Is anyone else struggling with drama of young men in peril?

[Scruffysquirrels]

As a mother of young men?

I can't watch anything about war where ridiculously young men (historically) are sent to die, I found the Huw Edwards drama a very difficult watch, and I've just started on the first series of Capture (so don't know how it works out), but my response to seeing that young man so distressed in apparently unfair circumstances caused something close to physical pain.

Most dramas seem to involve harm to women, and I object on a kind of ethical basis to violence against women and girls being used for entertainment, but this is a much more physical response.

I had the same response to seeing news reports of starving children when DC were young, but I didn't expect it once they became adults.

Yes, I do. 2 late teen boys here. I always get upset when hearing about the abuse of children in the news, but it seems to hit much harder when it’s boys. I guess I think about my boys in those situations. There have been certain horrific stories in the past that have taken me a long time to get over. I’ve deliberately avoided some programmes – including the Huw Edwards drama – because of the content. I know it would distress me too much.

I’d be more worried about girls.

Boys are more likely to abuse than be abused.

There's something about the juxtaposition of manly heroism and extreme youth/innocence that is used to strong effect to spark an emotional reaction. The trope of excited laughing young men off to war as though it were just another boyish adventure, when we know what they will face and they don't. Then the scenes of them calling for their mothers. You'd have to be made of stone not to be moved by it. Having sons makes it more relatable.
Dramas featuring girls becoming victims rarely allow the audience to establish a relationship with the victim or engage with her as a person. We usually only encounter her as a dead body, so she isn't humanised in the same way.