I Read Role Model, And I Think I'm Not The Only Member Of The "I Hate The NHL Commissioner" Club!

Role Model by Rachel Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I know I say this in every Game Changers book review, but my favorite thing about this book (and all the others!) is that the book's Big Bad is the toxic masculinity of the NHL.

It’s funny because it’s true!

That, ultimately, is what keeps me reading these queer hockey romances. I mean, yes, I love reading about hockey, and I appreciate that this series features proper hockey players with proper hockey storylines (if you want to know about the maaaaaany “hockey” romances I’ve read in which nobody ever so much as picks up a stick, I’m happy to share!). But I’m not really into romance, nor am I really into smut, so in many ways these books aren’t a natural fit.

But what they ARE is subversive, and that is a very natural fit!

In a very real way--the realest, since the TV show came out!--these books subvert the toxic masculinity fantasy that many of those in charge of hockey at every level cherish, and that they do their best to train up young hockey players to cherish, as well. It’s a violent sport, sure, but that doesn’t mean that we have to worship violence. But toxic masculinity worships violence, and to that end worships their idealized version of a violent man. He’s not soft. He’s not sensitive. He doesn’t emote. He doesn’t have or value depth. He doesn’t value women, or sexual or gender diversity. He does what he’s told by a bigger, stronger, or more powerful man. He thinks that by being big, strong, and powerful himself, he ought to get to do what he wants, too, without consequences from anyone not as big, strong, and powerful.

But in some also VERY real ways, hockey culture--at least fan culture--has moved beyond that, and it’s easy for hockey fans who don’t hold with this old-fashioned toxic masculinity to avoid seeing it. I personally had to have the Men’s USA Olympic Hockey Team pretty much throw their toxic masculinity in my own specific face before I finally gave up on the NHL (at least for this season! They can try again next season).

This is also what a lot of hockey romances do. Sure, there are male hockey players, and sure, they seem to be playing professionally, but in the world in which they live, there’s no dark undercurrent to give bad vibes to the romance.

But in Role Model? There are bad vibes. There’s a rapist. There are a lot of people, players and administration and fans, who cover up for or simply excuse the rapist. There are a lot of people who don’t believe the victims. There are bullies. There are assholes. The commissioner is THE Bad Guy. All Reid is missing is rapists on a junior hockey team, too, but hey--maybe she’ll do a YA series next!

Role Model is now an easy favorite side-by-side with Heated Rivalry. I like that Troy is kind of stupid--that’s realistic, too! I like that he’s a recovering bully who makes awkward apologies and often comes off like an asshole when he doesn’t mean to. I like that he tries hard, and it goes okay even though he’s stupid because he really is trying. I like that redeeming himself from being a bully involves standing up to his own bullies, because obviously bullied people bully people. I like the scene in which his coach tells Troy that once upon a time, he, too, complained about a bully within the league, and when Troy asks him what happened to that bully, the coach replies, “He’s in the Hall of Fame.”

The lesson in this book, and I think the lesson in the NHL this season, as well, is that our heroes aren’t necessarily good guys. We’d like them to be, and we act like they are, but we’re always one outcry, one cell phone video, one asshole joke from the Asshole in Chief away from being unpleasantly surprised.

I’m just gonna put this out there: the PWHL streams all their games free on YouTube in the USA, and the objectively best goalie in the world plays for the Boston Fleet.

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