The Trouble With Boys: A Little Violence Goes A Long Way

[Andy Chalk]

The Trouble With Boys: A Little Violence Goes A Long Way

A new book by senior Newsweek [http://www.newsweek.com/] writer Peg Tyre suggests that the backlash against violent media may actually be doing more harm than good as young boys are prevented from taking part in "perfectly normal" fantasies and play.

"Boys get expelled from preschool at four times the rates of girls," Tyre wrote in The Trouble With Boys [http://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Boys-Surprising-Problems-Educators/dp/0307381285/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234978508&sr=8-1]. "They are prescribed the lion's share of ADHD medication, they get most of the C's and D's in middle school, and they drop out of high school more than girls. Currently, only 43% of undergraduates in the United States are men." And just what is the trouble with boys? According to Tyre, a large part of it is the increasingly negative view society has toward their normal and natural aggressive fantasies.

"We might see them as doing something potentially dangerous," she told parents during a recent lecture. "But actually what they're doing is playing around with ideas of courage and valor, good versus evil, and teamwork. These are ideas we want to inculcate in our culture."

The real hysteria against violence began in the mid-to-late 90s, she said, brought about by a rash of high-profile school shootings like that at Columbine High School [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre] in Colorado. The zero-tolerance policy toward violence that emerged "sounds good in theory," she said, but can also result in activities as innocent as running and playing tag being discouraged.

"We're in this place - as a culture - where smart, right-thinking parents discourage their sons from violence," she told Ars Technica [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/02/keeping-violent-media-away-from-kids-could-be-a-bad-idea.ars]. "It's perfectly normal for little boys to think and talk around violence; it doesn't mean they're going to be violent."

"You're often playing a heroic role," she continued, explaining that videogames can be useful both as an outlet for violent fantasies as well as for stimulating mental growth. "I think that sense of heroism has been around since Greek drama. If you want to get into violence, look at The Iliad [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0136]. Homer's stories are very violent... but we regard them with less suspicion."

She admits that her opinion of games wasn't very high when she began the book, calling herself a "videogame hater" and saying it was "unsettling" to watch her sons play on the Xbox. "[It felt like] carnage in my living room," she said. "I didn't like that they played for hours at a time and that it was hard to get them to take a break... I was prepared to write a very negative chapter about video games." But when her sons suggested she try some gaming with them before making her final judgment for the book, she gave it a shot and found her opinion changing. She also noted that despite the conclusions of dramatic decrease [http://www.amazon.ca/Killing-Psychological-Cost-Learning-Society/dp/0316330116] in violent crime, including murder, rape and robbery, among young men.

"I sat down and played Halo [http://www.halo3.com] with them, and while I saw that it's very violent, I also saw that it's a very condensed form of violence," she said. "So I started to take a different view about video games: Maybe I should be a little less hysterical about them."


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[Frizzle]

The book as a whole aside, it's good to hear that she sat down and actually tried something before knocking it. Especially publicly. Now if we could only get people in 'power' to do the same thing, we might get somewhere. Good article.

 

[Doug]

Now if we could only get people in 'power' to do the same thing, we might get somewhere.

Now who's being deranged!

But yeah, I agree with the points raised. The human species IS voilent, thats how we evolved, especially males, who in early human tribes where the hunters/warriors, and where similar to the monkeys of their ancestory that had alpha males as pack-leaders.

To deny young men and growing boys a proper outlet for these feelings which, in a modern world are normally undesirable, will not destroy the feelings, only bottle them up until they snap and let loose with everything.

 

[Archaon6044]

The book as a whole aside, it's good to hear that she sat down and actually tried something before knocking it. Especially publicly. Now if we could only get people in 'power' to do the same thing, we might get somewhere. Good article.

hey i heard that Obama did grass in his time, is it so hard to imagine him sitting down and playing a couple of rounds of L4D or similar?

 

[Terazeal]

I agree with the idea of parents not controlling their children's every thought, but I hate the kind of people who assume things of people based on a combination of gender and age (e.g. young males are violent people).

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

I remember in first grade on the playground we weren't allowed to pretend we had guns of any kind, we couldn't play star wars or cops and robbers or anything like that, when we did we got in trouble, talk about mind control.

 

[joystickjunki3]

The book as a whole aside, it's good to hear that she sat down and actually tried something before knocking it. Especially publicly. Now if we could only get people in 'power' to do the same thing, we might get somewhere. Good article.

I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[Falseprophet]

I highly recommend Savage Pastimes: A Cultural History of Violent Entertainment by Harold Schechter, who generally supports the "violent entertainment as catharsis" argument. And his depiction of the events that passed as violent entertainment as little as a century ago: public executions were a fun day for the whole family, and the Grand Guignol stage shows of the late 19th century had gruesome special effects like bladders full of animal blood that would be ruptured in stabbing scenes.

Schechter gets in some real zingers too: "When I grew up in the 1950s, we played with all sorts of toy guns. Water guns, cork guns, cap guns, sticky dart guns, and we'd pretend to shoot each other over and over again at recess while our parents and teachers smiled. As I write this in 2004, a kindergartener in New York was recently expelled for pointing his finger at another student and saying 'BANG!'."

Grand Theft Childhood by Kutner and Olson is another take on violent video games. They purport to be one of the first unbiased studies (not funded by either the video game industry or any moral guardians or media watchdogs) into violent video games. Their study has limitations, which they freely acknowledge, but they're far more reasonable about their conclusions than most of these other histrionic commentators just trying to score points.

 

[Ronwue]

All that pent up anger and frustration of a boy in his teens has to go out somewhere. It would be unwise to say that boys aren't angry and frustrated in those years. I was but I never really showed it. I also did want to avoid conflict in any case. But I had outlets. I had the Adam's Family, Tom and Jerry and other "violent" cartoons. I had GTA, Quake, Doom, Half-Life and Counter-Strike. Kids today are not allowed to play those types of games. I however, have had a mom who was a housewife since she gave birth to my sister, till last year and we had a very close relationship. I know most families can't afford that, and parents (at least those who think enough) would not purchase violent games for their children. However compromises can be made, and if you're not prepared to take care of your hellspawn, it's better that you don't have them. There are enough unhappy children in this world already. There's absolutely no point in adding to the misery.

However I applaud the writer of the book. That sort of open minded person should be more frequent in society. Yet they are not. And worse, they are not taken into consideration.

 

[Locque]

Video games will be scapegoated until something new arises, perhaps a resurgence in roleplay games or something similar. There always needs to be a scapegoat, for some unfathomable reason, at least it's not as bad as it used to be, when all videogames were in fact programmed, boxed, and marketed by Satan with the intent of murdering your children's heads. I think the change in attitudes is more due to the fact that there are far more mature gamers now, than any maturity on the part of the media.

 

[tustin2121]

I like this book just from the article. There was another book I saw at the library that I knew I hated from the cover, "Video Games and Your Kids". It just ranted for 100 pages about how video games are breaking up families and making kids drop out of school. It was disgusting...

Yay for her and her book; we need more experienced people saying "video games are not to blame, you are!"

 

[meatloaf231]

Goodness it's nice to see someone with the ability to approach a situation with an open mind, and aren't afraid to reverse their views.

 

[Specter_]

"We might see them as doing something potentially dangerous," she told parents during a recent lecture. "But actually what they're doing is playing around with ideas of courage and valor, good versus evil, and teamwork. These are ideas we want to inculcate in our culture."

The real hysteria against violence began in the mid-to-late 90s, she said, brought about by a rash of high-profile school shootings like that at Columbine High School [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre] in Colorado. The zero-tolerance policy toward violence that emerged "sounds good in theory," she said, but can also result in activities as innocent as running and playing tag being discouraged.

"We're in this place - as a culture - where smart, right-thinking parents discourage their sons from violence," she told Ars Technica [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/02/keeping-violent-media-away-from-kids-could-be-a-bad-idea.ars]. "It's perfectly normal for little boys to think and talk around violence; it doesn't mean they're going to be violent."

This is the problem. Children today are raised to be pussies.
When I was bullied in school, I took it to the bully, have an argument or even a fight. It hurt sometimes but it made the bullies piss off.
Today as soon as someone says a bad word, kids run to parents or teachers and never learn to stand up for themselves.
I learned that when I want something to change I have to do something about it. Most times it's not easy, sometimes it's futile. But at least I try.

I believe that videogames (or the banning of them) is just a small part of the problem. Kids have to play outside, get into a fight, get bloody knees and noses and learn that not everything in life is free and easy to get.
You want something? Move your ass and get it. Don't run to mummy, fight for it yourself.

 

[gmer412]

The book as a whole aside, it's good to hear that she sat down and actually tried something before knocking it. Especially publicly. Now if we could only get people in 'power' to do the same thing, we might get somewhere. Good article.

He actually has a Wii. Probably not relevant, but his family plays video games.

 

[D_987]

The book as a whole aside, it's good to hear that she sat down and actually tried something before knocking it. Especially publicly. Now if we could only get people in 'power' to do the same thing, we might get somewhere. Good article.

hey i heard that Obama did grass in his time, is it so hard to imagine him sitting down and playing a couple of rounds of L4D or similar?

Yes - he owns a Wii...

Edit : Already posted.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

People forget that violence in some forms are perfectly natural. Humans are pack animals, akin to chimpanzee's and wolves. Wolves wrestle and bite each other, rarely drawing blood but sometimes do, as do Chimpanzee's. It's nature, deal with it.