AztecLady speaks… (Okay, it’s more like a rant)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008Posted in: Azteclady Speaks
We** look at sexual content in books or movies or commercials on tv, and complain about the state of society, the lack of moral values, the decline of civilization as we know it.
We** blame the gays, the liberals, Hollywood, the government, the media, etc., for what many call the sexualization of children.
But violence in games, in movies—in the news?
That’s okay. It’s not like it’s “real”
Then we** wonder how this happens. Then, when this happens, we** wonder how both victims and perpetrators can laugh about it (yes, they are teens, but c’mon! laughter?)
(And after those two, one looks at this and wonders what the hell was this woman thinking.)
Agree or disagree: most people tend to become distracted by the “morality” of sex–which sells both products (i.e. entertainment, commercials) and news–and to pay less attention to underlying problems such as violence, including that which appears in movies, games, the news, etc.
** WE as in society in general, or at least the more vocal segments of it.
Shiloh Walker
September 24
12:48 pm
Just plain heartbreaking.
The deal with the football team-gee, I wonder if some moron will trot out the BOYS WILL BE BOYS excuse.
Emmy
September 24
1:10 pm
Uh…what did she think he was going to do with a rifle? Play a live action version of Duck Hunt?
Live action Halo is *much* more fun.
Why is it cute to dress a 5-year-old in coochie cutters, miniskirts, heels, and bare midriffs, but slutty if they’re still wearing the same style of clothes at 16?
I don’t think that every kid who plays Xbox or the console of choice is going to go out and practice in real life. How many video consoles are sold each year compared to random shootings? And there are other factors…mean kids picking on the quiet or different ones at school, single parents working long hours and leaving kids alone by themselves, domestic violence.
These kids who shoot up classmates are invariably troubled, and usually tell someone what they’re going to do before they do it. They have alot of hate built up for a variety of reasons. I haven’t heard of a single murderer, when asked, who said they killed people because it looked cool on tv, or in a game, or they didn’t think people died for reals.
I don’t think multimedia exposure can be pointed at as a single cause of death and destruction, or even the primary.
Sparky
September 24
2:12 pm
I will never, ever understand why so many people find sex to be more dangerous and offensive than violence. It boggles the mind.
And that woman? Wasn’t thinking. She can’t have been. She needs locking up somewhere nice and padded
Teddypig
September 24
4:13 pm
I just keep thinking maybe they should license parenting.
I was a latch key kid myself.
My mother was a high powered paralegal and my dad was a manager so I was home babysitting my brothers constantly and playing video games etc etc.
I had problems at High School because well I was figuring out I was different because I was Gay.
I never wanted to shoot people over the whole raw deal.
I guess I had structure and rules and punishment and such and that kept me together. I don’t really think these kids do.
I think we have this funny idea what childhood “should be” without the reality that it was never this unstructured time to just do your own thing and that many “children” in the past grew up working for their families or to put food on the table with all the responsibilities that entails.
Amie
September 24
5:26 pm
It’s like some disgustingly twisted double standard. IE writing erotica vs writing murder mysteries (killing people vs doing the nasty). Maybe that’s a stretch but I’m going to assume you know what I mean 🙂
Agreed. And also what Teddy said. I think it truly comes down to lack of parental involvement and/or not being clued in 🙁 Not to mention some parents not wanting to be clued in.
I’m truly astounded at the naivety of people sometimes. We walk a fine line as parents between cluing our children in to and preparing them for the real world, and trying to shelter them (too much either way can’t be good but I sincerely believe that too much sheltering is the bigger disservice).
shirley
September 24
9:43 pm
Morality, HA! This from the country that had a coronary over a nanosecond flash of African American nipple – yet as a previous poster noted, dresses it’s five year old children like streetwalkers.
Sex isn’t evil, vile, or wrong so long as it’s practiced between consenting adults. Violence is a whole other ball of wax, but I’m with another poster there too – you can’t blame media for violent children. You can sometimes blame schools, cultures, and lack of parental involvement.
All that said, there will always be violence and it isn’t the government, some moral majority, or my neighbors job to dictate how I raise my children. Or to say I’m a bad parent because I have to work in order to feed and shelter them. Personally, I think it’s a fine line to walk when laying blame for incomprehensible violence. Sometimes the only person to blame is the offender – not their parents, not society, not some music or video game. And that’s sad, but it’s life. Not everyone is a good person.
JulieLeto
September 25
2:40 am
Not all of us dress our daughters like hookers, okay?
Just because the clothes are out there (and boy, are they out there!) doesn’t mean parents have to buy them. Yeah, it’s harder to shop when you want your daughter to respect her body, but it’s possible.
It’s also possible to have a child who has an Xbox and a Wii and a Nintendo DS, but who has no violent games. Of if there is violence, it’s the comic book kind with no blood and the characters never die. (Think Star Wars Legos, for those of you who know the games.) I grew up on Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner and I turned out okay, for those of you who think comic book violence is teh evil.
The problem is the realistic violence these kids are constantly exposed to. I love watching CSI and NCIS and all those shows–but guess what? I don’t. I Tivo them if I must and I watch them after she’s gone to bed. I do not have those shows on where she can even catch a peek at them. I don’t want her overexposed to those images and become unaffected by them.
I also don’t watch certain channels when she’s around. She’s a child. She doesn’t need to watch Sex And The City with me, thanks. She can do that when she’s an older teen.
You can’t protect kids from all violent or sexual images, but it’s up to a parent to put them in context. It’s harder now, because if anyone says anything about “community standards,” you start hearing about first amendment and parents “coddling” their children and “you’re not preparing them for the real world.”
I have certainly done well in the real world and I grew up pretty sheltered. My parents actually allowed me to have a childhood and allowed me to move in to adulthood on my own time frame–not on some media generated time frame. I’m trying desperately to do the same for my child, but damn, it’s not easy.
And don’t get me started on bullying.
shirley
September 26
12:51 am
I didn’t say you dressed your child like a hooker. I said a country… And I didn’t think I’d need to do a **generally speaking, since that’s how AL set up the post. However, for clarity’s sake, some people dress their five year olds like hookers in the US.
Here, here to you! Sincerely. It is exceptionally difficult to raise a child and allow them to grow up by degrees, instead of rushing headlong (or being pushed) into adulthood. That said, it isn’t like the coddling wand or the poor preparation speech are new to this generation. I spanked my children, occasionally and when they were small, but only for extreme ill-behavior, i.e. my eldest boy took a chunk of skin out of his younger sister’s arm when she wouldn’t get out of the sandbox so he could play toy soldiers. She had to have sixteen stitches and she still has the scar. He got spanked.
I was told over and over again that I needed to ‘whip’ my children more (my mother and father). That I allowed them too much freedom, my rules were too weak. Well, thank you very much, I didn’t think the kids needed beaten just because they didn’t make their bed perfectly. But I wasn’t preparing them for the real world and all its hardships (this from my mother in law, god rest her).
All I’m saying is you do what you (*generally speaking) think is right. If that means you try to keep violence and sex out of the kids experience until you think they are mature enough to handle it, then that’s your parental choice. I can say they are still going to see violence – your bullying(which I also would rather let alone)- is a prime example. They are going to see human beings being cruel, malicious, antipathetic, and violent in real life. Those things don’t mean I have the right to tell you how to raise your kids.
And to the freaking out about sex but overlooking violence, truth be told for all the freaking out in the US media, sex is still more prevalent than violence in the media. I am disgusted that more of a stink was made over a flash of nipple than over a group of kids beating the sh*t out of a girl – ON FILM – and posting it to the internet. That should certainly garner more outrage, but that’s IMO, and I think that is the heart of the point. If the masses say sex is more outrageous -than seeing someone bludgeoned or run over or whatever- then that(the sex in this case) is what gets the outrage. It doesn’t have to make sense, it’s simply the nature of the beast, so to speak.