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The Truth is right under your nose
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For years
the media have been brainwashing us into thinking that movies, video games and T.V are to blame for child violence, but the
truth of it is violence is everywhere. It’s in magazines, books, music and in the streets and is basically unavoidable.
Yet the media and most parents insist on seeing beloved video games and horror films as the cause. The truth is that a bigger
and less obvious influence of violence has been around for centuries, read to our children at young ages
as bed time stories, training them to think violence against evil people is some how alright – yes, fairy tales. These
innocent, good versus evil tales of woe aren’t quite as good hearted as we always assume. They may contain a wronged
princess whose saved by a dashing, brave and valiant prince, but when is it right to allow your child to think they can murder
or slay someone because they could be evil? Is it right to teach your child they can steal and vandalise property as long
as it’s from someone who’s either committed a crime or considering breaking the law? Fairy tales are designed
specifically for children and drilled into their heads at an early age. Isn’t it more likely that these are the cause
of undesirable behaviour by children? Have we become blinded and fooled by our childhood dosage of fairy tale violence and
distorted moral implications? The question is when reading the following can you now see what fairy tales really teach us?
Goldilocks and the three bears
– Three friendly, harmless bears living in a little house together, go on a walk to allow their porridge to cool down,
but when they arrive back their porridge has been eaten, their chairs broken and there’s
a gold haired little girl curled up in their bed. Goldilocks wakes up and runs away.
The lesson here is that it’s acceptable to break into someone’s house, eat their food,
break their property and sleep in their bed as long as you don’t get caught. In this case no where in the story does
it even imply that the bears are dangerous, violent or ‘evil’ in any way, but yet it teaches us that it’s
okay to vandalise their home. This also implies that it’s alright to destroy animals homes and things because their
only animals. So not only does this tale provoke stealing and vandalism but it incites animal mistreatment.
All of these stories teach children that it’s okay to steal, vandalise or murder people if they’re said
to be ‘Evil’. So how come fairy tales aren’t to blame for children’s violent outbursts? What are we
really telling our children? Are we telling them that violence against ‘bad’ people is okay in any case even if
their wrong doings haven’t been proven? Or are we telling children that stealing and destruction of property is okay
as long as it’s against a ‘bad’ person or an animal.
Ask your self, what is this teaching your child?
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I’ve
found a few examples of stories that send across corrupted moral lessons and
provoke violence in children because of their content.
Jack and the Beanstalk – A simple, harmless tale about a boy who sold his cow for some magic beans, right? Not quite, Little Jack
disobeys his mother by swapping their faithful cow for some silly magic beans, which supernaturally transform into
a beanstalk. Jack climbs up the stalk, trespassing on private property and steals from the giant who lives at
the top. At the end of the story Jack murders the giant and lives happily ever after with his mother.
The moral here is that is basically acceptable to steal and kill, providing it’s done to a ‘bad’
Person. Another thing I feel deserves questioning is the fact that no where in the story does it prove to us that the giant
is actually evil, we’re told that he eats little children, but where in the story does he actually do that and if Jack
had to grow the beanstalk and climb up it to get to the giant, how is the giant supposed to get hold of children to eat them?
It also conveys the message that people who are some what different than ourselves are either dangerous or evil and should
be treated differently and more violently. When considering this the giants probably just peeved at the fact someone’s
running round his house stealing things.
Hansel and Gretel
– A story about two lost children who get tricked by an evil witch? Again, not quite. Hansel and Gretel are abandoned
by their father in the woods when both money and food become tight. There they come across a gingerbread house owned by a
wicked witch who tries to eat them, but instead gets cooked herself. The children find there way home and live happily
ever after with their father.
The story theoretically should cause us to condemn the parents for deserting their children in the woods, but
in fact the moral implies that it’s okay for your parents to abandon you in the woods without food or shelter just because
money’s a little stretched. The fact that at the end the family get back together and live happily ever after gives
the impression that everything’s rosy and dandy, when in a real situation the parents would undoubtedly be condemned
and have their children housed with safe, caring foster parents. We all know fairy tales are designed to end happily, but
in this case that projects to our children that it’s how all things end, even in extreme situations like this. Again
it also shows children that killing ‘Evil’ witches is not a punishable offence or crime, which it an outright
lie.
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The
truth is some fairy tales teach children the exact thing the media are blaming video games and violent movies for. To most
people fairy tales are innocent little stories we were told as children but in most ways there actually harming both us and
our children by teaching them as long as the person is ‘evil’ you can hurt and mistreat them. These stories basically
teach children this kind of behaviour is acceptable and that other similar rules are just as viable to be broken. Instead
of focusing our blame and criticism on minor influences such as T.V, video games and violent movies we should try and look
at the bigger picture. If we forbid our children to experience the influence of violence in certain forms then expose them
to a similar but more hidden kind, we’re teaching them how to get round the rules and bend the laws rather than breaking
them outright. Another point to consider is how does this effect how they see people, does this cause children to be afraid
of everyone who contains traits that could be interpreted as evil in anyway, should we be teaching our children to judge someone
on their appearance and be afraid?
What kind of message are we really teaching our children
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