In Rachel Reid’s Role Model, the hypermasculine world of professional hockey pushes Troy to hide behind an aggressive, bigoted persona. The book argues that real strength grows out of dismantling this rigid front and choosing emotional honesty and authenticity. Troy’s difficult shift away from his armor shows how redefining identity, even when it risks personal or professional fallout, becomes the only path toward connection and integrity. His arc makes vulnerability a test of courage rather than a sign of weakness.

Troy built his early identity around toxic masculinity shaped by his aggressive, withholding father and his former friend Dallas Kent, a sexual predator whom Troy describes as a “loud, shithead shrub” (64). For years, he relied on Dallas’s bigotry to hide his sexuality. This strategy trapped Troy in a version of manhood defined by cruelty and silence. He cracked antigay jokes and kept his distance from kindhearted teammates like Wyatt because he thought that this front protected him. The facade left him inwardly lonely long before his world collapses after he publicly calls out Dallas.

Once Troy reaches the Ottawa Centaurs, the team’s healthier examples of masculinity unsettle his old habits. Harris wears Pride pins in the locker room, and his open, relaxed attitude unsettles Troy’s defenses. Harris’s kindness contrasts with the aggressive, transactional relationships that Troy once relied on. Ilya deepens this shift. After Troy lashes out at a referee, Ilya tells him to focus his energy on the team: “‘Score a goal for you if you need to,’ Ilya said, ‘but think about what you can do for the team. You are, I think, what we have needed’” (63). Later, Ilya shares his bisexuality with Troy, giving the protagonist proof that strength and openness can coexist in the league.

Troy’s final step toward self-acceptance comes when he decides to come out, first to his mother and close teammates and then to the public. His Instagram video lets him reclaim his story and turn a tool usually tied to public image into a space for truth. This choice redefines a role model as someone with integrity and the nerve to be honest rather than someone performing a rigid form of masculinity. Through Troy’s journey, Reid critiques the hypermasculine culture of professional hockey and encourages her readers to strive for greater understanding and acceptance of themselves.