<\/strong>The trauma we endure in our youth can follow us all throughout our lives. We find different means to deal with feelings brought on by the negative experiences we have gone through. For some, we numb the pain through the excessive consumption of the pleasures life has to offer, which may develop into addictive vices. For some, this may be a means of re-enacting the source of our trauma in an attempt to take our power back. For others, it is to completely dissociate from the situation, thinking it would be easier if what happened to you was unexplainable or out of your control – like aliens or magic. <\/p>\n\n\n Some people engage in vices because they think they need it in order to be normal or fun, like drinking before you hang out with friends. However, none of these options resolve the guilt causing dissonance that the sins of another cause. Victims feel the guilt of sexual assault, although it was not their fault, like the darkness inside the perpetrator latched itself onto their soul. This kind of victimization destroys someone from the inside out, completely shattering their capacity for trust, love, normal social interaction, and positive mental health. Whether or not you are capable of remembering the events that have long since traumatized you might affect your peace; however, knowing someone who has endured the trauma as you won\u2019t erase the things you went through, will certainly help ease the loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMysterious Skin\u201d (2004) by Gregg Araki is the story of two young men who were sexually violated in their youth by their baseball coach in Hutchinson, Kansas. Throughout the film, we are presented with two different ways in which people handle the trauma they endure. Neil (played by Joseph Gordon Levitt), the first boy to be traumatized, identifies as gay and is a sex worker. Brian is the second victim who currently lives with his mother. Brian remembers strange things happening to him in his youth that frighten him and he can\u2019t put together what it is. Eventually, he decides that it must be aliens after watching a program featuring a girl who lives nearby who claims to have a strange encounter. Both boys go through their journey with separate initial responses to being victimized. Through their shared experiences and relationship with their friend Eric, they eventually find their lives and need for peace to intertwine.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/strong>The film excellently portrays how these sexual traumas affect people and the darkness that manifests in the minds of victims. Sexual violence is a killer of self-love and self-respect. It is confusing and disorienting. While friends, family, and others can be helpful in the healing process, it is knowing that someone else knows what you\u2019ve been through that can be especially cathartic. We never know just by looking at someone that they have been through trauma, whether that be physical, emotional, or sexual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next time you’re in class, at work, or at a social event, look around you – the kid right next to you in English class, or your really sweet co-worker who always takes extra hours, or that person who sings terribly at karaoke – any random person has an untold story. Some of these stories contain violent and unfortunate circumstances written in them. You never know that the person sitting next to you could have gone through some kind of traumatic experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n For many, if the stories of their trauma go on untold or are not dealt with and that darkness begins to become self-destructive. Tearing away any sense of peace, and normal mental health hurts our ability to interact with others. Both Neil and Brian show the depths of the consequences of unaddressed trauma. In the case of Neil, he gets into more and more risky situations that eventually lead to other kinds of violence. Brian begins to mentally fall apart at the seams, with his mental clarity causing a disturbingly destructive amount of self-doubt. This is painful to watch but is perfectly executed in the film. The film teaches viewers that the trauma they endured was never and will never be their fault but, while unfair, they have to confront the truth to begin healing. They can\u2019t just disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMysterious Skin\u201d is an excellent depiction of how people who have been violated are haunted by trauma. The film shows the ugly truth of the consequences victimizers have on children and the toll that these situations of sexual violence take. Brady Corbet and Joseph Gorden- Levitt should be commended for their excellent performance. They demonstrate how two responses to trauma can be completely different but feel all the same. The film shows how hard it is to confront the overwhelming insidious sickness that is inflicted by trauma and is a reminder that anyone could have gone through this kind of trauma, whether it’s the guy passing you as you leave the bathroom or some random kid who was on your baseball team as a kid.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY JOHN CARTER JR Trigger Warning: Content includes conversations about Sexual Assault The trauma we endure in our youth can follow us all throughout our… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":73276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,3391,3505,55],"tags":[12231,21,15288,14656,442],"class_list":["post-73271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-movie-reviews","category-local-movies","category-opinion","tag-john-carter-jr","tag-movies-2","tag-mysterious-skin","tag-pride-month","tag-reviews-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Thumbnail-1.jpg?fit=450%2C253&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73271"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73279,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73271\/revisions\/73279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/73276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Image-1.png?resize=512%2C288\")
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