Reflective Essay #3
After reading through
some of my classmates’ blogs and pondering more about superheroes I came up
with the question, are superheroes great role models or influences for younger children?
I know in a few of our readings this question has come up and even in our class
discussions this topic has been talked about briefly. I came up with this
question or thought, because of all the violence that is put into superhero
comics, movies, etc. To me, I love superheroes and everything they stand for
but I think the violence maybe too much for younger audiences. In my opinion, I
think the fighting and violence causes problems for young children and it might
influence them to become violent because their favorite superhero is. I do not
think that superheroes should be rid of, I just think that children should not
be the targeted audience in the comics, books, movies, cartoons, etc.
As a child growing up, I
loved watching Batman and all the superheroes so much that I made it a habit to
watch them as much as possible. Most of the toys I had growing up were Batman,
Spiderman, or Superman. I also had several t-shirts that had superheroes on
them as well. I loved watching Batman and Robin so much that I acted out their
parts with my brother and my friends. We loved playing games that involved us
playing the parts of our favorite superheroes. At times we would get into it so
much that one of my friends actually got punched in his eye. The fighting that
is included in many of the superhero stories is what concerns me the most. Do
we want our children reenacting these fighting scenes that might get them hurt
or better yet allow them to think that behavior is acceptable? My point in this
paper is that I love superheroes, but I think we should not introduce our
children or any child to superheroes until they are older.
I think once children
are old enough to distinguish between right and wrong then we can bring
superheroes into their lives. At this point, we can teach them that what Batman
or Superman is doing is done for a reason and not just for fun. I think also
this would help our children to not be as violent as they get older. As I
stated before, I grew up loving superheroes, but cartoons and movies are a lot different
now than they were when we were little. I think to help reduce the violence
among children at a young age we need to cut it out until they are old enough to
understand. Superheroes play a big role in how most of us grew up, but the
violence and fighting is going to become a problem if we just let our children
watch it.
I like this point you bring up about violence because I have not heard of many people saying that superheros should not be introduced until an older age-so props to you Matt haha. I agree with what you are saying in a way, children love to imitate those who they look up to so this could be a cause for violence. But, I am not completely sold on the idea that watching superheros cause violence entirely-they might have a little affect, but I guess the answer is up to the parents of the children who watch superheros. Right?
ReplyDeleteYou make an excellent point. This is where good parenting can come in. I remember one time as a kid, we were playing Batman and one of us took two others and banged the heads together saying, "This is what Batman does". It obviously hurt, and it was an opportunity for parents to point out that the things you see on TV aren't always worth emulating.
ReplyDeleteI think that kids will fight with or without comics. That's all a part of growing up; I know my older sisers weren't acting out scenes from a movie when we would fight. I think as we mature we realize that physical violence is not an acceptable way to express ourselves, but when we're young we're still trying to figure that out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this post!
ReplyDelete