Forbes has chimed in on the Heated Rivalry discourse regarding its potential to hopefully move the needle socio-politically, calling it a masterclass is soft power.
Soft power is influence without coercion. It’s how you change what people admire, normalize, or feel they can say out loud, not by forcing agreement, but by making a new narrative feel inevitable. Culture does this faster than policy ever can: it lowers defenses, expands empathy, and slips new norms into the bloodstream through pleasure rather than argument.
The author previously wrote about the deft ability of LGBTQ+ movements to wield soft power through culture, visibility, and narrative building, reshaping what society sees as normal. They argued that the end goal was more than simply legal recognition, but full social acceptance. Instilling in queer folks that there is nothing wrong with us by virtue of not being cis/het. According to the author, that work happens not in courtrooms but in living rooms, bit by bit, through stories that make dignity feel inevitable and a show like Heated Rivalry is that mechanism at work.
For years, queer stories that broke the mainstream often arrived with a tax: tragedy, trauma, or a moral lesson packaged as entertainment. Heated Rivalry refuses that bargain. Showrunner/writer/director Jacob Tierney described being drawn to the project for its “pure queer joy.” Joy isn’t a soft artistic choice—it’s a strategic one. Joy is accessible. It asks less of the viewer than suffering does. It lets someone who didn’t show up for representation stay for the love story… and then realize representation is part of why the story hits.
Viewers get hours of lived experience: tenderness inside a hyper-masculine world; strength that includes softness; a version of male intimacy that doesn’t require anyone to stop being competitive, ambitious, or powerful. That’s soft power at its best: when the message is embedded so deeply in the narrative that people absorb it without feeling taught.
Read more at the Source
HR_ONTD: Do you think Heated Rivalry can push the needle on queer acceptance and inclusion, or is this hope just an extension of our grand delusion?
