November 27, 2005

The D&D Cartoon: "Parents Groups" Encouraging Kids to Conform to Peer Pressure

This look at the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon from the 1980s includes some important observations about the damage that "parents groups" and other lobbies can do when they work to insert political messages into the shows children watch. In the case of this show, the message was that kids should conform to the views of their peers. And if they don't, they should suffer for it.

Cartoonist Phil Mendez relates what happened with the Dungeons & Dragons show:

The kids were all heroic — all but a semi-heroic member of their troupe named Eric. Eric was a whiner, a complainer, a guy who didn't like to go along with whatever the others wanted to do. Usually, he would grudgingly agree to participate, and it would always turn out well, and Eric would be glad he joined in. He was the one thing I really didn't like about the show.

So why, you may wonder, did I leave him in there? Answer: I had to.

As you may know, there are those out there who attempt to influence the content of childrens' television. We call them "parents groups," although many are not comprised of parents, or at least not of folks whose primary interest is as parents. Study them and you'll find a wide array of agendum at work...and I suspect that, in some cases, their stated goals are far from their real goals.

Nevertheless, they all seek to make kidvid more enriching and redeeming, at least by their definitions, and at the time, they had enough clout to cause the networks to yield. Consultants were brought in and we, the folks who were writing cartoons, were ordered to include certain "pro-social" morals in our shows. At the time, the dominant "pro-social" moral was as follows: The group is always right...the complainer is always wrong.

Teaching children that they don't want to think for themselves, they should conform to the group. Did none of these parents ever read Lord of the Flies? Kids are the last part of society that should be encouraged to gang up with their peers and follow every whim of the majority.

Somebody save us from the busybodies who are trying to save kids from cartoons.

Posted by armand at November 27, 2005 04:41 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Culture


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