Shane Hollander and Comphet

I know Heated Rivalry came out a while ago now, but I was recently reflecting on just how much Shane's character means to me as an autistic lesbian who came out in my mid-20s and dealt with a ton of comphet before that. I think it was incredibly validating for me to see the way that someone of a different gender could still have so many of the same experiences as me, like thinking friendships with someone of the opposite sex were romantic, high masking creating even more pressure to fit into boxes, initial denial of one's sexuality.

Especially since you hear the argument that lesbians are "just confused", or people invalidating lesbians who have dated men in their past sometimes, I think it has been helpful for me to remind myself that I don't think that about his character, and maybe I internalized those messages purely because of internalized misogny/the way society assumes everyone desires men. I'm curious if anyone else found themselves relating to his character like I did, or in other ways!