Category: Entertainment

Violent Media and Children

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I recently picked up a copy of Parent: Wise Austin, a free publication tagged as “The Journal for Thinking Parents.” It’s a fun publication with slightly more alternative offerings – like cloth-diaper reviews and Montessori school ads – than typical parents publications. The feature article in the March 2009 edition is “Dining on Destruction: Does Violent Media Harm Kids?” by Sugandha Jain. I admit, there is nothing new about this discussion. Basically it boils down to asking whether or not playing at “violence, gore, and antisocial behavior” has a negative impact on kids. The article is full of all sorts of statistics – how much violence kids are exposed to, levels of aggression by age group, what percent of aggressive kids become aggressive adults. But what really struck me in the article was the requisite “dissenting opinion” section.

The argument for violent video games was twofold. First that violence is a good thing. Chris Crawford, a video game designer, said that for young boys “everything about their psychologies is oriented around establishing their identities through physical conflict.” He believes that it is healthy for boys to acknowledge this violence and that “too many mothers, in particular, attempt to suppress this … and all they succeed in doing is robbing their boys of their ability to become men.” So apparently if I don’t like the idea of my son (no mention of my daughter) playing at killing people then I am keeping him from becoming a man? Or at least according to the game designer who I am sure must also have a Ph.D. in child psychology, right?.

My bigger issue was with the other argument for violent video games – that there is no evidence that links violent media and violent behavior. While I could dispute that argument, my main concern is that that’s not really the point. For so long this whole debate has been framed as to whether or not playing violent video games will cause kids to join gangs or do a school shooting – as if those personal acts of violence are the only issue at stake. What I would rather see the debate focus on is in what ways playing at violence as children makes a person immune to systemic violence. Sure they may not pick up a gun and go on a rampage, but do they become more apathetic to others doing just that? Would we be perhaps more offended and outraged at the killing of innocents in the war in Iraq or the genocide in Darfur if we were not so accustomed to doing such things in the nursery so to speak? Individual personal violent acts are somewhat rare in “polite” society (whatever that means), but condoning systemic violence is almost expected. Could that be the real legacy of violent media?

I’m not saying that I don’t struggle with this or that I think violent media should be banned. Just that I think the issue is far more complex and far-reaching than the arguments generally imply.

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Empowering Young Consumers

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So apparently Dora the Explorer is getting a makeover. I have a preschool daughter, so Dora is a tad ubiquitous around here. Even before we had ever allowed Emma to watch a single Dora episode she knew who Dora was. It’s commercial, it’s branding, but that’s the way it is. So I know I shouldn’t complain too much that Mattel and Nickelodeon announced recently that they will unveil a new tween Dora this fall, but it still bugs me. Of course they are going to milk the cash-cow for all its worth, but I’m a tad suspicious of this new manifestation of Dora.

Dora for the most part used to be a good preschool obsession. She went on adventures, she spoke Spanish, she used logical processing. I liked my daughter admiring this round, fearless, exploring chica. Then the powers that be introduced Dora’s cousin Diego and gave him all the cool adventures regulating Dora to various princess, mermaid, and babysitting “adventures.” And now this new tween Dora seems intent on solidifying gender stereotypes even further. While Dora’s new image is being kept under wraps for now, I found the teaser press release to be depressing. The main adjective used multiple times to describe the new Dora is “fashionable.” I’m sorry Mattel, but teaching kids to be fashioned obsessed consumers is not “empowering girls.” I’m sure it will sell well and make them lots of money, but lets cut the crap please.

But even as I write that I recognize the futility of asking a corporate entity to refrain from indoctrinating children into the cult of consumerism. But sometimes it would be nice to not have the world conspiring against my ideals.

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Shared Experience

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For Valentine’s this year Mike and I went to the Moulin Rouge sing along at the Alamo Drafthouse. For those of you not privileged to live in Austin, the Drafthouse is what all movie theaters should be – good food, good drinks, good movies (and often even better prefilm entertainment), and creative special events (like the Vampire Prom last fall, Lord of the Rings viewing marathons complete with meals at all seven hobbit dining times…). So we made it a date and headed to the theater for a night of freedom, beauty, truth, and love (complete with theater supplied props like strobe-light diamond rings and green fairy glow sticks). And I can honestly say I haven’t had that much fun in a long time.

First I have to say that Moulin Rouge is one of my all time favorite movies. A deconstruction of how reality and art inform and subsume each other complete with soundtrack – what’s not to love? I shamelessly say that I not only know the words to all the songs by heart, but I’ve worn out three (yes three) CDs of the soundtrack. But my point here is not how much I love the movie, but to reflect on the viewing experience.

When I first saw it eight years ago, I had no clue what to expect. I knew it was an artsy film and when people would talk about it they inevitably asked (in whispers) if I knew what “voulez vous couchez avec moi ce soir” meant. The theater I saw it in was filled with almost exclusively teenage girls – all there because of the popularity of the Christina Aguilera version of “Lady Marmalade.” So I watched the movie utterly mesmerized and sat in stunned silence as the credits rolled and the teens around me started chatting and saying what a stupid movie it was. I heard the same response repeatedly in the weeks to come – “stupid movie, “I didn’t get it,” “it’s not even a good musical.” They didn’t get what they expected to see – a film/musical/love story that fit the normal constraints of those genre – and so their response was rejection and ridicule.

I didn’t have a chance to see Moulin Rouge on the large screen again until this past week at the sing along. This time the theater was full of devoted fans – those of us who have watched the movie and listened to the music so many times we know it by heart. We sang our hearts out at the top of our lungs in communal admiration of the film. This shared experience couldn’t have been more different from my first viewing of the film. This crowd knew what to expect – we were a community drawn together based on our admiration of the film.  Granted community bound by admiration of a particular movie isn’t necessarily substantial, but it was still nice to be a part of.

And I could go off about the pros and cons of likeminded community. Is it good to surround ourselves with those exactly like us? How does such encouragement help us grow? Or do we retreat into ourselves if we aren’t pushed to engage the Other? But honestly, it was just nice to experience that moment in time. To enjoy it and notice how different it was from a previous experience of the same event. Silly perhaps – but it was nice to find pockets of communal oneness.

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Making Justice Sexy

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The new U2. Awesome timing. Great song. Thank you Bono for kicking the world in the butt and telling us to put on our boots and get to work. There are days when hope seems real.

Get On Your Boots

Future needs a big kiss
Winds blow with a twist
Never seen a move like this
Can you see it too
Night is falling everywhere
Rockets hit the funfair
Satan loves a bomb scare
But it won’t scare you

Hey…Sexy Boots
Get on your Boots
Yeah…

Free me from the dark dream
Candy bars, ice cream
All the kids are screaming but the ghosts arent real
Heres what you gotta be
Love & community
Laughter is eternity if the joy is real

You dont know how beautiful
You dont know how beautiful
You are…
You dont know
You get it do you
You dont know
How beautiful you are…

If someones into blowing up
Were into growing up
Women are the future
All the big revelations
Ive gotta submarine
Youve got gasoline
I dont wanna talk about wars between nations
Not right now

Sexy Boots
Get on your Boots
Yeah…
Foxy boots

You dont know how beautiful
You dont know how beautiful
You are…

Sexy Boots
I dont wanna talk about wars

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound
My God Im going down
I dont wanna drown now
Let me in the sound

Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound
Let me in the sound

Get on your Boots
Get on your Boots
Yeah…

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Faith and Hope

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Last night we finally got around to watching the movie Children of Men. It was one of those movies we had meant to see when it came out, but given that we hardly ever watch movies anymore that never happened. But in my beached whale on couch stage, Netflix has come in quite handy. I thought the movie itself was engaging – a story of survival and possible hope in a post-apocalyptic world. The story of a world that has destroyed itself where no children are born and prejudice and violence reign of course provided good social commentary for where we are headed as a world today.

But what I found almost more interesting was a short documentary feature included on the DVD. The Possibility of Hope explored the themes of the movie and how close they are to our realities today. Commentary for this feature was provided by philosophers like Slavoj Zizek and writers like Naomi Klein. While the title of the piece implied something vaguely hopeful, I found it to be overly pessimistic. As they presented it, the world is so far past the breaking point that there is little chance for recovery. As some of them put it, even if everyone started to care about issues like the environment, poverty and globalization it wouldn’t matter at this point since we are so far gone. Then they claimed that getting everyone to care would be impossible anyway since caring for others just runs against the grain of human nature. Those who think otherwise were mocked for seeking a fairy tale Utopia. Of course the whole thing ended on a rather cheezy note of – “but we all should continue to have children because maybe they can provide some hope.”

Honestly this is one of those attitudes that I encounter often and that I have issues with. No I am not naive enough to believe that every single person on the planet will one day stop being selfish or that salvation/utopia will suddenly appear if they did. But at least within the bounds of my Christian faith, I don’t see compassion as entirely impossible. Perhaps we are inherently selfish creatures (or perhaps that is partially the conditioning of our individualistic culture), but the whole point of our faith is to be transformed. To assume that just means some magic wand takes care of the economic exchange of sin and forgiveness but does nothing to change who we are as people is a cheap and hollow faith in my opinion. If our faith is real then we should have no problem at least trying to put into practice commands like – “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Perhaps outside of religious faith compassion is too hard or a utopian dream, but within the Christian faith it forms the foundation for how we should be interacting with others. So I can’t buy that things can never change or that all hope is lost, not if I still believe in the transforming power of Jesus in people’s lives.

Unfortunately it is often Christians themselves who fight having to care at all. It is within the church that I hear the most prejudice, nationalism, and individualism. Excuses like – “but Jesus said the poor will always be with us so therefore we shouldn’t help them” to “I don’t want to condone sin (or their religion) if I given them aid” are often on the tip of our tongues. Others point blank state that their family’s needs will always come first (needs being a relative term in that sentence). And while the numbers who are anti-environmental are thankfully dwindling, it is still hard to find those who think that they personally need to make sacrifices to care for our world and its inhabitants.

In other words the one place compassion can and should be rampant is just as self-centered as the rest of the world. Even so, I don’t think this is a reflection of the way things have to be. Call it idealism or call it hope, I’m not ready to give up on my faith and the commands of the Bible that easily. I think the church (as in the body of Christ) can be transformed and be moved to love others. I don’t think all hope is lost or that we should just give up and retreat even further into ourselves. I actually do think there is the possibility of hope that things can be better – in both large and small ways. This is the naive utopianism that the documentary was mocking, I know. But it is part of what I’ve discovered I have to believe if I am serious about my faith. What’s the point of it anyway if I’m not following and trusting Jesus?

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Across the Universe

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To continue in the theme of recent posts…

I recently got around to watching Across the Universe. I know the movie was all the buzz last Fall, but I don’t get to see many movies these days so I waited until it finally arrived through Netflixs. I loved the whole concept of a musical journey through the sixties to the soundtrack of the Beatles, I just wasn’t expecting it to be so depressing. It had the obligatory happy ending of course, but the general message was “live for yourself because trying to make a difference in the world is pointless.”

The film portrayed the existential struggles of youth, the crisis of the Vietnam war, and the struggles of the civil rights movement during the sixties in ways that deliberately spoke to their exact parallels today. On one level it is disturbing how little has changed since then. The characters sought to bring change to their world and failed. As the characters sought unity they found selfishness. As they sought spiritual answers they met the hollowness of consumerism. As they attempted to serve something bigger than themselves they found despair, madness, and death. As they sought to work for peace they found apathy, hypocrisy, and corruption. In the end they just had to give up on those passions and causes and find contentment for themselves. To put it in Beatles terms – “And, in the end, the love you take/ Is equal to the love you make.”

I found the message depressing and disturbing mostly because I’ve heard forms of it over and over again from the church. “Don’t bother trying to change the world, you won’t make a difference anyway.” “Just focus on your own relationship with Jesus, that’s all that really matters.” “There is so much evil and corruption out there that you can’t ever really change things.” And the implicit message – “see none of this is new, people have tried to work for peace and justice before and they failed, so just grow up and get over it.” I’m sick of these messages. I’m sick of the defeatist, “all things conspire against you so just give up” attitudes. What will it take for people to actually have hope?

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Thoughts on Lost

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So I feel like I should give some sort of commentary on the new season on Lost.  I’m just happy to jump back into the story.  I like following a mystery over a multi-year period as it just gets more and more complex.  And this season has thrown in twists that question any assumptions we have made so far in the series.  So a few things that have stood out to me this season –

So far the show has been a story of salvation/redemption.  The characters face the demons of their past and generally reach some sort of healing.  (well, then they die and “leave” the island…)  So I found the language used in the recap episode which asked “will the survivors be saved” intriguing.  They didn’t use the tern rescued, but saved.  But as we now see flash-forwards into the future, the demons remain for some.  I’m interested to see how this develops.

What is primary on my mind right now is the significance of the new character Charlotte Staples Lewis.  The writers of this show do not make throw away literary references, so the blatant C.S. Lewis reference has to mean something.  We already have a John Locke and a D. Hume.  And when Ben showed up using the name Henry Gale, any Wizard of Oz fan knew him to be a fake (although I found Ben’s acceptance of Sawyer nicknaming him Yoda this past week amusing).  So what’s the Lewis reference?  Is it a Narnia alternate world reference?  A Great Divorce purgatory reference? (which I know the producers have denied)?  A Screwtape allusion?  Or just a religious or academic idea?

Any ideas?

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Ideological Luddites

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I’ve written often here about ethical consumption and the need to be aware of what we are supporting with our shopping habits. Too often we don’t care that women were abused in the factory that made our shirt or that children were kept in slavery to produce our chocolate. I have a real problem with treating people as objects to be manipulated, used, and destroyed – especially when there are things that could be easily done to make things better. But sometimes even I question the ideology behind some of these discussions.

For example, I am not a fan of hating technology because it is technology. I don’t think that scientific development is necessarily evil and that all technology should be feared (and shunned). Sure it changes the way the world functions, but I’m not the type that sees change as inherently evil. I’m not a fan of rampant advertising from companies that oppress their workers and try to convince people that the acquisition of more and more stuff is the goal of life, but I don’t boycott all TV, Internet, magazines, and billboards in order to avoid any exposure to such things.

Same with things like Facebook and blogging. Sure I am putting my personal information “out there” for any ad exec (or the US government) to access and target me with, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the benefits of those mediums (for more on the uber-capitalistic big brother nature of Facebook check out this article (HT – Will Samson)). I’m not a fan of all aspects of the system, but I still participate it in (similar to how I engage with church or politics).

I have a hard time accepting the luddite tendency these days to condemn all forms of technology and media because they have the potential to be used by corrupt and controlling forces. I’ve more of a mind to embrace that which I enjoy, ignore that which is stupid, and oppose that which I see as wrong. I’m not a fan of the constant culture of advertisements we see, but I would rather be critically aware of the system instead of rejecting the entire system. I don’t mind the way something like Facebook works because I expected no less from them. If I tell the world that I like XY and Z products/bands/movies I am under no delusion that that won’t be used by someone somewhere. But I do have the choice to not allow advertisements on my own blog if I don’t want them there. I choose what I want to participate in. (although I do find Gmail ploy to scan my emails so they can target me with “Pastor Ringtones” and “Girlpower Marketing” creepy and annoying).

So to bring some sort of conclusion to my ramblings today (which I hope make sense outside my head although I am beginning to doubt that), I would just say that ideology must be coupled with critical thinking. To me there are differences between committing actual evil, encouraging the support of evil, and the potential to commit evil. And for all I prefer to help redeem the system instead of reject it altogether.

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More Harry Potter

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I just stumbled across this article/interview with J.K. Rowling in which she discusses the religious imagery in Harry Potter 7. In it she confirms that the tombstone quotes epitomize the entire series (confirming my theories) and that Harry was a Christ figure overcoming death (sorry Dr. Jacobs).

I thought it was an interesting read and I liked her concluding quote – “I go to church myself,” she declared. “I don’t take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion.”

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Pop Culture Interlude 3

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So as the Fall TV season gets underway, I thought I would post what pop culture offerings I’m looking forward to. We of course have to wait until February for Lost to return, but Heroes starts on Monday. Then there are the guilty pleasure reality TV shows – Beauty and the Geek (if only to fuel my ire at stereotypes in America), Survivor: China (watching the evangelical gal squirm about the Buddhism should be interesting), and apparently there is a new FoodNetwork show The Next Iron Chef (I’m a fan of all things Iron Chef). I’m sure we will watch a few of the new pilots as well, just to see what the buzz is about (let’s just say I am really curious about Bionic Woman). But I’m more excited about upcoming books and movies.

In (fiction) book news –

After nearly a decade the next book in the Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody will finally be released. The Stone Key is scheduled for a Feb. 2008 release although for now that release seems to be limited to Australia (not a huge deal in light of the internet, but the shipping costs are annoying.) If you haven’t encountered this widely popular (in Australia) young adult post-apocalyptic fantasy series yet, I highly recommend you give them a try (books 1-3 are available in the USA). Anyway, some of us have been waiting a long time for this one.

As for movies –

Coming out in just a couple of weeks is the film version of The Dark is Rising. I’m curious to see what they do with this. I enjoyed the book, but am not so sure how well it will translate to film.


For as much as I had a love/hate reaction to the book, I’m looking forward to the movie version of The Golden Compass.

A bit further out, but exciting nonetheless is the release of Prince Caspian in May 2008. I can’t even count the number of times I have read the Narnia books, so I enjoy seeing these made into (good) movies.

And also coming out in May 2008, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It’s Indiana Jones, it’s a must see, but honestly what’s with the name?

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