Absolutely agree with what was said here. Having THESE pointed out as "better" alternatives for representation for male victims of sexual assault feels disingenuous at best, and outright insulting at worst. These are not in any way better representation than Halsin. Those were written with active ill intent, while this was simply poor writing they are trying to fix.
As I said, these depictions are of
varying quality, which means that some are not good and some are decent.
A Cruel God Reigns is often considered to be a sensitive portrayal of domestic abuse and assault, though it is not without fault and I personally have some big issues with it. The Kite Runner is typically well-regarded. Mysterious Skin falls into the obnoxious "gay predator" stereotype but depicts trauma decently. From what I've seen, the Criminal Minds CSA plot was sensitively handled. It's not like I had
no good examples to provide. The problem is that the examples that are most like Halsin's abuse, namely the Wheel of Time and I would argue Spartacus, are offensive and flippant.
Additionally, we have no data to corroborate if Halsin ever experienced a phase of being sex averse following his imprisonment. Were I to expand my criteria from "purely non-sex-averse characters" to "characters who experience a period of sex aversion and move past it," there are plenty of good examples. But I have no confirmation one way or the other that Halsin had this because most of the speculation of Halsin's response to trauma is without any textual basis.
