Not To Be All "but What About (male Character)'s Trauma!!!" But It's Pretty Fucking Disgusting How Everybody

Not to be all "but what about (male character)'s trauma!!!" but it's pretty fucking disgusting how everybody is (rightfully) repulsed by Beverly's sewer scene and complains about how stephen king made this poor little girl fuck her friends, but everyone treats Henry's junkyard scene like it's just a big joke.

If the sewer scene is disgusting because Bev's just a little girl, then the junkyard scene is disgusting because Henry's just a little boy. It shouldn't matter if he's homophobic. He's just a little boy. It shouldn't matter if he' terrible. He's just a little boy. It shouldn't matter if Henry is in the closet. He's just a little boy.

Henry possibly being in the closet has as much baring on the dubious consent of the junkyard scene as Eddie being in the closet has on the dubious consent of the sewer scene. The fact Patrick jerked him off with out even telling him what it was is horrific and disgusting. I've been known to make a few junkyard jokes (and sewer jokes) and while i think those jokes are fine to make, i see so many people be repulsed by the sewer scene but i NEVER see anyone treat Henry's assault as an assault.

No relationship with Patrick Hockstetter could be healthy because he doesn't even see people as people, and Henry is definetly a victim of him even though he himself is an abuser. It's fine to make jokes about it and ship them, but as a henpat shipper, the fact i've seen people unironically use it to justify henpat as cannon or flat out glamorize it is disgusting. Patrick didn't ask if he wanted a hand job, he told him he wanted to show him something that felt nice and nothing else. Henry didn't consent to having a secret homesexual situationship, he was a little boy who THOUGHT he was in the presence of a friend and got roped into something sexual.

Obviously Bev's sexual abuse should be highlighted more sense King has problems sexualizing women all the time, and her's is more overt and part of her whole character arc, but my argument isn't "Poor Henry everyone focus on him instead". My argument is "If sexualizing one child is gross, the other is equally gross, and Henry deserves to be seen as a victim of CSA as much as any other character".