I feel like using Archer as an example of a non-offensive portrayal of male sexual assault survivors misses the mark, considering it is absolutely played as a joke several times throughout that show, even with other characters. Archer's an adult comedy, after all, it is full of tasteless jokes ranging from making fun of sexual assault to making fun of people of color and LGBT people (the 'trans panic' joke episode, as an example.) The Wheel of Time series of books eroticizes sexual assault experienced by female characters, while using sexual assault against men as a moment of horror due to how it is treated as "emasculating" for a man to be forced into sex. As a male survivor of sexual assault, I would not point to either of these series as good "representation" of sexual assault against men, or anyone, at all, in any way. While I like Mysterious Skin, I also would not think to ever compare the character in it to a character like Halsin- Mysterious Skin has its own mountains of criticisms leveled at it by gay survivors and sex workers over the decades.
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree. I should have been more clear about the 'varying quality' line. Some of these are awful examples, but if the idea is purely to have a male victim who is not sex repulsed then ehhh. Most of the healthier examples aren't so simplistic. Which brings me to my point that Halsin's
is simplistic and the same kind of eroticized sexual assault from the Wheel of Time. The fact is that a lot of sexual violence towards men in media is eroticized just like Halsin's was. Unless there is some
serious re-writing, sprucing up a 'sexy' rape joke isn't going to make it okay.
Turning the analysis back to Archer, I would also argue that it would be better if the assault had never been written either. Or the entire thing from the Wheel of Time. This is also coming from a male victim who is desperate to see some representation that I scan through media to try and feel related to. We can aspire to have something better than someone backtracking on an "off-color" joke.
