Volume 4, Issue 1: January - February, 2003

Contents Cover Story     Doctored Documents Articles     Perspective     Sue’s Review     Poem     Toon Features     Buzz     News Links     Redirect

Sue’s Review by Susan Wishnetsky, Treasurer, ASFAR Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence Gerard Jones, 2002 in paperback   in hardcover Jones, Gerard.  Killing monsters : why children NEED fantasy, super heroes, and make-believe violence.  New York : Basic Books, 2002.   “The first casualty of any war” writes Gerard Jones, “is truth.”  In this country, we love to portray every social issue as a “war on” something or other.  These ideological wars usually seem to turn out badly for everyone, but the damage is seldom laid out for all to see.  The truth is drowned out by the drumbeats.   In July 2000, officers of six prominent medical associations crafted their “Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children,” subsequently endorsed by both houses of Congress, which read in part The conclusion of the public health community, based on over thirty years of research, is that viewing entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values, and behavior, particularly in children.   The politically-correct attitude was thus codified by a small group of physicians and a host of politicians eager to jump on the bandwagon.  Although many members of these medical associations disagreed with the joint statement, and there was plenty of research supporting the opposite view, it wasn’t surprising that politicians and prominent psychologists would now shy away from criticizing the “war” on media violence.  Even those who know better—who know the truth—realize that it’s safer to stay on the side of “political correctness.”  In a war, as our president has said, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.”  That is why it took a former action cartoonist to search out the truths that would otherwise have remained unspoken.   Jones has indeed done his homework, bringing together a wealth of information which severs the supposed link between violent entertainment and violent behavior.  He interviews parents, kids, and experts on the role violent fantasies play in our lives.  He sheds light upon the misleading facts and statistics that are bandied about in the news.  He investigates the histories of kids believed to have been made violent by the movies they watched, the music they listened to, the games they played.   But the strongest argument in Killing Monsters is that of simple common sense.  One parent who had denied toy weapons to her son describes how the clarity of common sense suddenly broke through all the propaganda she had accepted for years: All of a sudden,” said Gina, “it hit me that all this time I had been confusing fantasy and reality! This is a little boy with a plastic sword, and I’m telling him, ‘This might make you into a violent person.’ Think how confusing that must be when you’re little. Instead of hearing a parent say, that’s a toy, that’s fantasy, there’s no real danger in it, you have complete power over it, he’s hearing you say, that scares me, that’s more powerful than you are, that’s going to turn you into a killer!”   Violent play, when accepted by adults, can give kids a sense of control over lives which are largely out of their control.  Jones interviews kids who tell how violent lyrics and images let them know that they weren’t the only ones who felt angry or violent, as they did, making them feel less outcast and alone with their feelings.  One psychologist who wasn’t afraid to speak out, Dr. Helen Smith, maintains that perhaps kids aren’t exposed to enough fantasy violence: Teachers and parents say, sit still, be nice, cooperate, and they don’t give kids any opportunity to play with the aggressive feelings that come up for them .... With all the emphasis in our schools now on getting kids in touch with their feelings, the scary feelings like anger are just kind of wished away. A kid says, ‘I feel like I love you’ and we say ‘Awww.’ He says, ‘I feel like I want to kill you’ and we say ‘No you don’t!’ So a kid runs into some real conflict in life and he feels this rage coming up in him and he doesn’t know what to do with it.”   Not only do children learn to suppress their true feelings, they learn that they’re bad and wicked for having those feelings at all.   The book focuses on kids; adult fans of fantasy violence are rarely mentioned.  So now I’m curious about adults’ enjoyment of violent entertainment, whether adults get the same benefits from it as children do.  Adults, too, experience enfuriating situations in life, but they have much more control over their lives—and therefore much greater ability to deal with and eliminate the causes of their anger—than children currently do.  Jones has great sympathy for the powerlessness of kids and understanding of the rage and frustration they feel because of it, but the idea that giving kids more actual power—more rights and freedom, more opportunities and choices—would reduce the frustration and anger they feel ... well, that idea was outside the scope of this book, I suppose.   The book is well-written; its research is well-documented.  For a lone voice of dissent against this “war” on media violence, author Gerard Jones has done an excellent job.