I didn't like the 90's grunge aesthetics (was Sherri based on Courtney Love?) of this film or the borderline soft-core porn sex scenes at the beginning. I get however that the scenes are there to show that both of the main characters are still acting out sexual dysfunction from the central traumatic event in the film. Owen prematurely ejaculates due to the trauma and has trouble getting close to people because he was sexually abused by his much older brother. Owen was just a child when they physically dragged him into the room, assaulted and threatened him into sexually performing against his will with this girl they were raping. As he says, his body betrayed him, and it is a common reaction for boys who are scared or nervous to get an erection; it is something many male survivors deal with.
Yet Own is treated with contempt in the film, yelled at, hit, and people act like he deserves to have guilt. But Owen was also a survivor, suffering from PTSD and he deserved closure and healing just as much as Sherri did. He was not responsible for what happened but he did a great thing by coming back and trying to make some of it right. It's too bad that the film couldn't lend him a more sympathetic ear but rather uses him as a scapegoat for the anger the other characters feel about what happened to her. No one feels angry about what was done to him. There is no comparing pain, there is no hierarchy of trauma that justifies everyone self-righteously dismissing people like Owen.
I only watched this film because I follow Gabriel Mann and because I am also a male survivor of sexual abuse, and child pornography where I was forced by adults to act out scenes with other children. And I'm certainly not partly to blame along with the child pornographers for that.
Yet Own is treated with contempt in the film, yelled at, hit, and people act like he deserves to have guilt. But Owen was also a survivor, suffering from PTSD and he deserved closure and healing just as much as Sherri did. He was not responsible for what happened but he did a great thing by coming back and trying to make some of it right. It's too bad that the film couldn't lend him a more sympathetic ear but rather uses him as a scapegoat for the anger the other characters feel about what happened to her. No one feels angry about what was done to him. There is no comparing pain, there is no hierarchy of trauma that justifies everyone self-righteously dismissing people like Owen.
I only watched this film because I follow Gabriel Mann and because I am also a male survivor of sexual abuse, and child pornography where I was forced by adults to act out scenes with other children. And I'm certainly not partly to blame along with the child pornographers for that.