Blood, Blood, Gallons of the Stuff

In trying to figure out how to approach this topic, I thought about to what extent I might feel desensitized to violence. For this, the most immediate medium that came to mind was television, largely because Netflix was one of the greatest things to happen for my spring semester. Right up there with knitting, which is also sometimes rather violent.

First, there's Law and Order SVU. For those of you that live under a rock and have never seen it, go check it out immediately. It's pretty great. That being said, the cases can get a lot more brutal than most of the crime shows out there. Despite this, the show doesn't leave me cringing in horror when I watch it. I'm fascinated by the way that the characters handle the atrocities being committed, and the degree of terror innate in the rapes, murders, etc. featured in the show doesn't end up factoring into it as much.

Grey's Anatomy, on the other hand, has entirely the opposite effect on me. I always find the scenes of the surgeries to be highly unnerving, and most of the time I just flatout avoid looking at the screen during these sequences. The sight of human skin being cut open and the organs being prodded at leaves me feeling rather grossed out, even though what's going on is 1) noticeably fake and 2) not really violent, just graphic. Watching all of the organs being moved around and the blood spurting is just... jfsdfkjdsfds. It freaks me out.

I think that this is the distinction that affects how I handle violence in media. It might just be that I'm a very visual person, but the description of something horrifying doesn't really affect me that much, while the sight of something much more mundane does. When it comes down to it, this kind of attitude toward violence is probably responsible for things like the glorification of wars that Kathleen mentioned yesterday. It's easy to talk about violence and not be affected, but the minute that photos or videos of what actually going on hit the public eye, perception of the events changes.

In a way, I actually think that making more visually violent acts appear in the media, we can more deeply link the ideas of violent acts with the reality of what they are. By being exposed to it, we're not becoming desensitized; really, the opposite is occurring. Or maybe I'm just being ridiculous and overlooking psychotic homicidal children that are being created by violent video games and television. I kind of doubt that, but you never know. The moral guardians might be onto something, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I hope you've taken something away from that, or maybe have something to add. I completely encourage commenting to start a more in-depth discussion on this subject, and that really applies to all of our topics. John will be back tomorrow to wrap this week up, and I have it on good authority that there may be an additional post on this topic coming. Until next week, have a happy June.

Accessibility and Such

I think the main problem with how desensitized our youth is, when it comes to violence,  how accessible it is. Let’s face it: violence in entertainment has been around for forever. But today, you can download it whenever you want and we just don’t really think anything of it at this point.

Kelsey covered the medium everyone seems to be most concerned about, video games. This is a big one. This is the one all the plastic surgery fixed, suburban mothers whine about all the time. And while it is a big issue, I don’t think those same mothers think much of it when they go home and watch the new episode of Grey’s Anatomy or when they buy their kids the second book of The Hunger Games.

Violence is pretty much everywhere. In the news, in your daytime Soaps, in that new book you picked up that everyone is saying you just have to read. It’s everywhere. That’s the problem: we are, as a generation, getting a lot more used to it. I mean, some of Shakespeare’s greatest scenes were fight scenes but you couldn’t download them in 5.6 seconds in 1520, could you? Today, you hear something on the news about a shooting or you want to know who died in this week’s episode, you can figure it out in pretty much no time. We have all the information someone could imagine wanting in a few clicks. That is really scary. Out of all the people I asked for opinions on this, I think the one quote that sums it all up is: “Convenience is a double-edged sword (which is a perfect metaphor in this context).” (Taylor, grade 11)

Another problem I thought about a lot during the outlining of this topic was: I think a lot of the times the media over glamorizes violence so that we like it. Because they aren’t going to produce something you won’t buy. So, is it our fault that it’s everywhere then? I will say, we as humans seem to almost thrive on violence in our entertainment world. Like, the gorier it is, the more we all flock towards it. I can't say if that is a result of overexposure or over-glamorization or just human nature. No matter what though, I think people blaming this big bad looming presence we call 'the media' for our desensitization is a little odd, seeing as they only give us what we are willing to pay for.

This post was extremely short and it sucks because I have so many opinions on this, but I do not want to over work this topic because I think it has to potential to be very clear and direct.

Kathleen, I cannot wait to hear what you have to say tomorrow. Hope everyone has a nice and safe Memorial Day!