[Commlist] Call for Papers: ‘Heated Rivalry: Queering Sports in Popular Culture’

Call for Papers: Journal of Fandom Studies

Special Issue: ‘Heated Rivalry: Queering Sports in Popular Culture’

Guest Editors:

Yvonne Gonzales, University of Southern California

Kirsten Crowe, University of Southern California

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-fandom-studies#call-for-papers 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-fandom-studies#call-for-papers>

Since the release of the Canadian-produced streaming TV show Heated 
Rivalry, the show and its actors have exploded across traditional and 
social media, prompting wide discussions about sexuality in sports and 
the female consumption of MM (male/male) romance. Based on the Game 
Changersnovel series by Rachel Reid, Heated Rivalryfollows the illicit 
romance between two male hockey players. In the months since, both NHL 
ticket and queer romance novel sales have skyrocketed; parodies of 
Heated Rivalry have popped up on SNL and off-Broadway stages. Its 
surprising popularity has been documented multiple times in theNew York 
Times, on NPR, the BBC, and hundreds of other global media outlets 
(Dixon 2026; Figueroa and Maguire 2026). TikTok, Instagram, and other 
social media platforms are seeing a new boom of short-form video essay 
content around the ethics of MM romance media, as loved and potentially 
fetishized by an audience of primarily women, and attempts to define 
what is and is not properfandom. Alongside this booming interest in the 
gay romance between two fictional hockey players, the US men’s gold 
medal winning Olympic hockey team stood in support of President Donald 
Trump at the White House, underlining the deep political tension in 
sports fandom and culture (Superville 2026).

  In the Heated Rivalry fandom, the politics of sports are contested 
with the politics of queerness, gender, sexuality, and race, and it is 
doing so in the pop culture zeitgeist. It is transforming the popular 
understanding of hockey, but also potentially transforming the structure 
of fandom itself; Heated Rivalry has built fandom across networked 
platforms, in conversation with sports fans, and with potentially new 
aesthetics of fan production. While there are strong intellectual 
histories in both sports fandom and transformative media fandoms, they 
are rarely studied in conversation with one another (Crawford 2004; 
Johnson 2020; Popova 2017; Wann et al. 2025). This Special Issue 
encourages an investigation into the overlap of queer, feminine, 
transformative and romance-centric fan practice and the traditionally 
masculine sports fandom through the transmedia phenom of Heated Rivalry.

  This Special Issue will explore the impact of Heated Rivalry in both 
subcultural fan spaces and mainstream pop culture. Suggested potential 
topics include:

  *

      Sports fandom and sports romance

   *

    Queerness in sports

  *

    Politics of sports/NHL/PWHL

  *

    Fandom studies and sports

  *

    Celebrity and race

  *

    Celebrity and ‘queerbaiting’

  *

    (Transformation of) Platform dynamics of fandom

  *

    Short-form video and fandom

  *

    Gender, masculinity, and sexuality in MM romance

  *

    Female consumption of MM romance

  *

    Fandom and the mainstream

  *

    Representations of queer sex and desire

  *

    Genre aesthetics and transformation in romance and fanfiction

  *

    Boundaries of fan practices and definitions

  *

    Globalism and nationalism

  *

    Transcultural and transnational media and fandom

  *

    Global representations of queer men (yaoi, MM, slash, BL, etc.)

  *

    Queer temporalities and yearning

  *

    Global media industries and platformed TV

  *

    Disability and romance

  *

    Anti-fandom and fan discourses

Submission Guidelines:

We welcome 500–700-word abstracts, alongside a short (100–200 word) 
biography.

Please send your abstract and biography in one document to 
(yvonne.gonzales /at/ usc.edu) <mailto:(yvonne.gonzales /at/ usc.edu)>by 13 April 2026.

We will be looking for final articles between 6,000 and 9,000 words, 
references and all additional text included.

Timeline:

Abstracts due: 13 April 2026

Notification of acceptance/rejection: 20 April 2026

Drafts due: 21 August 2026

Publication: Early 2027

Editor bios:

Yvonne Gonzalesis a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern 
California, Annenberg School for Communication. She is interested in 
historical constructions of race, gender, sexuality, and identity in 
both fandom and fandom studies. Her work can be found in the 
International Journal of Cultural Studies, Transformative Works and 
Cultures, Journal of Fandom Studies, and Emerging Media.

Email: (yvonne.gonzales /at/ usc.edu) <mailto:(yvonne.gonzales /at/ usc.edu)>

Kirsten Croweis a Ph.D. student at the University of Southern 
California, Annenberg School for Communication. Her research explores 
media fandom and internet culture with a focus on queer/trans identity. 
Her work can be found in the International Journal of Cultural 
Studiesand International Journal of Communication.

Email: (kcrowe /at/ usc.edu) <mailto:(kcrowe /at/ usc.edu)>

References

Crawford, Gary (2004), Consuming Sport: Fans, sport and culture, New 
York: Routledge.

Dixon, Louise (2026), ‘Gay ice hockey drama Heated Rivalrybecomes a 
surprise hit in Russia despite anti-LGBTQ+ laws’, AP News, 28 January, 
https://apnews.com/article/heated-rivalry-tv-russia-gay-ice-hockey-f788b1dce58063e3797922402c9f7f3c 
<https://apnews.com/article/heated-rivalry-tv-russia-gay-ice-hockey-f788b1dce58063e3797922402c9f7f3c>. 
Accessed 26 February 2026.

Figueroa, Fernanda and Maguire, Ken (2026), ‘How Heated Rivalrysparked 
boom in ice hockey ticket sales’, Independent, 17 February, 
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/news/heated-rivalry-lgbt-ice-hockey-nhl-b2922011.html 
<https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/news/heated-rivalry-lgbt-ice-hockey-nhl-b2922011.html>. 
Accessed 26 February 2026.

Johnson, Poe (2020), ‘Playing with Lynching: Fandom Violence and the 
Black Athletic Body’, Television & New Media, 12:2, pp. 169-83, 
https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419879913 
<https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419879913>.

Popova, Milena (2017), ‘“When the RP gets in the way of the F”: Star 
Image and intertextuality in real person(a) fiction’, Transformative 
Works and Cultures, 25, https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2017.01105 
<https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2017.01105>.

Superville, Darlene (2026), ‘US men’s hockey team feted at State of the 
Union; Trump says women’s team will be honored “soon”’, AP News, 25 
February, 
https://apnews.com/article/state-of-union-hockey-olympics-trump-89fff7bdec947251ff926e09ac24d4e4 
<https://apnews.com/article/state-of-union-hockey-olympics-trump-89fff7bdec947251ff926e09ac24d4e4>. 
Accessed 26 February 2026.

Wann, Daniel, James, Harvard, Delia (2025), Sports Fans: The Psychology 
and Social Impact of Fandom,New York: Routledge.


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