However, we are in a world where reality is violent. Grimm's Fairy Tales (a popular thing to read to children) are, well, Grimm. Jack fell down and broke his crown. Hansel and Gretel were siblings that were abandoned in a forest by their parents, and caught by an evil witch who fattened them up so she could eat them. In the Lion King, Mustafa is killed by his brother, and then blames Simba. Snow White is poisoned by a witch, and Bambi's mother is mowed down, Gaston falls from the roof of the castle after a violent fight with the Beast. I'm sure you get my drift. When I grew up, my favorite books were the Narnia Chronicles, The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings...all full of violence.
And lets look at the latest kid book/movie series: Harry Potter. Do you know how many people that were close to Harry who were killed?? Here's who: His parents, Sirius Black, Dumbldore, Remus Lupin, Tonks, Fred Weasley, Cedric Diggory, Hedwig, Severus Snape, Mad Eye Moody, Dobby, Barty Couch Sr. Colin Crevey, and finally, Harry had to allow himself to be killed to destroy the last horcrux. It's just that these deaths were caused by wands and not guns.
And the last thing I would mention is the Bible. The Old Testament is nothing but war. The first half of Revelation scared the daylights out of me. Not to mention, the crucifixion.
Now what about music?? When I was a kid, Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest were both sued for wrongful death because some parents believed that there were "subliminal" messages in the music - or because they listened to that music - that caused their children to commit suicide. Both Ozzy and Judas Priest were cleared. And I can understand why the parents did it, they had to reach out in extreme pain and come up with the reason why their children were dead. The kids probably didn't confide in their parents, or they didn't recognize the signs. In their pain of losing their children, they had to blame somebody and they chose to target of the music their children listened too.
This prompted the PMRC...Parent's Music Resource Center. An organization organized by a bunch of Congressmen's wives with too much time on their hands. They wanted to ban certain types of music, but since they really couldn't do that, they went for labeling records. Luckily, I had a Mom that resented being told what music she should allow her kid to listen too. I'm sure if she listened to Guns N Roses' Appetite for Destruction that I got when I was 14, she might of thought differently. But then again, I was too sheltered to even know what those lyrics meant until I was an adult. But she ignored the labeling on the records, because she knew me well enough to know that it wouldn't effect me. And they got REALLY ridiculous. Def Leppard's album cover for "Pyromania" - and the name of the record, induced kids to go out and commit arson (really?). Bon Jovi had to change the cover of their Slippery When Wet album because the original was too sexually explicit. It really wasn't, but that's the control that they wielded back then. If the PMRC rejected something, the record companies jumped. They eventually went away. And people still listen to Ozzy, Judas Priest, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi (namely me) without inciting violence or suicide.
You cannot keep violence out of what children see, read, or listen too. It is everywhere, including popular children's literature. How can you control what violence there is on TV, in movies, video games, books, and music for adults when there is so much in the classics that were written for children?
No comments:
Post a Comment