April 12, 2011 – “Glee,” rated TV-14. This show was on in the 8p-9p hour on Fox and according to online sources, is considered geared for ‘family audiences.’ On this particular episode, there was a scene of two 17-year-old girls in cheerleading outfits on a bed together, making out (passionate kissing on the lips, missionary-style embrace).
On one hand you could argue that yeah, there are lesbians in high schools and maybe it’s beneficial for helping girls who don’t know if they are or not discover themselves without shame, yet it seemed to me that the scene was simply pandering to be shocking and/or titillating, and seemed to be more about male fantasy and fetish than about actual ‘real life.’
April 13, 2011 – “Notorious,” rated PG, TV-PG. Bio channel, 4p-5p in the afternoon. The episode was called “Vanished” and was about a serial killer who killed at least three young women who had gone missing. The show aired a taped confession with the killer, where an interviewer asked him very specific questions about how he selected the victims and how he went about disabling and killing them, which the killer answered in detail and then further elaborated on as to what he did with them after that (including dismemberment).
This show had no disclaimer ahead of time warning that it was mature subject matter of a graphic, adult nature and may be unsuitable for some viewers, discretion advised. Yet later the same day I saw a show on Behind the Scenes: Silence of the Lambs, which was also rated TV-14, but it did have the disclaimer about ‘viewer discretion advised.’ And that show was not even what I would call that unsuitable for general audiences. It was just about movie-making, and most of the program showed the actors talking about the experiences of working on the project. Then there were some scenes from the actual filming as it occurred on set, but none of it was seriously graphic or horrific and all the blood was corn syrup and it was all very “movie-fantasy” as opposed to actual real life.
The Notorious episode, on the other hand, was essentially a primer for any young male to learn how easy it is to kill a woman and it provided a handy lesson in methodology. And since the method used by the killer was strangling, it demonstrated a quick, non-messy, no weapon required technique.
Kids learn what they live. I was never exposed to horrors of reality like this when I was a kid. And even though not every kid who sees it will decide to go kill someone, it does color their reality and perspective on things. It’s kind of like asking a kid what they want to be when they grow up: they won’t say “Astronaut” if they don’t even know that becoming an astronaut is a thing that people do. But since there is a lot of awareness now days that being an astronaut is an attainable goal for a career, some kids do in fact aspire to become astronauts, and some probably will achieve it.
The same goes with being exposed to details about killing. Not every kid is going to become a serial killer, but it might spark awareness, fascination and/or obsession in a kid who is not ready to receive that information yet. Just yesterday in the Seattle times there was an article about a 15-year-old boy who killed his mother because she took away his TV privileges for a disciplinary tactic over something. So he killed her, stabbing her 9 times with a knife. I wonder how he thought of that? I wonder what made him even realize that killing his mom was an option. Sure, there are troubled people who might figure it out on their own, but surely having so many graphic instances that detail to kids exactly how to perform stabbings and stranglings (and other things that can be done to women) can provide the visualization that is necessary for any impulse to develop into an action.
Knowledge about human dismemberment and visual images of gay sex are examples adult themes, not “family friendly” or PG-rated entertainment. We are exposing the adults of tomorrow to adult material today, even while they are still kids. The human brain doesn’t even reach full maturity until age 30 and yet we expect kids to be able to make sense of things that really take until a person is much older to understand in a healthy way.
You can tell a lot about the values of a society by how they live. Humans seem to be very focused on all that is depraved or unhealthy about society. We don’t really teach kids that growing up means knowing how to be magnanimous, healthy and wise. Rather, we expose them at ever younger and younger ages to the negative aspects of life instead of our amazing human potential. Crimes against women, girl on girl sexual behavior, and continuous portrayals of female bodies as objects of sexuality and depravity are mainstream pillars of entertainment media content. It’s sad that kids have to learn that so soon in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We are interested in your comments!