by Buddy Netter

Created on: January 04, 2009   Last Updated: December 26, 2009

How Violence in Entertainment Affects our Society

Although TV was still in its age of innocence when I started first grade, I can remember one recess when a group of boys ran up to where I was playing with a group of girls, threw a rope around me and said I was their prisoner. Kind of flattered to be included in their game, I trotted happily along behind them. They took me to a small enclave of trees and pulled the noose-styled rope up around my neck, while securing the other end of it around a tree branch. They decided that this prisoner must hang. I wasn't totally stupid and realized in an instant that I could actually die if I continued to go along, and thrust my arms through the noose and pulled the rope around my middle. I couldn't pull it any further down to free myself, but at least it was no longer around my neck. I continued to feel myself being pulled up from the ground towards the branch, and the rope was tightening, nearly cutting off my breathing and circulation. I was on my tippy-toes, feet barely touching the ground, when the bell rang and the children all went in from recess. Luckily for me, the teacher missed me and came looking for me. I don't know if someone told her where I was or if she just came looking on her own, but she found me and got me down. I returned to my classroom, and in the normal atmosphere, I didn't think too long about the fact that those boys actually meant to kill me. I don't know if even they realized what might have happened or if they saw the seriousness of their little game and what the consequences could have been.

My mother was, of course, horrified. She told me that these boys probably got the idea from watching Westerns on TV. She went on to tell me that people used to worry about comic books causing juvenile delinquency. How, I wondered could my "Archies" and "Mellie the Model" comic books cause that? Later, I came to realize that the boys were reading comics that showed people (usually women) getting their heads cut off and other gross things I had never even thought of.

I can remember when the movie Psycho came out. I was still in grammar school, but all the kids were talking about it and couldn't wait to see it. My sister and I, along with a neighbor girl rarely missed Saturday afternoon at the movies. It was cheap entertainment and a way for moms to get the kids out of their hair for a while, knowing they would be in a safe, public place. This time, as we made our way to the old theatre that stood in the

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>