Unconsciously damaged

In my Gender, Race and Class in the Media class we watched a video about WWE wrestlers and the awful thing it has become. Boxing and wrestling used to be a sportly healthy 'fighting' sport. Where in this horrible depiction of wrestling, even tho its fake, it portrays brutal, embarrassing and degrading kinds of fighting even towards woman. Examples being men kissing or licking other men's butts, name calling, making fun of Gay's, girls told by men to take their clothes off and act like dogs that they can just beat around and control. It really made me sick to my stomach.

After watching this i began to think about the people watching shows like these and other shows with unnecessary brutality. How is this affecting kids? Can they really understand the difference between reality and fantasy? Children are so impressionable, seeing the violence especially portrayed in a good light by WWE makes them see those violent wrestlers as hero's and that they should be like them not realizing that they are trained professionals and its all a show. Kids and even teens don't understand the danger of this. Violence on TV isn't any better.

The National Institute on Media and the Family says,

~In the USA an average of 20-25 violent acts are shown in children’s television programs each hour

~Violence (homicide, suicide, and trauma) is the leading cause of death for children, adolescents and young adults, more prevalent than disease, cancer or congenital disorders (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006).

~61% of children’s television programs contain violence and only 4% have an anti-violence theme

Reading that made me really sad, not really knowing just how much kids are subjected to violence not necessarily physically but the emotional damage it does, Violence does effect Children it always will. Children see the characters they love on TV and they wanna be them, who doesn't? but when 61% or Children's TV programs contain violence, how many characters are children wanting to imitate who portray that violence?

What can we do? Children and teens will never not be affected by it. Even worse they will become desensitized to it and even think that is they answer to problems. Although parents can re-ensure that most of that violence is not real and talk to their kids about being safe.. it still isn't really enough. There are things out there that can help, using V-chips, cable, TV boss, or satellite controls to mediate what your kids can and cant see. Those can be really helpful but sometimes aren't in the price range a lot of families can afford. I feel the government needs to recognize how serious this is, and make things more attainable for more families. These children are the kids of the future! what kind of leadership will there be when kids are so numb to acts of violence? When it seems to be their way of problem solving? when homicide rates increase and increase...

Singlehood

I was thinking about the different TV shows I've watched in my lifetime and decided to look at them and how single men and women were portrayed. I found that there were both good and bad examples of them. Really throughout history it seems as woman were defined by their husbands/boyfriends, that they were in a kind of control by their partners. Women were the caretakers and housekeepers never pursuing their own ambitions, completely unselfish. Men took care of the family financially and didn't participate much in house keeping, in order to focus on their goals. Also growing up woman had a lot of pressure from family and even society to get married young, settle down and have a family, pursing their career wasn't really heard of for many women. Opposite for men, they could get married much older even after they've settled into their career.

As time has gone on things have changed to an extent, woman's rights, showing sexual liminality, Independence but in the media they are still highly portrayed as being dependent on men. Examples would be a show called Sex and the City, about 4 woman, one a columnist writing about sex and relationships. The show revolves around these career driven women in search for sex and the 'perfect relationship.' This show shows good and bad; the woman are going after their career hopes but there never seems to be a time when there not looking for Mr. Right. It puts off a portrayal that yes! women can have careers but where is their GUY, what do they have to do to satisfy them? One of my favorite shows, Grey's Anatomy, a show about a group of interns, one mainly Meredith Grey a very smart doctor trying to shay sharp in her career while juggling a crazy past history. I was very impressed by the women in the show who showed a great drive to get ahead in their career giving up other things and focusing on themselves. Even when a opportunity rose to go off with a man, majority of the time they were so excited about their career to think of something else. It was also one of the first few shows to have a lesbian couple out in the open following their hearts.

So there are pros and cons still in how women are portrayed but that separation is slowly opening. I only wonder if their will ever be a time where woman don't have the pressure from family and society,which is usually stimulated from the medias showing of women in need of men. Will it ever change or even switch roles? and if it does will it be accepted? Because we are almost conditioned to think that's the normal thing to do, so will there be a negative response?..

The race struggle has been a part of America for as long as we know, and still today racial issues still happen. The media has played such a huge role in this area because nowadays we get so many ideas and opinions that we don’t necessarily agree with but almost start to believe or become accustomed to because we see it so much. In the newer generations(1990 to present), there haven’t been many race riots, violence and protests and there is no longer government sanctioned segregation that we see like there was in the past. Now the media still plays a role in downplaying African Americans as either high upper class or the complete oposite lower class, criminal and still under White Americans. In television for example, shows like The Cosby Show, a wealthy, classy family with minimal problems is portrayed, Whereas a show like Cops where the majority of the criminals are young Black wild men. Today television has become such an influencial object on societies thoughts and way of living. As result, we have almost natural assumptions about races and actions and whats appropriate and what is not. Therefore from these shows have placed an ideal that Blacks are lower class and to be feared. For example, walking down the street and two men approach you, a Black man and a White man. Which will we be more intimidated by? George Gerbner, a researcher who studies Violence on TV and its effects was worried that TV was creating unrealistic fears for society. So in reality,back to the example, both of the men are really equally capable of being a threat. But televisions image that Blacks are the common examples of crime puts the idea in our head that we should fear African Americans more creating an unconscious segregation in our minds. So my question is, if we are to truly become ONE as a nation to attempt real equality of races, how then will this ideal change?
Does the media realize the effect they have on society unconsciously? and does this mean shows need to change or show other races in a better light and not just focusing on the negative?..who knows..

Affects of TV on Children

Growing up, I was always outdoors, running around playing with friends and the family. Nowadays a majority of children sit inside with their faces glued to the TV screen. It seems that entertainment now always occurs having electronics involved. Children's face to face playing has cut down a lot hindering the growing and learning to interact, talk and work with those around us. http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html# statistics says:

~two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day.
~kids under age 6 watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media a day, primarily TV and videos or DVDs.
~kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games.

Too much time is being spent sitting down and zoning out into unproductive TV shows and video games. This takes away from a child's physical activity and social strategies they learn in play with other friends. TV now also has limited modesty on what can and can't be on screen. Now not all TV is bad, there are many learning opportunities in some TV shows that can be productive but there are definite negative effects. It is very common in video games and a lot of TV shows to show sexual behavior, drugs and especially violence. This necessarily doesn't cause a child to become aggressive but it could also hamper a child's view on the world as being a scary place and not a place of adventure, learning and opportunities.