Seattle Kraken BookTok Controversy

Overview

Seattle Kraken BookTok Controversy refers to sexual harassment accusations levied at fans of romance novels on TikTok in mid-2023. They are accused of making sexual and predatory comments about players on the NHL's Seattle Kraken team, particularly forward Alex Wennberg, after hockey-themed romance novels became popularized on the app. Initially, the Kraken seemed to embrace the unusual attention their team was receiving, but after Wennberg's wife spoke out against it, they deleted videos engaging with "BookTok" (Book TikTok). This led some on the platform to complain that the team had pandered to them for clout, while one user, Kierra Lewis, has become the "face" of BookTok's backlash, as one of her comments was singled out by Wennberg's wife.

Background

Among book fans on TikTok (aka "BookTok"), a subgenre of romance novels centered around hockey players has become prominent in recent years. Around May 2023, the fandom discovered the NHL's Seattle Kraken, particularly because it found one of the team's players, Alex Wennberg, physically attractive, and some said they imagined the male heroes of the novels to be Wennberg^[1] (TikTok by mini_maggs featuring Wennberg shown below).

At first, the Kraken embraced the unusual new fandom for the team and Wennberg. A deleted video posted by the team featured Wennberg walking in a suit, captioned about how it was posting for "BookTok" (screenshot shown below).

Developments

On July 27th, 2023, Alex Wennberg's wife Felicia took to her Instagram stories to say the thirst comments about her husband had crossed the line. She explained her point of view over several messages, at one point writing:

What doesn’t sit with me is when your desires come with sexual harassment, inappropriate comments and the fact that with the internet we can normalize behavior that would never be ok if we flipped the genders around to a guy doing this to a female athlete …I mean no hate on the booktook [sic] community just a little request for people to think twice about their comments/videos or chanting ‘krak my back’ at humans with feelings.

The following day, Alex Wennberg echoed his wife's sentiments, stating that while he supported BookTok's interest in hockey, the comments about himself and his wife were too far^[3] (shown below).

The Kraken then deleted its videos related to BookTok in the wake of the Wennbergs' statements.

BookTok's Response

Many BookTok users were not happy about the Wennbergs', and later the Kraken's, response to their fandom. In particular, Kierra Lewis arguably became the "face" of the controversy because Felicia Wennberg included her name in one of her screenshots, though Lewis' comment was censored.

Lewis posted several TikToks criticizing the Wennbergs and the Kraken, noting that the Kraken had encouraged her by giving her free tickets to games and gifting her a jersey with "BookTok" printed on it. Lewis also said she was now dealing with harassment because of Felicia Wennberg's post, and criticized her for overreacting to her "Krak my back" comment (a play on the team's name). These TikToks were compiled by Twitter user @duamaximoff on July 30th, 2023, gaining over 100 retweets and 2,500 likes in four days (shown below).

Felicia Wennberg later added to her previous statements by insisting she did not mean to single out Lewis but used one of her comments as an example of a broader trend of sexual comments her husband had seen on social media.^[2]

On August 1st, hockey and romance author Emily Rath posted a 10-minute-long TikTok on the situation, claiming that aggressive and predatory hockey romance fans make up 1 percent of the fandom, while the other 99 percent don't go to such extremes. She also criticized the Kraken for perceivably objectifying Wennberg, saying that organizations should not treat their employees in the same abstract way his fans do. The video gained over 2,300 likes in two days.

Search Interest

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External References