I come from a law background. And by that I mean I went to law school, graduated, and worked as a lawyer for years. After the expected burnout that comes with long hours and daily interactions bordering on sexual harassment, I decided I would change careers and become an entertainment journalist. Funny how I thought it would be so much easier. But hey, at least I don’t have to wear heels every day.
If I start with my background, it’s because I want to make it absolutely clear that what I’ve seen in fandom pales in comparison to the things I’ve seen in real life. I’ve done internships at the DA’s office. Visited jails. I’ve volunteered at legal clinics in the last few years. It’s rough out there, and sometimes just thinking about it makes me want to curl up into a little ball and never move from the couch. Fandom was, is, meant to be the escape.
My experience with fandoms is also pretty extensive. The moment I decided to make entertainment journalism my career, I took a step back from actually interacting in fandom, but before I was a veteran of message boards, ff.net, ao3, LiveJournal, the boy wizard fandom craziness, and countless other fandoms afterwards. I’ve been tried and tested with some horrible things, from outward racism, to fake identities and meet-ups gone wrong, to actual fraud. I’ve been happy, and I’ve been disappointed. I’ve made friends and probably enemies.
I’m not going to sit here and say the Heated Rivalry fandom is the worst I’ve seen, because I’ve got war stories. But I will say the Heated Rivalry fandom feels like a perfect encapsulation of the times we’re living in. And that is, perhaps, the problem. Ten, even twenty years ago, being horrible in public was frowned upon. People were still horrible, of course. But at least it felt like we all knew where the line was.
Now, being horrible is celebrated. And fandom has transformed accordingly.
I didn’t really want to write this. Mostly because, though I am extremely white-passing, I am not white. I’m Latina and biracial. I’ve been told that ICE should come for my family and me. I’ve been called Meghan Markle, like it’s an insult (thank you for the compliment). And I thought that even though this was a conversation that needed to be had, it would be better coming from the privilege of someone white. It would hit harder.
But at this point, considering how I feel, it’s probably disingenuous not to try to engage with it from my relative privilege compared to other POC. So here I am, telling you way too much about myself in order to attempt a serious conversation about the problem with fandom in general these days, and the Heated Rivalry fandom in particular.
For research purposes, I did a deep dive into the horrible things people were saying. And they were saying horrible things. As it always happens in fandom, and in 2026, most of the worst part of the vitriol was directed at Hudson Williams, because if fandoms love to do something, it is turn on the POC actors. There are hate accounts dedicated to trashing everything he does, and even coming up with imagined scenarios made up just to hate him. But it’s not just hate, it’s vile racist insults, targeted harassment, death threats, and the kind of dehumanizing language that should not be commonplace. According to the narrative from some people, he’s to blame for everything, has done absolutely nothing good, isn’t even a good actor, and is also not even attractive.
I often find it odd how far some people go to hate on something or someone. If I don’t like something, I ignore it. These people make hate accounts and take the time to go on Hudson Williams’ Instagram to leave nasty comments in a space where he is likely to see them. It’s not just being hateful away from him; it’s about making sure he knows what they think.
This is partly because, as I said before, we live in a world where this is common now—and not just that, a world where hateful podcasts and insults are the rule, not the exception. Being kind is frowned upon. You have to be tough. You have to be edgy. And you have to be mean. And partly because a lot of people think that because someone like Hudson Williams is now famous, and they watched the show that was his big break, they are owed something. Attention, gratitude, deference, who knows?
But the issues with us, and with society at large, are a heavy burden to carry for an actor, especially one so new to the business. Even if they weren’t, though, they’re very hard to carry for any POC. We carry them anyway, all the time. We exist in spaces where we have to make ourselves smaller, smile, and pretend that this kind of treatment is okay. That it doesn’t chip away at us. That it doesn’t hurt. But it’s tiresome to have to be the one to do it over and over again.
Let’s be clear, the problem doesn’t stop at racism. There’s blatant homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, and just a general disregard for boundaries involved, too. For a show about two closeted hockey players, a lot of people feel very comfortable speculating on actors’ sexualities and relationships, disseminating private information, and leveling vile accusations at people with absolutely no proof, just to fuel a narrative they invented.
So, what is the problem? Probably that this is now the norm. We’ve made it the norm. Just as it’s the norm not to respond to these things, to rise above it. When the cast of Heated Rivalry recently put out a statement, that was going against conventional wisdom in the industry. And in some ways, it’s easy to see why. I’m not sure the people who needed to heed the message did, or even can.
But that’s why it feels important to change what we consider normal, and the change has to be institutional. Maybe twenty, thirty years ago, before social media was as big as it is, these horrible things didn’t reach many people. Ignoring it made sense. Now, however, racists have a platform. Homophobes think they’re right. Transphobes think they’re the majority. So we need to take that platform from them. We need to prove them wrong. We need to push back.
That comes from above. From studios, streamers, networks, and institutions saying, “this is not okay.” From making it clear that this behavior isn’t condoned by those who make the decisions. From fighting against not just the racism Hudson Williams is facing, or the one Charithra Chandran received when she was cast in One Piece, but also the one Masali Baduza has had to put up with in the Bridgerton fandom, or Danai Gurira in The Walking Dead fandom, or Taylor Zakhar Perez in the Red, White and Royal Blue fandom. It’s the same story, over and over again. We need to change the playbook.
Because the problem isn’t fandom, not really. Though it is. The problem is us. The world we live in. The things we accept as normal. The things we don’t push back against because that’s how it’s done, or because it’s easier. That’s what needs to change. And that change requires all of us, but it starts from above.
Hopefully, this makes a difference. Hopefully, the days of saying nothing, of letting things go, of looking the other way, are over. That would actually be a win.
Heated Rivalry Season 1 is available to stream on HBO Max.
Great article Lissete. Very insightful!