Comic books were seen as entertainment for the youth. Many parents didnt see too many issues with their kids reading the adventure dime store books but as our society evolved, so did the characters and the stories that existed in comic books. Gruesome horror and gore were now being introduced, along with violence and crime. Parents began to worry that what their children were reading was somehow going to affect how their children acted in society. Today we have seen this type of concern with music, like that of Marlin Manson, and video games. Like the comics code, music and video game distributors are required to put stickers that indicate violence and adult content. This is something that prevents children from buying these products, without parental consent. Comic books were strongly censored because parents were becoming scared of their children and what they couldnt control. They felt that outside entities were going to turn their kids into criminals and violent offenders. They were afraid that if kids saw a man cut the head off of a woman, all of the sudden their child would think it was cool and decide that he/she could do it too. Parents simply have to understand that kids are not as dumb as parents think they are. Parents also have to do their job by making sure their kids know the difference between right and wrong. Stopping your child from reading or viewing pictures of someone killing someone else doesnt mean that they wont see or hear about it from some other force. You cannot shield every bad thing from your child, unless you want to spend a lifetime stopping movie production, advertisement, and new reporting. Parents must allow a child to experience the world with the understanding that reality is different from fiction and that what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. Children know how to make good decisions and its a parent's job to make sure they have the ability to understand, not to shield them away from the world.
Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
Comments