This previous spring, throughout the Seattle Kraken’s first look within the Stanley Cup playoffs, the 2-year-old franchise found itself with an inflow of latest followers: readers pouring in from the BookTok neighborhood on TikTok. How did it occur? Months earlier, in February, a hockey romance e book known as Icebreaker, by Hannah Grace, made the New York Times bestseller checklist, and it has been there since. Like Colleen Hoover’s novels, Icebreaker turned a viral hit on TikTok, beloved by followers of the hockey romance subgenre that’s common on the platform.
Then that fandom acquired into watching hockey, possible because of the timing quirk of Icebreaker’s recognition main into the NHL playoffs. BookTok latched onto one crew specifically: the Kraken.
It’s been a enjoyable membership to comply with. The Kraken made a stunning playoff run of their second season, taking out final yr’s Stanley Cup champions, the Colorado Avalanche, within the first spherical. From there, the Kraken took the Dallas Stars to an thrilling Game 7 earlier than finally being defeated. Everyone loves an underdog, and the Kraken are a flashy new crew that’s enjoyable to observe. That’s a part of the attraction, however BookTok additionally latched on to a number of conventionally enticing gamers — particularly, ahead Alex Wennberg — and their gyrating warmup stretches. When the Kraken’s social media crew realized that individuals had been making fancams of Wennberg and different gamers, it began taking part in into the fandom, making its personal fancam-esque movies of its gamers’ enviornment entrances.
BookTok’s whirlwind hockey obsession did draw constructive consideration to hockey as a sport, inviting followers who in any other case may not have identified they’d have an interest. But a handful of followers have taken issues too far, treating gamers as if they’re characters within the summary, not precise people. Here’s how we arrived on the controversy that’s gone viral up to now week.
Where did issues go unsuitable with the Seattle Kraken and BookTok?
Arguably, the issues started when a small minority of BookTokers began sexualizing hockey gamers, and relating them to their favourite romance characters. And the Kraken’s personal social media crew fanned the flames. It felt just like different high-profile parasocial relationships, like when the web thirsted for The Last of Us actor Pedro Pascal — the fixation on Pascal as “daddy” typically veered into uncomfortable territory.
As TikTokers turned followers of the Seattle Kraken, some BookTokers “face-claimed” — which has similarities to fancasting — Wennberg and different hockey gamers for the character Nate Hawkins in Icebreaker, in addition to characters in different hockey romances.
This kind of habits began to spiral when the Kraken’s social media crew posted a ton of thirst content material in regards to the crew’s gamers. While different hockey golf equipment did publish BookTok-specific content material, the Kraken had been, by far, probably the most aggressive one. Team social media directors have an elevated stage of entry to gamers and their likenesses, and there’s an assumed stage of belief between a participant and their group in utilizing that to advertise the crew. When a crew’s social media supervisor posts even vaguely sexualized content material about their gamers, it may be taken as a form of consent — and can egg on that kind of habits, and extra, on-line.
Emily Rath, creator of the Jacksonville Rays hockey romance collection, defined in a 10-minute TikTok video why this kind of abstraction of gamers, particularly by social media groups, is an issue. “You should not treat your employees with the same level of abstraction as the fans do,” she stated.
Over the previous week, Alex Wennberg’s spouse, Felicia Weeren, posted Instagram tales in regards to the sexualization of her husband and different gamers. Weeren stated that whereas she herself has joked on-line about Wennberg’s TikTok fandom, she feels that some folks’s feedback and movies have crossed the road into “predatory and exploiting” territory. “What doesn’t sit right with me is when your desires come with sexual harassment,” she wrote. Wennberg later printed his personal assertion relating to the backlash Weeren acquired for writing about her discomfort with the state of affairs.
“The aggressive language about real life players is too much,” Wennberg wrote. “It has turned into daily and weekly comments on our personal social media. This is not something we support or want our child to grow up with. All we ask for is a little respect and common sense moving forward. We can all take a joke and funny comments but when it turns personal and into something bigger that effects our family, we need to tell you that we’ve had enough. Enough of sexual harassment, and harassment of our character and our relationship. Thank you for your understanding.”
The Kraken have now deleted all references to BookTok from their TikTok web page; it’s unclear when this occurred, nevertheless it seems to have been completed in response to gamers’ discomfort with the posts. The group has not responded to Polygon’s request for remark.
How has BookTok responded?
There isn’t any consultant for BookTok, neither is there one for its hockey romance subset. But it does seem to be this habits got here from a loud minority of the general fandom. Rath, in her 10-minute video, stated she estimated that the sexual harassment encompassed 1% of hockey romance followers on the app, whereas 99% of followers are regular individuals who love hockey romance — lots of whom had been introduced into loving hockey as a sport, too.
One specific BookTok influencer, Kierra Lewis, has been outspoken about her half within the Seattle Kraken controversy. She was flown out to a Kraken playoff sport and given a jersey emblazoned with “BookTok,” together with her content material seemingly endorsed by the membership’s social media crew. In a TikTok posted after Weeren printed her preliminary assertion, Lewis accused the Kraken and others of utilizing BookTok to advertise themselves and “get clout,” solely to later discard the neighborhood. She added that she was upset to find that the Kraken’s social media crew has distanced itself from her, seemingly for her overtly sexual content material about hockey gamers. (Lewis was photographed on the sport holding an indication that learn “Krack my back,” for example.) Lewis additionally stated that the whole lot she’s posted is a joke.
There’s a subset of BookTok that’s defending Lewis’ function in the whole lot — claiming that the Kraken owe BookTok for his or her success — whereas some folks say they’ve been uncomfortable together with her content material, in addition to others’ sexualization of athletes. The debate is harking back to that across the ethics of fanfiction that includes actual folks. Hockey gamers don’t have the identical celeb as, say, prime basketball gamers, however they’re accustomed to some fame. This fame makes it simple for folks to kind parasocial relationships — and the perceived consent of organizations just like the Kraken solely provides to this.
Whatever your emotions are, the Kraken BookTok controversy has proved that a minimum of some skilled athletes are uncomfortable with the sexualization of their likenesses, and that a number of the fandom has crossed a line. Any consent, perceived or not, has been revoked, a minimum of by some gamers.
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