Desensitize Teens Wwf Essay, Research Paper
Children under 10 years of age should not be permitted to attend WWF events.
The World Wrestling Federation has been an increasingly debated topic in the United States. The reason for this is that the main audience is children, who are very impressionable. The consistently violent program, with little or no consequence to the actions, leads children to believe that the acts are cool , resulting in the mimicking of the moves by children on friends or siblings. In addition to violence, the WWF has become sexual and also disrespectful towards women. There have been events where women are beaten by men in the ring while wearing barely nothing. Beside the fact that children should not see these women in revealing leather outfits, the idea of hitting women is implanted in their minds. This paper will address these issues and many others, as well as offer possible solutions to the problem.
The main issue on the topic is the viewing of the program by young impressionable children. When teens or adults view the show, they are old enough to realize the humor in it because they have a distinct separation between fantasy and reality. However when small children view WWF events, they think that it is real and take it far to seriously. During the events, dangerous superhuman feats are often performed that seem safe and possible to children who don t know any better. Witnessing acts such as a man getting smashed in the head with a metal chair and not being injured gives children the idea that it really doesn t hurt and is alright to do. Fake punches are thrown at opponents as well as swift kicks to the groin or face, but the wrestlers continue to be all right. These violent images give children what I like to call the Peter Pan effect. Often when small children view the movie Peter Pan, even though it is a wholesome Disney movie, the children get the idea that they can fly and jump off the roof. This is an example of children not being able to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Most likely after watching a WWF event, a child is not going to jump off the garage, but he or she may perform violent acts on a sibling, which has recently become a problem. In July of last year, a 3-year-old Dallas boy died in his home after his 7-year-old brother accidentally killed him with a wrestling technique called the clothesline. You would think that this might alarm Vince McMahon, the owner of WWF, but he is far from worried. The company is projecting sales of $340 million for this year, up from $250 million in 1999. The stock market values the company, 83 percent of which is owned by the family, at more than $1 billion. At a time when television has lost the ability to seduce young male viewers with sex and violence, McMahon has crafted a luridly compelling new delivery system: comic, winking, with daredevil action, larger-than-life cleavage and soap-opera plots. This might be fine for teenagers or older kids, but small children should not be viewing such raunchy material at a young age. This had become the topic of a heated debate.
Jake “The Snake” Roberts was known for wearing a 12-foot python in the wrestling ring and laying it on the man he beat. Before Stone Cold Austin or The Undertaker, Roberts claims he was the wrestler who made the World Wrestling Federation popular starting in the 1980s. But Roberts believes wrestling on television now should be taken off the air. In a recent interview Roberts stated, The WWF has boosted its ratings by getting more bizarre, and starting to get vulgar. I think today, it’s X-rated as far as I’m concerned. And I’m ashamed. I’ve got seven children. I won’t let them watch it. Roberts believes wrestling on television today is teaching children to become violent and cruel. Today they teach you that right is gang warfare. They teach that racial is cool. They teach you disregarding authority is a good thing. If we teach our children that, what are we going to have 20 years from now? Although we have established that wrestling is not real, there have been some very real consequences. WWF star Darren Drosdoff went into surgery after being paralyzed below the waist from a neck fracture during a match. And five months ago, wrestler Owen Hart, known as “Blue Blazer,” died when he fell from the ceiling in a performance in Kansas City. Even though these occurrences were not part of the show, they attempted to make it part of it when it actually happened. They were saying anything to cover for it, which is a good idea so that children do not think they saw someone die, but the danger was unnecessary and should not have been an issue to begin with.
In the past 2 years, the WWF has become extremely degrading towards women. In the course of the WWF events, it is not rare that women are displayed in offensive ways. Almost always, the women are wearing extremely revealing cloths, and it is frequently skintight leather. Often the events include the women trying to intervene with the match and sometimes get beat up by either the male wrestlers or their female counterparts. The revealing outfits that the women wear actually reveal more than most kids should see at that age. I have witnessed a woman doing an upside down split in a tight leather body suit while another female had her head locked between her legs. The female star of the show Sable was recently the cover girl for Playboy. This would make the children want to see a Playboy now, even if they had no idea what the magazine was about. I think that qualifies as a sexual image that children should not view. Aside from the blatant sexual immorality, especially the inordinate cleavage, there have been a multitude of shows where women are beaten in the ring. Of course this isn t real, right? Wrong, the children believe that it is real and get the idea that beating women is ok. I doubt that any mother would want their child to grow up to be a wife beater, or ever harm a female in his life. The show promotes the idea that women are just as resilient as the superhuman men on the show and the men take no remorse for hitting the women at all. This is definitely not the kind of thing we want children to get implanted in their minds.
There have been numerous debates on the show being all right for the children to watch. A popular argument by defenders of the WWF is this: Children are allowed to watch newscasts; in fact they are even encouraged to. Often on the news there are several accounts of violence and almost always discussion about it. There are also some cases where sexual activity or related stories are discussed. Why is this any different than the WWF program? On TV, dramatic television, there’s rape, there’s murder, there’s all kinds of violence. There’s robbery. You don’t have robbery, rape or murder taking place in professional wrestling. That’s probably tamer than some of the other shows that are on nightly prime time television.
The argument goes like this: P1 If one doesn t want their children to view violence, then they shouldn t watch the news. P2 Your children do watch the news,C1 so you must want them to view violence on television. This is not a valid argument because the conclusion is too strong for the premises. Of course we don t want are children introduced to violence at such an early age, but there is a big difference between the violence on the WWF programs and the violence in newscasts. The newscasts do not frequently show the violent act being committed, but more often talk about it. If the act is displayed, it is far from encouraged on the program, whereas on a WWF program, violence is rewarded. The main reason why parents do not want their children watching these events is because they do not want their children desensitized at such an early age. If they are, they will loose the innocence that only children have. This poses a dilemma for parents. P1 If you take WWF off the air, then you will violent the first amendment. P2 If you don t take it off the air, then your children will become desensitized. P3 Either you take it off (exclusive) OR you leave it on. C1 Either you violate the first amendment (exclusive) OR your children become desensitized. Another option promoters of the WWF propose is that the child simply does not view the program. Obviously the person or persons defending this proposal has never had children. Forbidding a child to do something only makes them want to do it more. It a child is not allowed to watch WWF, he will find a way to view it on his own. There is not much of a chance that all his friends are also banned from the show, so he or she will just go to their house to view it.
The wrestlers on the program have become heroes to today s children. WWF icons such as The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin are by far the favorites. These actors are far from good role models for young kids. Having someone that you look up to shove his hands between his legs and scream SUCK IT! , which is Steve Austin s key phrase, does not display a good image or attitude for children. These are not positive role models and should by no means be encouraged. Attending these WWF events live poses an even bigger problem. Frequently the show travels city to city in order to get new places more into the show. Although there is no real chance that the show will not be allowed commence, young children should be kept as far from it as possible. Watching the show on TV is one thing, but seeing it live and uncensored is too much for any child to see. The show is also all ages, however they frequently curse, and you never know when one of the female wrestler outfits might slip off (which has happened). Although the topic of this paper is children under 10 should not view the shows, it should be more like children under 13. Ten years old is very young, and the maturity level between 10 and 13 does not change very drastically.
The most important question to ask on this subject is should parents have to go through all this trouble and worrying? Why should they be the ones to change? The show could easily rectify the problem, however ratings would no doubt suffer. The WWF has to realize that there are more important things than money when it comes to children. A parent s job is to raise their child with good morals and a positive mentality. The WWF is destroying the hard work of parents by giving children negative attitudes, violent behaviors, disrespectful ideas, and so forth. If the WWF does not care, the national television censors certainly should. There is no real reason why the program should be allowed to continue as is. If the censors made the show clean up its act and ratings dropped, does anyone really care? Eventually children would shy away from the program and it would loose its luster. This is the goal the society should be aiming for. The program is producing a generation of violence hungry children, who will be more likely to solve a problem with a fight that by talking it out. These guys are putting on a show for them. They are putting on a show. It is entertainment. It’s sports entertainment. Profanity, vicious threats of blood lust, cookie cutters and watermelons and folding chairs over people’s heads, men ripping women’s clothes off, people setting themselves on fire, the fire being put out with beer. This is fun? Anyone will admit that our society has changed over the last ten years, but have we come to a point where barbaric men engaged in pointless activities are the next generation s role models of choice? This new society is no doubt more adapted to violence, but that is only because shows like Raw is War are allowed to desensitize children at such an early age. The trend will continue as long as people are willing to stand by and let violence influence today s children. Measures must be taking to stop this before it is to late. The effects now may seem minimal, but when looked at over the last ten years or so, the difference is anything but negligible. The effects with amplify with time and project our children in to a violence ruled society.
Although violence on television seems to have pulled today s children into its grasp, it is far from difficult to pull them out of it. Society must band together to disrupt this downward trend and return kids to a life of morality before it is too late.
STEP I
Topic: Children under 10 years of age should not be permitted to attend WWF events.
Thesis: In today s society The World Wrestling Federations ever-growing influence on children is becoming a serious problem. Measures must be taken to stop this trend and reverse the damages already inflicted.
1. Johnson, Dwayne. RAW WRESTLING TODAY: RACY, SEXUAL AND WILDLY POPULAR. The Toronto Sun 29 Feb. 2000, final ed. : p36
2. FOX HANNITY & COLMES (21:00 ET). World Wrestling Federation. Narr. Napolitano , Andrew. FOX NEWS NETWORK. Transcript # 100801cb.253. 8 Oct. 1999.
3. Leland, John. Why America’s Hooked on Wrestling. Newsweek
7 Feb 2000 : Vol. 135 Issue 6, p46, 8p, 1 graph, 29c