Spoiler alert! Also, trigger warning!
The second season of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, which premiered earlier this week, is once again courting controversy. This time it’s over an incredibly graphic male rape scene in the season finale.
The show’s creator, Brian Yorkey, has defended the scene, telling Vulture: “We are committed on this show to telling truthful stories about things that young people go through in as unflinching a way as we can.”
He added that the storyline was approved by both Netflix and Paramount, which produces the show, after “extensive discussions” and copious amounts of research into real-life cases of male-on-male sexual violence in high school.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Related: Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” handles suicide poorly but treats gay youth with respect
The two minute scene is disturbing and difficult to watch. It begins school photographer Tyler Down (played by Devin Druid) having his head bashed into the sink before being dragged to a stall where he has his head dunked in the toilet while being called a “f*ggot.”
As Tyler begs for mercy, two attackers hold him down while the third pulls down his pants and begins violently sodomizing him with a mop handle. Tyler screams out in pain. When the mop is finally removed, it’s covered with blood.
Tyler’s attacker then drops the bloody mop on the ground and the three men exit, leaving him sobbing on the floor, his head resting on the wall of the bathroom stall.
But despite Yorkey’s claim that the show is only trying to tell “truthful stories” about the experiences of young people today, many feel the scene goes too far:
TRIGGER WARNING 13 REASONS WHY RELATED.
???? DO NOT WATCH THE SCENE THAT STARTS AT AROUND 38:00 MINUTES S2E13. IT IS EXTREMELY TRIGGERING AND GRAPHIC, IT IS SHOWING A RAPE SCENE ????
— LlamaForPresident ? (@real_llama88) May 20, 2018
AFTER THAT BRUTAL SCENE WITH THE MOP AND TYLER, THIS SHOW NEEDS TO BE CANCELLED. Obviously the people behind this show only gives a fuck about shock value and not about rape or suicide. #13ReasonsWhySeason2 #13reasonswhy
— Callie ? (@CallieCalburn) May 19, 2018
okay. literally holy fucking shit. the rape scene in the last episode of #13ReasonsWhy was absolutely unfuckingnecessary. i never get triggered over ANY rape scenes but that was torture porn. worse than the cutting scene in the first season. i wanna puke.
— jill ?? (@bluedotbirb) May 19, 2018
Others support the show’s decision to include it:
Rape scenes are not supposed to be comfortable. I’m glad they made sure the audience wasn’t comfortable. Rape is torture and it’s violent. You have no business being “comfortable” during a rape scene. #13ReasonsWhy2 #13ReasonsWhy
— IFHY (@Xevsymeedrome) May 20, 2018
I appreciated 13 reasons why bc it showed rape in the way that it is. Seeing Hannah frozen in shock, hatred, and guilt made me realize that my response to rape was normal. The disbelief of what's really happening and disgust of the truth makes most victims die inside…
— ? (@giftedlook) May 18, 2018
Y’all don’t like “13 Reasons Why” because it makes you talk and think about uncomfortable topics such as Rape, Suicide and Sexual Assualt. All these topics that people try their best to ignore and you see what happens when you ignore it? All these things continue to happen.
— Sam (@samoffficial) May 22, 2018
Watch the 13 Reasons Why season 2 trailer below.
Related: Male rape victims share their harrowing stories in this powerful new documentary
Kangol
This show is so many kinds of awful it’s not even funny. It was horrifying when those New York City cops brutally anally raped Abner Louima years ago, and it’s horrifying to see a TV show replicating an attack like that on one of its character. Yes, writers and shows should have the freedom to depict all kinds of things, but if it’s essential for the plot, why not just allude to it? Less in this case could easily be more.
[email protected]
Lifted directly from the TV movie, “Born Innocent (1974) starring Linda Blair.
jpcolter
The scene in Born Innocent wasn’t this graphic though it was extremely similar but so are a number of bathroom rapes in other movies I’ve seen that are also very similar though I don’t remember them like I do Linda Blair’s scene.
scve
This is from the case when John RK Howard and two teammates did the same thing to a special needs african american teammate in Idaho in 2015
Kieran
Your headline implies we’d be able to watch and judge for ourselves. Give us a link at least.
tjack47
It’s true about “Born Innocent”, 1970-something. The real world is not a safe haven. We are not owed trigger warnings. We must learn to cope, not the world to the individual. Rape is graphic. It’s more than disturbing. I’ve never seen the show, but there are films just as graphic or more so. I thought the rape scene in “The Prince of Tides” was difficult. TMI? No, we have too little information.
harryleemartin
As someone who was raped and tortured and held against my will for 2 hours, yes we do need trigger warnings. And pretty insensitive for you to say such an idiotic comment.
DHT
Not sure if I am going to be able to watch this, I had to walk out of the theater while watching the rape scene in Cape Fear.
Billy Budd
It is distasteful, but I am not against these things per se. Clockwork Orange has a rape scene and it is on my top-10 best movies EVER made list.
chris33133
This makes for an amazing contrast to people’s reactions to the “burning bed” which established Farrah Fawcett as an incredible actress. Yeah it’s controversial. Some people even think it’s gratuitous. But it gives actors an opportunity to show their acting chops. And for that, I’m willing to grant this stuff artistic license.
joeboyle49
IM GLAD THEY ADDED THAT MALE RAPE SCENE IN 13 REASONS WHY. IT HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE EVEN THO A LOT OF GUYS DON’T REPORT IT. BUT YOU HEAR IT HAPPENING AT DIFFERENT SCHOOLS.
Mack
I was thinking the same thing. This has happened in several places in the US in the last couple of years. Someone mentioned Idaho and if I’m not mistaken it also happened in Texas. People need to see reality, maybe just maybe, something will be done about the way gay teens are treated in schools.
Eugene Boy
I had trouble watching Hannah’s suicide and I’m sure that when I get to the rape episode it will be equally difficult. But teens go through this stuff. I just hope the story line ultimately brings justice to the band of thugs perpetuating the ugliness in this school.
Stephen
Been there. Huge healing watching and knowing I did not do anything wrong. I had no support. Male on male violence in historical. It’s time and we are ready to see it. To a new season three if they can find a way around lead actress replacement.
Bravo. Thank you for clearing out a demon or two I hav walked with since I was male gang raped at 10 years old. I thank everyone for their bravery and courage. It has healed something I never expect to heal because of your TV series! School was hell, the guys in high school were a view of things to come in a few years. I was traumatized every second of grade 8-12. Now I am letting it go! Phew! What a release!
robert_moore
Some people are uncomfortable with the rape scene. Good. Some of them want it cut or merely “alluded”, too bad. I bet you watch shows and movies were people are murdered, some quite gratuitously so if you think this was too graphic, too uncomfortable then too bad. It happens in the real world.
Women who are raped were once routinely treated not as the victims of a crime but as somehow being at fault for it. Men being raped is far more common than most people realise, but it doesn’t get much exposure. I think the discomfort has less to do with the rape than with the fact it was a man being raped.