Making It Awkward
Making It Awkward
Jessica Wilson, MS RD
Heated Rivalry: Parasociality, Straight Women's Sexuality, and the Cultural Response with Lindsay Lee Wallace
52 minutes Posted Feb 12, 2026 at 11:11 am.
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Show notes

Lindsay Lee Wallace returns to talk about why she thinks women who have sex with men are drawn to Heated Rivalry. She wrote in, Yearning and Submission in 'Heated Rivalry', "Women who yearn and submit are often main characters—but they are simultaneously seen as frivolous and typical. Their yearning and submission aren't treated as meaningful, or as specific to them and their relationships… So it can feel easier and freer to step back from the equation entirely. Watch two men yearn for one another, which maintains their masculinity."

Lindsay and Jessica talk about that article and explore additional topics including parasocial relationships, what makes Heated Rivalry simply good television, and the pop culture pundit panic in late 2023 when a UCLA survey found that Gen Z wanted less sex in media.

Intimacy coordination

Dance parties

Heated Rivalry made in Canada

Good things that happened because of Heated Rivalry

Rachel Reid receiving Parkinson's treatment

Rachel Reid

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Jessica Wilson's book: It's Always Been Ours; Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies