MovieChat Forums > Mysterious Skin (2005) Discussion > Will Neil molest boys too?

Will Neil molest boys too?

posted 12 years ago by erina1
27 replies | jump to latest

Given his normal attitude, Neil was way over the top friendly to the little boy who brought the baseball up while he was announcing the game.

He also seemed pretty accepting of what had happened to him when he was younger, seemed pretty convinced that he had actually enjoyed it and that the coach really had loved him and meant him no harm.

So is he likely to start doing the same thing to little boys when he gets older?

I hope not, cause his character was pretty likeable until that thought occurred to me.

[–] greenjae 11 years ago

I've heard people say that the sexually abused children will be likely to grow up to commit sexual abuse. I think it's important to address this prevalent belief.

"while it is true that many (though by no means all) who sexually abuse children have histories of sexual abuse, it is NOT true that most boys who are sexually abused go on to sexually abuse others. "

source:
https://1in6.org/therapists-and-other-professionals/myths-facts/

[–] knoxfan2008 11 years ago

^ Thank you for actually using reason in this thread.

Also people saying "yep he probably will", are being pretty moronic. The film showed pretty clearly that he wouldn't. The film also went to show that he is not gay because he was abused, yet his view towards sex has been modified heavily due to this experience.

[–] belinda-short 11 years ago

When you are groomed the way that Neil was to enjoy it, there is a very real chance that you will grow up to think that nothing that happened was wrong.

In real life, there is a very real chance that someone who was molested in this way would continue this behavior unless something changed them. By the end of this movie, he realized that what had made him feel good actually hurt someone else. I very much doubt at that point that he would do that to another child.

[–] theunopeneddoor-697-442391 9 years ago

^BS.

A person who grows up to be a child molester must have both a genetic predisposition AND environment to make them a molester. They are both born AND made and like all mental problems it is not so simple as "this happened therefore you will act like that."

www.facebook.com/groups/ivegotyou

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] theunopeneddoor-697-442391 9 years ago

No. He is attracted to OLDER MEN because of what happened to him. Also watch the scene at the baseball park again, it's clear there is nothing sexual there. Neil in fact shows little interest at all in the boy.

www.facebook.com/groups/ivegotyou

[–] InsecureNeuroticControlFreak 9 years ago

I will say that Neil likely grew up with a skewed view on what healthy relationships with children are, but I do not in any way believe he will grow up to be a pedophile.

Sure, in the novel, he collects pornography involving children, but it's pornography of children and OLDER MEN, and I think it's because he fantasizes about what was done to him as a child. It's pretty clear what his attraction is: older, scruffier, strange men. That's quite the opposite of children.

Troll the respawn, Jeremy.

[–] knoxfan2008 8 years ago

The scene of him being super friendly to the boy was more his slightly warped perception of giving kids heaps of praise and attention, cause he remebers how nice that felt to him. It's definitely not any sign he'd go on to do it.

[–] red_rackham_77 8 years ago

What you said is the same thing when teenage girls engage in sex with a grown man and claims that they loved it and they loved them and worst of all they believe that they are loved by them.

Neil is a victim who doesn't realize that what happen to him wasn't love, his real home failed to give him the proper love he deserved and thanks to that he misinterprets child molestation and child rape as love.

He needs help and lots of it before he does follow what he was taught as a little boy, you teach a child to hate he will hate, you teach a child to bully and he becomes a bully but in Neil case he needs to be shown what happen to him wasn't love. I think he got it when he sees the reaction of Brian after telling him the whole story and maybe he now knows that deep down he is a victim.