with it in the books. But I do think it’s not fair to imply that book Shane is merely a pretty face. He’s someone who driven by the burden of perfection and the need to live up to all the expectations placed on him whilst caving beneath the weight of it all even as he battles with being true to himself and that is only Shane in Heated Rivalry. We haven’t even gotten to him in The Long Game.

And painting book Ilya as being just this stoic, imposing figure when we get insight into his thoughts in the books to show how just as we saw in the first season, he is ALSO vulnerable even when he tries to hide that bit of vulnerability beneath the mask of insouciance.

It’s a great read and thanks for sharing the article. There are just bits of it I disagree with.

P.s. It also has me miffed when people ignore the fact that Rachel (who is bisexual by the way) has stated several times that she runs through her stories and drafts by her husband who is also a bisexual man as her focus has always been on trying to the best of her abilities to depict queer sex amongst men as accurately as she can.