Banana Fish is an example of a series that features a male survivor of rape and sexual assault as it’s main protagonist and does a pretty damn good job of handling those themes.
While there are plenty of instances where sexual assault and rape are either outright stated to have occurred along with indications of what has occurred before and after the event, no character is actually shown getting raped or assaulted on screen.
And Banana Fish has been praised for this because even when rape is handled with the seriousness and gravity that it warrants, the fact of the matter is that if it takes place on screen then not only is there potential to do real harm to actual survivors by triggering a trauma response, but there is also the potential for the work to be accused of fetishizing that violence, even if that was never the creator’s intention.
On screen sex is different from on screen rape.
Banana Fish is an example of a series that features a male survivor of rape and sexual assault as it’s main protagonist and does a pretty damn good job of handling those themes.
While there are plenty of instances where sexual assault and rape are either outright stated to have occurred along with indications of what has occurred before and after the event, no character is actually shown getting raped or assaulted on screen.
And Banana Fish has been praised for this because even when rape is handled with the seriousness and gravity that it warrants, the fact of the matter is that if it takes place on screen then not only is there potential to do real harm to actual survivors by triggering a trauma response, but there is also the potential for the work to be accused of fetishizing that violence, even if that was never the creator’s intention.