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 neighborhood 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 listing, and it has been there since. Like Colleen Hoover’s novels, Icebreaker grew to become a viral hit on TikTok, beloved by followers of the hockey romance subgenre that’s standard on the platform.
Then that fandom acquired into watching hockey, possible due to the timing quirk of Icebreaker’s recognition main into the NHL playoffs. BookTok latched onto one crew particularly: the Kraken.
It’s been a enjoyable membership to observe. The Kraken made a shocking 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 crew 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 crew 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’ enviornment entrances.
BookTok’s whirlwind hockey obsession did draw optimistic consideration to hockey as a sport, inviting followers who in any other case won’t 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 mistaken 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 much 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” typically veered into uncomfortable territory.
As TikTokers grew to become 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 conduct began to spiral when the Kraken’s social media crew posted a ton of thirst content material concerning the crew’s gamers. Whereas different hockey golf equipment did publish BookTok-specific content material, the Kraken have been, by far, probably the most aggressive one. Staff social media directors have an elevated degree of entry to gamers and their likenesses, and there’s an assumed degree 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 sort of consent — and might egg on that form of conduct, and extra, on-line.
Emily Rath, creator of the Jacksonville Rays hockey romance collection, 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 degree of abstraction because the followers do,” she mentioned.
Over the previous week, Alex Wennberg’s spouse, Felicia Weeren, posted Instagram tales concerning the sexualization of her husband and different gamers. Weeren mentioned 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 needs include sexual harassment,” she wrote. Wennberg later revealed his personal assertion relating to the backlash Weeren obtained for writing about her discomfort with the scenario.
“The aggressive language about actual life gamers is an excessive amount of,” Wennberg wrote. “It has became each day and weekly feedback on our private social media. This isn’t one thing we help or need our little one to develop up with. All we ask for is a bit respect and customary sense shifting ahead. We are able to all take a joke and humorous feedback however when it turns private and into one thing larger that results our household, we have to inform you that we’ve had sufficient. Sufficient of sexual harassment, and harassment of our character and our relationship. Thanks on your understanding.”
The Kraken have now deleted all references to BookTok from their TikTok web page; it’s unclear when this occurred, however it seems to have been achieved 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. However it does look like this conduct got here from a loud minority of the general fandom. Rath, in her 10-minute video, mentioned 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 have 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 recreation and given a jersey emblazoned with “BookTok,” along with her content material seemingly endorsed by the membership’s social media crew. 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 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 recreation holding an indication that learn “Krack my again,” as an example.) Lewis additionally mentioned that every part she’s posted is a joke.
There’s a subset of BookTok that’s defending Lewis’ function in every part — claiming that the Kraken owe BookTok for his or her success — whereas some folks say they’ve been uncomfortable along with her content material, in addition to others’ sexualization of athletes. The talk is paying homage to that across the ethics of fanfiction that includes actual folks. Hockey gamers don’t have the identical superstar as, say, high 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 at the very least 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, at the very least by some gamers.
