Sex Sells: Heated Rivalry, Yaoi, Yuri and the Fujoshi agenda

lopezzceciliaa1999
Dec 16, 2025
5 min read

" In the crooks of your body, I find my religion'" - Sappho, Ancient Greek Poet

from whom we coined the terms Lesbian - from Lesbos the island where she lived and Sapphic, referring to or related to women loving women.

Definitions:

(Fujoshi): the Japanese word meaning “rotten girls” *insert eye roll emoji- describes women who are fans of relationships both emotional and physical between men. The common names for this category of media are yaoi or BL (boys love).

(Yuri): referring to media that focuses on intimate emotional and physical relationships between female characters. Can also be referred to as GL (girls love).

Streaming Thursdays at 9PM on HBO Max. Novels available for purchase via Apple Books, Kindle, or Audible, paperbacks currently not available for purchase.

The series sweeping the nation

You’d quite literally have to be living under a rock to not know about the hit TV series Heated Rivalry . Based on the novel by the same name, book two in author Rachel Reid’s The Game Changers Series.

It follows two hockey players -Canadian Shane Hollander and Russian Ilya Rozanov as they banter their way through a cat and mouse game of yearning, angst, romance and of course sex. Their relationship yo-yos as it develops from booty calls, and illicit affairs, to something else… blurred lines turn to using first names and give way to something imperfect but so beautiful.

We can’t look away from them, their feral sexcapdes and dirty talk, but also from the raw emotion. The forehead kisses and murmured sweet nothings that crescendo and give Shane and Ilya courage and a safety net in one another.

The series tackles the ideas of male masculinity in the sports industry. Struggles with self-acceptance, mental health, and hidden identities while living in the public eye.

Fun fact: Game Changers the first book in the series by the same name focusing on Scott and Kip was originally on AO3, or Archive of Our Own as Stucky fan fiction (Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes) - long live fan fiction may her reign never end!!!

Here are some more bl and gl works for your enjoyment ; )

The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All (GL)

This manga written by Sumiko Arai, first began as a series of posts on X (cough cough she'll always be Twitter to me) you can follow Sumiko on the platform @agu_knzm

The yuri centers around high school student Mitsuki Koga, our reserved protagonist with a double life. At school she is quiet, rule following and reserved, normal even. After school and on the weekends she works at her uncles record store. She is always clad in black, in her element, dressed in androgynous fashion that makes her catch Aya Osawa's eye. Osawa is the opposite of Koga, she is the pretty, popular high school girl with pink hair. Osawa's love for Western music, particularly rock, with artists like Wet Leg, Beck, The Clash, etc. brings her into the record store frequently. So frequently she develops a crush on Koga who she thinks is a guy except... The Guy She was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All -hehe haha. And that girl just so happens to sit next to her in school XD

There are currently 2 printed volumes of the manga, it is ongoing with weekly chapters droping on Sundays. And get excited because an anime is officially in the works!!!!

Here's the link to the playlist Sumiko made for Koga and Osawa's favorite songs, and songs directly referenced in the manga https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2hvxjH2Xa8LWZ8lXIEXlQd?si=6de77d019c024e42

Semantic Error (BL)

Sangwoo Choo is a no fun having computer science major who is stuck in his ways, and is a hard core rule follower. When a senior student Jaeyoung Jang does nothing to contribute to their group project Sangwoo tells the professor. This leads to Jaeyoung not being able to graduate on time and having to stay at school. Circumstances lead them together once again and when Jaeyoung realizes who Sangwoo is, it's game over. Jaeyoung will do anything to make Sangwoo miserable. So what happens when they start to spend all their time together?

This is a fantastic starter yaoi. The manhwa is completed and available to read on Manta. The manhwa was so popular it was even made into an 8 episode Kdrama available to watch on Viki.

You can find more yaoi and yuri anime streaming on Crunchy Roll like:

You can read gl and bl on sites and apps like Webtoon, Manta, Lezin, Tappytoon, and MangaDex

I also cannot forget my roots and must plug AO3, Wattpad and Fanficiton.net for their great works

So why is the Fujoshi agenda important, and what does it mean?

Becasue yaoi was primarly credited to women for its creation and was for womens consumption.

Women have long felt misrepresented, their thoughts and opinions distorted and dismissed by men who create media about romantic heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Their depictions of love almost always miss their marks. What with stereotypes so overdone and dialogue that inflates men’s egos and makes us cringe. It’s no wonder women took up the mantle and created something for us.

With yaoi and yuri women have had the freedom to create relationships where they can explore and push boundaries in a safe fictional environment. “The yaoi genre in particular… is an example of girls agency in imagining sexual scenarios… that have traditionally been considered the perverse of male sexual fantasy.” McLelland, Mark, et al., editors (2015)

When the roles have been reversed and women are doing the writing- something dreamlike happens. We find solace and comfort in these characters. We find ourselves self inserting and envisioning what men could be like. What love could look like in its most pure and raw form. It’s hallowed, agonizing, and complex. A far cry from traditional depictions of heterosexual relationships in the media. And the sex of it all! The perverse, the obscene and unspoken. Women can be perverts too! We have raunchy desires and fantasies that transcend the male gaze. That don’t need to be diminished and deserve to exist out loud in a safe space.

Heated rivalry entering the main stream media (normie consumption) is a testament to the countless works of women who have championed this genre!