This previous spring, throughout the Seattle Kraken’s first look within the Stanley Cup playoffs, the 2-year-old franchise discovered itself with an inflow of recent followers: readers pouring in from the BookTok group on TikTok. How did it occur? Months earlier, in February, a hockey romance e book referred to as Icebreaker, by Hannah Grace, made the New York Occasions 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 in style on the platform.
Then that fandom obtained into watching hockey, possible due to the timing quirk of Icebreaker’s reputation main into the NHL playoffs. BookTok latched onto one staff specifically: the Kraken.
It’s been a enjoyable membership to observe. 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 Sport 7 earlier than finally being defeated. Everybody loves an underdog, and the Kraken are a flashy new staff that’s enjoyable to observe. That’s a part of the attraction, however BookTok additionally latched on to a number of conventionally engaging gamers — specifically, ahead Alex Wennberg — and their gyrating warmup stretches. When the Kraken’s social media staff realized that folks have 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’ area entrances.
BookTok’s whirlwind hockey obsession did draw optimistic consideration to hockey as a sport, inviting followers who in any other case may not have recognized they’d have an interest. However a handful of followers have taken issues too far, treating gamers as if they’re characters within the summary, not precise people. Right here’s how we arrived on the controversy that’s gone viral previously week.
The place did issues go fallacious 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 staff fanned the flames. It felt just like different high-profile parasocial relationships, like when the web thirsted for The Final of Us actor Pedro Pascal — the fixation on Pascal as “daddy” usually veered into uncomfortable territory.
As TikTokers turned followers of the Seattle Kraken, some BookTokers “face-claimed” — which is analogous to fancasting — Wennberg and different hockey gamers for the character Nate Hawkins in Icebreaker, in addition to characters in different hockey romances.
This form of habits began to spiral when the Kraken’s social media staff posted a ton of thirst content material concerning the staff’s gamers. Whereas different hockey golf equipment did publish BookTok-specific content material, the Kraken have been, by far, probably the most aggressive one. Group 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 staff. When a staff’s social media supervisor posts even vaguely sexualized content material about their gamers, it may be taken as a form of consent — and might egg on that form of habits, and extra, on-line.
Emily Rath, writer of the Jacksonville Rays hockey romance sequence, defined in a 10-minute TikTok video why this form of abstraction of gamers, particularly by social media groups, is an issue. “You shouldn’t deal with your staff with the identical stage of abstraction because the followers do,” she stated.
Over the previous week, Alex Wennberg’s spouse, Felicia Weeren, posted Instagram tales concerning 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 proper with me is when your wishes include sexual harassment,” she wrote. Wennberg later revealed his personal assertion relating to the backlash Weeren obtained for writing about her discomfort with the state of affairs.
“The aggressive language about actual life gamers is an excessive amount of,” Wennberg wrote. “It has became day by day and weekly feedback on our private social media. This isn’t one thing we assist or need our little one to develop up with. All we ask for is slightly respect and customary sense transferring ahead. We will all take a joke and humorous feedback however when it turns private and into one thing greater that results our household, we have to let you know that we’ve had sufficient. Sufficient of sexual harassment, and harassment of our character and our relationship. Thanks in your understanding.”
The Kraken have now deleted all references to BookTok from their TikTok web page; it’s unclear when this occurred, but it surely seems to have been carried out 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 a consultant for BookTok, neither is there one for its hockey romance subset. Nevertheless 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 — a lot of whom have been introduced into loving hockey as a sport, too.
One explicit BookTok influencer, Kierra Lewis, has been outspoken about her half within the Seattle Kraken controversy. She was flown out to a Kraken playoff recreation and given a jersey emblazoned with “BookTok,” together with her content material seemingly endorsed by the membership’s social media staff. In a TikTok posted after Weeren revealed her preliminary assertion, Lewis accused the Kraken and others of utilizing BookTok to advertise themselves and “get clout,” solely to later discard the group. She added that she was upset to find that the Kraken’s social media staff has distanced itself from her, seemingly for her overtly sexual content material about hockey gamers. (Lewis was photographed on the recreation holding a signal that learn “Krack my again,” as an example.) Lewis additionally stated that all the things she’s posted is a joke.
There’s a subset of BookTok that’s defending Lewis’ function in all the things — 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 talk is harking back to that across the ethics of fanfiction that includes actual folks. Hockey gamers don’t have the identical superstar as, say, prime basketball gamers, however they’re accustomed to some fame. This fame makes it straightforward for folks to type parasocial relationships — and the perceived consent of organizations just like the Kraken solely provides to this.
No matter your emotions are, the Kraken BookTok controversy has proved that not less than some skilled athletes are uncomfortable with the sexualization of their likenesses, and that among the fandom has crossed a line. Any consent, perceived or not, has been revoked, not less than by some gamers.
