Cartoon Violence
 

Recently, I decided to watch Batman Beyond. Don't ask me why. Anyways, I was sitting there, watching Batman beat up the Joker, and the Joker firing lasers and throwing bombs and such, and I became shocked. It just hit me all of a sudden.

All of a sudden it wasn't just Batman beating up a bad guy, it was Batman beating the poopie out of the Joker, while the Joker was trying to kill him. Look at a cartoon that's "violent." You have what - a Coyote trying to kill and eat a Road Runner? It's not just the Coyote hunting, trying to get a meal, it's an animal that's just getting the snot beaten out of him, either by himself or by a giant bird.

Now, as of now I don't have any problem with this. Batman is Batman is Batman, and Batman it will stay - Batman's awesome. However, I can relate to the naysayers out there that say that cartoon violence out there is... well, violence. If Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner were real, and Loony Toons was a live action show, it would be a sick portrayal of animal cruelty.

But as it stands, Wile E. can throw himself off of a cliff and have a giant rock fall on him and it's okay, because it's not really happening. Pepe Le Peu can chase down and force himself on another creature and it's fine. Even Sesame Street has its double standards - Oscar is an aggressive hobo, Cookie Monster has a severe addiction - so this thread's topic is this:

Do you believe that the amount of violence or stereotyping or whatever else that we have seen in cartoons desensitizes us? Does it make us more violent? Does it attribute to anything that's going on in the schools? Recent protesting has changed things in old cartoons that we used to know and love to "politically correct" versions - even though there's a level that's "too politically correct," are they on to something?

1) No,
2) No,
3) No,
4) No.

Cartoon violence has been around since the 1930s and it still hasn't caused any kind of significant upswing in any type of violence, be it children-instigated or otherwise. The thing that has changed has been coverage...violent episodes such as school shootings, political wanna-bes such as Jack Thompson, these things garner national attention currently because they are fads. Domestic violence and schoolroom beatings haven't changed or become more violent as a result of cartoon shows however.

It is confusing a potential symptom with the actual problem, which is people utilizing certain aspects of their life to justify and excuse a breakdown in social responsibility.

In Hansel and Gretel, an old lady tries to eat them, so they shove her in an oven.

Other fairy tales have similar levels of violence. I don't think these have corrupted our youth now or in the past, so no. I don't think cartoons have any effect like that either.

Faery Tales were originally written for adults, by the Brothers Grimm; Snow White featured Snow White being raped by the dwarves. Certain creative liberties have been taken since then. However, one may argue that today's youth is more focused on TV rather then Fairy Tales.

Both of your arguments are just skirting around my point. These stories were told to children long before TV entered the equation, and it doesn't matter what they were originally used for. They ended up being used to entertain and teach children, and it is widely accepted that they have no negative effect, despite the violence they contain.

Actually, fairy tales are older than the brothers Grimm. They only collected them. Before, they were like any regular folk tale; told to just about anyone. That said, violence has been part of human culture for ages. To say kids are desensitized to it just now would be to miss a lot of history in terms of the stories we have told our children over the ages. Perhaps a valid argument might be that they've always been desensitized by such tales, but that begs the question of how did it suddenly then become bad.

The fairy tale Hansel and Gretal was an allusion to how life was in the Medival ages - it was not uncommon for parents to abandon their children in the woods. It didn't affect the youth of that era because all the violence and immorality was happening around them.

So would it be wrong to assume that man takes note of what is around him and create art in different mediums? No - art is derived from inspiration, and inspiration comes from all around us. However, if we've created series full of violence, what does that say about man?

I've read several versions of Snow White, and I have yet to run across a version where she gets raped by the dwarves, unless you're citing Literotica as a source. I would like to see evidence backing up this notion that there was a serious version of Snow White where Snow White got raped. Believe me, The Tales of the Brothers Grimm are psychologically disturbing enough without the inclusion of a dwarven gangbang.

Back to the subject at hand, I feel that cartoon violence hasn't contributed to the amount of violence in the world; on the contrary, I feel that the problem is that there are more people in the world who have a hard time distinguishing between fantasy and reality. Combine that problem with poor impulse control and a lack of self-discipline, and violent behavior is bound to happen.

In order to prevent violent behavior, whether it is blamed on violence on TV, books, video games, or child abuse, society as a whole needs to be more supportive of recognizing and treating mental illness.

Even if the world banned all violence in all media and forced broadcasters to show bunnies and Teletubbies specials all day, violence would still happen. Violence is an unfortunate fact of life, and violent behavior witnessed in cartoons can be used as a teaching tool to help children understand and cope with violence in real life.

It'd say violence is an important component of man's personality. And I'd say that's true. Violence has been present in all societies, and in some (the Romans, the Aztecs, several Germanic tribes) been glorified to macabre extremes. Several others (the Greeks, to name one example) glorified it to lesser extremes, but did so all the same. It's always been everywhere, including our young.

let's not forget that violence is a part of us because just like it teaches how to do harm, it teaches us how to indentify harm (in the society view) and how to stop it because it's wrong.

So even Violence has it's up side.

Also, i -SO- talked (somewhat) about this here...

http://www.nuklearforums.com/showth...26amp%3B+jerry