No Evolutionary Benefit: So Why Do Girls Like BL/Yaoi/Gay Romance?

Straight women are going absolutely feral over Heated Rivalry — the steamy gay hockey romance series that nobody saw coming. From TikTok edits to viral thirst posts, this Canadian show (now on HBO) has become a global obsession, even trending in places where it’s banned.

In this episode, Simone & Malcolm Collins dive deep into why women can’t get enough of male-on-male romance — from Yuri on Ice to Boys’ Love manga, slash fiction since the 1970s, and the surprising evolutionary & psychological reasons behind it.

We cover:

* The “women can’t love” red-pill theory (Simone’s most based take ever)

* Why go woke go broke has one massive exception

* The difference between real gay relationships and the fantasy versions women crave

* Power dynamics, objectification, escape from gender politics, and much more

Is this just harmless escapism… or proof of something deeper about female desire?

Simone outlined this episode, so the informal notes are below, and the transcript follows. :)

Episode Notes: Why do straight women lust after gay men?

The Gist

* Gay Men on Ice are Trending!

* Before 6am this morning alone, I heard about the show Heated Rivalry, which features steamy sex scenes between two hockey rivals, four times: Two from friends who listen to the podcast, two from YouTubers I listen to in the mornings

* One of our Patrons encouraged us to do an episode on the trending topic, writing:

* “Why do straight women love to lust after gay men?

* There seems to be a current cultural infatuation with these gay hockey players and the video I shared by Brett Cooper delves into the current craze. This has always baffled me because of the obvious incompatibility, but this has long been a cultural stereotype, it doesn’t seem to be a new cultural phenomenon but I don’t know how timeless it is either but it’s definitely intercultural.

* I’m also personally invested into this topic given that a lot of girls growing up told me things along the lines of “ I wish you were gay” or “ you have to be gay. ” I even had a group of about 4 female friends I had, make a plan to try to convince their parents I was gay so we could all go together to a vacation house. ( though nothing happened)

* I’m just wondering and would love Malcolm’s input on the subject.”

So let’s dive in.

Heated Rivalry

* It’s a Canadian sports romance series that exploded into a massive cultural phenomenon since its premiere on November 28, 2025.

* It’s an adaptation of Rachel Reid’s “Game Changers” book series (specifically drawing from the novel Heated Rivalry), created, written, and directed by Jacob Tierney for a Canadian streaming service called Crave

* HBO Max acquired rights for a day-and-date release in the US and other territories, turning it into a global breakout.

The show follows two elite, closeted professional hockey players—Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov—who are fierce on-ice rivals but develop an intense, secret romantic and sexual relationship. It features explicit, steamy scenes.

It’s been called one of the biggest surprises in TV, a “word-of-mouth sensation” (even HBO execs were shocked), and a rare hit centered on gay characters that didn’t get canceled after one season.

Why is it trending?

* The first season wrapped up in December and a second season was approved

* Its popularity is snowballing after the series started with little promotion but exploded via word-of-mouth, especially on social media (TikTok fan edits, thirst posts, etc.), becoming a “social phenomenon.”

* Viewership on HBO Max surged dramatically—starting low but growing over 10x by the finale (from ~30 million to 324 million streaming minutes weekly, per Luminate data).

* It’s Crave’s most-watched original ever and HBO Max’s top debut for an acquired non-animated title since 2019.

Key factors driving the hype:

* The show has high ratings: 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, praise for directing, writing, chemistry between leads, and handling of queer themes in a macho sport like hockey.

* The show has a massive online community (”HudCon” ship for the stars), viral clips, and fan events (even internation al ones like in the Philippines)

* The show resonated widely, including in places like Russia (even though it’s banned there), and sparked discussions on queer representation in sports.

But it should not be surprising that women see man-on-man romance and eat it right up.

* Think of the Sherlock shipping

* Think of how women can’t even watch The Lorax without creating Oncest (once-ler shipping)

Yaoi & Boys Love

I was first introduced to fangirling over male-male relationships in high school when my friends loaned me yaoi manga. Turns out Yaoi has a long history which could arguably go back to:

* (Arguably) History’s first novel, the Tale of Genji

* Which was written by the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century

* And has an episode involving Genji and a beautiful boy named Kogimi, the younger brother of the lady Utsusemi.

* Involving Genji and a beautiful boy named Kogimi, the younger brother of the lady Utsusemi.

* After Genji fails to win over Utsusemi, the text notes almost in passing that he “consoles himself” in bed with Kogimi, and later remarks that Genji finds the boy in some ways more attractive than his distant sister, which many scholars read as an allusion to male–male eroticism.

But yaoi as a genre didn’t emerge until girls’ manga got big in the 1970s and as Japanese fanfiction culture (dōjinshi) rose with it

* Boy-boy romance wasn’t pioneered by fan fiction:

* Mari Mori’s 1961 book A Lovers’ Forest is often cited as the first modern Japanese novel focused on male homosexual passion written by a woman for women. It influenced later BL/yaoi tropes (age gaps, aesthetic beauty, tragedy).

* In the early 1970s, the Year 24 Group (女性漫画家グループ, a collective of influential female manga artists born around 1949, the 24th year of the Shōwa era) pioneered shōnen-ai (”boy love”)

* Key figures created romantic, often tragic stories featuring beautiful, androgynous young men (bishōnen) in male-male relationships. These were original works published in mainstream shōjo magazines, influenced by European literature and art

* The launch of the magazine June (originally Comic Jun) in 1978 was pivotal—it specialized in shōnen-ai/tanbi content, helping formalize and spread the genre commercially (though it focused more on aesthetic romance than explicit sex).

* HOWEVER yaoi is about fan fiction

* The rise of Comiket (Comic Market, first held in 1975) and dōjinshi culture gave female fans a space to create and share parody works outside mainstream publishing constraints.

* The term “yaoi” itself is a portmanteau coming from from “yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi” (山[場]なし、落ちなし、意味なし), which translates to “no climax, no point, no meaning” (or sometimes “no peak, no punchline, no meaning”).

* It was originally used in a self-deprecating, ironic way to describe male-male smutty shipping (often of boys’ manga or anime characters)

* By the 1980s, yaoi dōjinshi exploded in popularity at fan events. In the 1990s, the genre went more mainstream/commercial under the term “boys’ love” (BL / bōizu rabu), as publishers recruited dōjinshi creators and launched dedicated magazines.

Not Limited to Japan

* The 1960s-70s brought first major wave of organized slash fiction

* It emerged among mostly female fans writing fan fiction

* Examples of early shipping were Kirk-Spock fanfiction arcs. Private circulation of stories imagining romantic/sexual relationships between mal