. 13 Reasons Why is no stranger to inciting moral outrage over its sensitive content. In its first season, the graphic depiction of Hannah Baker’s suicide sparked a wave of backlash. The second season now begins with a full PSA that the show might not be appropriate for certain viewers at risk of being triggered by its “tough, real-world issues.” The darkest issue in season two is sexual assault — after Hannah’s parents sue her high school for negligence, their case focuses on the student who assaulted her — and it reaches perhaps its darkest moment in the final episode, during a rarely seen depiction of a man sexually assaulting another man.
In the season finale, “Bye,” school photographer Tyler Down is brutally raped when three student-athletes attack him in a bathroom, shove his head in a toilet, then sodomize him with a broken mop handle. Tyler is left bleeding from the rear, bruised, and so badly traumatized that he later shows up at his school with the intention of carrying out a mass shooting. The scene has reignited controversy over the show, with some viewers saying they were “disgusted” by the scene and calling for the show to be canceled.
On Monday, Vulture spoke with 13 Reasons Why creator Brian Yorkey, who defended the scene’s inclusion, claiming that it developed from research on real-life cases of sexual violence against men in high school and that the decision to depict its graphic nature was not done gratuitously. To those offended or triggered by the scene, Yorkey shared this statement:
