As anxieties soar about the state of the globe, the entertainment world amuses and distracts with the latest hit Heated Rivalry about two gay Canadian hockey players. Based on a best-selling trilogy of novels by Canadian Rachel Reid, a lifelong hockey fan who worried about homophobia in the sport, it has created a storm in its television adaptation.
Described as “balls-to-the-wall erotic programming. While not hardcore porn, the show does go well beyond suggestion, with plenty of full nudity, extended sex scenes, depictions of oral and penetrative intercourse as well as mutual masturbation — all presented with top-rate production values, idealized perfect male bodies and storylines that leave plenty of room for romance and even affectionate dialogue.”
One viewer comments “Is it just me or does “Heated Rivalry” feel like it’s really just gay porn for straight women?”
The fan audience is evidently mainly women. A withering review in The Guardian says the show “is content to exploit gay culture without understanding it in a meaningful way. There is a weird kind of fetish in these works that de-sexes gay men just enough to make them palatable, like pets for young women.”
I am trying very hard not to sound like Mary Whitehouse, who campaigned against social liberalism and the permissive society on media in the 1960/70s. But there is a ???? something about the no-lines-that-can’t-be crossed approach nowadays which is unnerving especially for television coming in to family homes.
The western societal/cultural swing away from a repressive approach to sexuality, at least on the surface, was in part a result of Freud’s writings in the early 20th century which laid the groundwork for Kinsey’s reports on sexuality circa 1950; and was then blasted into fast-forward by the 1960s revolutionary Uranus Pluto in Virgo with homosexuality being legalised in the UK; and women’s liberation and the pill taking the brakes off the old ways.
As ever the pendulum has swung too far the other way nowadays with concerns about children being exposed to online pornography from as young as nine which has been linked to low self-esteem and harmful views of sex and relationships.
Looking across recent raunchy rom-coms there are some similarities.
Rachel Reid, 2 September 1980, author of Heated Rivalry is a Sun Jupiter in Virgo with Venus in Cancer square Pluto and Mars in Scorpio.
E.L.James’ author of Fifty Shades of Grey, an erotic BDSM novel plus movies, 7 March 1963, is a Sun Jupiter in Pisces with Venus in Aquarius opposition Mars in Leo.
Mars in hard aspect to Venus is one common trait which is shared in the publication date of the Heated Rivalry novel published 25 March 2019, with Venus in Aquarius square Mars in Taurus.
Mars Venus does have a negative side hinting at sexual gratification split off from emotional feelings which can lead to sensitive individuals getting hurt, and even lead to abusive behaviour.
In these examples Mars is also in a Fixed sign – as it is in Jilly Cooper’s chart, 21 February 1937, whose novel Rivals was recently aired in a TV adaptation with its rampant sexuality at full throttle. She had Mars in Scorpio sextile Neptune inconjunct Venus.
Mars rules testosterone and in Fixed signs is at its most covetous/greedy.
It is the splitting of emotional connection from the sex which is the issue – in chakra terms the heart from the primitive base.
No great conclusions though interesting to see if the Fire Air emphasis ahead makes a difference – Pluto in Aquarius trine Uranus in Gemini sextile Neptune in Aries.
Although Aquarius is a sign connected to sex experts and sex obsessives – William Burroughs, Lord Byron, Rabelais, Havelock Ellis, Dr Alex Comfort. Sex up in the head. And with Aquarius’s leaning towards technology the problem of social media porn is unlikely to go away.
Every time a new communicative technology appears it is used to make erotica and pornography more widely available. From the printing press to early photography, early cinema, the early iterations of the www, and so on. We now have something even more pervasive in the form of social media. In many instances, social media has split people off from everyday reality in various ways both subtle and alarming. A split between our emotional centre and our sexual urges and desires is intensified, perhaps symbolised by aspects between Mars and Venus and their various links with the outer planets? There are also spiritual aspects to think about, such as Tantric teachings which in essence combine sex with spiritual exercises?
I was interested to see that the first Obscene Publications Act, 1857, here in the UK, had Neptune 21 Pisces, Uranus 29 Taurus, an early fixed Pluto at 6 Taurus (square Chiron in Aquarius and Mars in Leo), and the Nodes 27 Pisces. Media Mercury at 26 Virgo conjunct S Node (the past?) opposed no boundaries Neptune in Pisces. Saturn in Cancer conjunct Venus trines that Neptune as well, with Black Moon Lilith completing a Grand Water Trine from Scorpio. Some resonances with current outer planets and the Nodes anyway.
Decades later, the first erotic short (7 minutes!) film, Le Coucher de la Mariee (sorry no accent), was shown in November 1896 in Paris. This was the era of fantasy fan Neptune (films) travelling close to Pluto (power, sex, money) in communicative Gemini – ruled by merchant and sometimes thief Mercury. More intense influences come from Saturn in Scorpio close to Uranus in Scorpio – maybe a battle of wills there, old and new forms of sex work and entertainment? BML was in Aries.
The Nodes were in Aquarius/Leo, and Mars was retrograde towards the end of Gemini all month. Our upcoming airy Pluto trine Gemini Uranus, and the Saturn conjunct Neptune in Aries, plus the Nodes moving into Aquarius will bring changes for sure. But I wonder whether the general atmosphere will grow yet more detached before we, collectively, find a harmonious, healthy balance?
I have mars in 8th house libra. I love gay men but not p*rno.
“Mars Venus does have a negative side hinting at sexual gratification split off from emotional feelings which can lead to sensitive individuals getting hurt, and even lead to abusive behaviour.”
Wow has that just hit home big style having just split from my partner who has Mars Venus conjunction in the 7th house. This sums it up perfectly. Thanks Marjorie
App TV appears to be putting an array of very near the mark sex scenes into different programmes from Detectives programmes to Historical. With some countries expecting their actresses to be very body visual – many of them almost like soft porn actresses.
The show is on HBO Max which is a subscription you have to pay for so it isn’t on general tv.
As a gay man the story line is depressing because you see what could be a normal relationship reduced to a handful of sexual trysts when they happen to be in the same place at the same time, because they are afraid that they will be rejected since they are professional athletes.
What I find ironic is that the peak of their relationship came around the time when gay marriage was legalized in the U.S. and since then support for gay marriage at least in the U.S. has declined which shows how being a minority and having your rights subject to popular opinion is no way to live.
I don’t have a fixed Mars and also no aspect between venus or Mars. I do like the BL genre in Manga, anime and novels. I don’t think I will will watch a live action gay film. It is just different. I think it is the masculine and masculine main characters that appeal more than a masculine and feminine main characters. In current society where women need to work, hold a career, a feminine main character don’t really appeal that much.
Thanks Marjorie. I’m really curious as to why women are supposed to like watching this sort of thing, because despite having Mars in Scorpio, I don’t fund any of this stuff even remotely erotic.
I think its more the feelings porn than the sexual porn, seeing more nuances of the inner lives of men – similar to how adolescence blew my mind with the empathy and struggle to connect despite shame …
I meant more the 50 shades of grey thing. It looked just turgid and awful.