I May Destroy You 
TV Show
Drama
LGBT
TV Show
Drama
LGBT
Updated: 19 July 2022
No rape or sexual assault
Rape or sexual assault mentioned, discussed, implied
Sexual harassment e.g non-consensual grabbing, touching, cat-calling)
Sexual relationship between adult and teenager
Child sex abuse
Incest
Attempted rape
Rape off-screen or strongly implied
Rape on-screen

Description

The premise of this show is that the protagonist was raped while high on recreational drugs. Because she does not remember what happened due to her inebriated state and because of dissociating, the bulk of the show is her piecing together what happened and navigating the trauma that ensued. Near the end of S1E1 (from 28:55), she gets a flashback of her rape, but does not at first realize what it is. The flashback is repeated at various intervals throughout the show to illustrate that it is an intrusive thought. Early on in S1E2, a brief flashback of the rape is shown. Throughout the episode, the protagonist questions her male friend (who was present on the night that she blacked out) about what happened. He is very evasive and seems to be dishonest. She then visits his mistress, who claims that she does not remember what happened and mentions that she may have been spiked (17:00-21:08). When the main protagonist suggests that her lover may have been involved, she becomes angry and shouts in denial. The main protagonist leaves and calls a rideshare to the police station to report what she remembers of the previous night to the sexual assault specialists. The officers question her sympathetically and she undergoes a medical examination (22:08-27:48). In S1E3, the protagonist and her friend go to a club while they are both very high. The latter ends up having sex with two men who tricked her into believing that they did not know each other. When she realizes it, she appears troubled (24:27-27:25). In S1E4, the protagonist has a flashback of her rape while having sex with a colleague (19:00-20:07): she acts as though everything is fine. After that, the man removes the condom without her knowledge or consent (21:51-23:00). Meanwhile, after having consensual sex with a man, a male character is physically forced on the bed, restrained and thrusted against from behind, despite his protestations. He is shown visibly distressed afterwards (from 27:52). In S1E5, the protagonist learns that there are social media forums where people learn to take off condoms without their partner's consent in the middle of sex and make excuses for it if they are caught (3:41-4:50). Then we see flashbacks of this happening to her. She later asks a police officer if this act counts as rape, and the officer agrees that it does (24:57-28:55). Towards the end of the episode, the protagonist publicly accuses her colleague of having raped her, describing the tactic he used. Her previous partner finds out and victim blames her by saying that she should have watched her drink better to avoid being drugged and raped (18:57-21:32). Meanwhile, the protagonist's friend goes to the police station to report an his own assault. The police officer belittles him for not knowing his assailant's real name, asks if any penetration really happened, and then ultimately dismisses the case since the encounter started as consensual (26:19-27:07). In S1E6, there is a scene focusing on a support group for people who have been sexually assaulted. Participants describe experiences with sexual harassment and rape. The protagonist states that she wants to learn how not to be raped, implying that she internalized the victim blaming from her ex (04:36-07:55). Later, a flashback scene features two teens engaged in what starts as consensual sex. At some point, the boy takes a photo of the girl on his phone without her consent. When she catches him, she appears upset at first but then goes along with it when he says that he will pay her. When the boy is not looking, the girl destroys his phone (12:11-17:24). Later on, she cuts herself with a knife, and when a teacher notices her bleeding and appearing distraught, she says that her partner raped her at knifepoint. Other students find out that this is not true, and they tell the headmaster before the boy can be arrested (17:42-26:34). Later on, her stepfather references how her father supposedly raped her and her mother. The girl says that she lied about the rape at the insistence of her mother, who wanted sole custody (27:17-29:11). Towards the beginning of S1E7, the protagonist reads a personal essay aloud, in which she wonders if she has the right to be affected by her experience with sexual assault when so many women have it worse (3:30-.5:00). The protagonist's best friend asks the male friend that the protagonist interrogated in S1E2 not to come to a party because his presence might trigger the protagonist. The male friend argues that the best friend encouraged him to leave the protagonist by herself, potentially facilitating the rape (9:52-12:53). Later on, the protagonist's gay friend says reminisces about how he lost his virginity as a child when two adult men invited him to have sex with them in their car. He does not seem to realize how alarming this sounds until he sees the distressed look on his friend's face (14:25-15:14). The protagonist's friend claims that Black people, apart from the protagonist, do not get raped (19:00-19:14). The protagonist locks her gay friend and another man in a room together, thinking that she is facilitating a hookup, but not knowing that her gay friend had been sexually assaulted and is still uncomfortable with sex as a result (22:35-27:47). There is discussion of rape in the context of colonization (23:00-25:00). Once freed from the room where he was locked with the man, he tells the protagonist's best friend about his bad experience reporting his sexual assault to the police (28:00-29:05). S1E8 opens with the rape and sexual assault support group (00:56-3:04). The gay friend decides that, because he was traumatized by his sexual assault, he will pursue women instead of men. He goes out on a date with a white woman who clearly fetishizes Black men. She initiates kissing and sex with him, despite his visible discomfort. While he is having sex with her, he keeps having flashbacks to his own sexual assault, in part because the same song is playing and because he is pinning her down in the way that he was pinned down (15:28-16:28, 16:55-17:58). The protagonist hears from the police that they are closing her case because they could not find the rapist. She appears to dissociate upon hearing this (5:25-10:22).

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