Does this look offensive to you?

[Trolldor]

When I was twelve I learnt that my mother treated a six month old girl who had been raped.
The very idea of that is more disturbing than any burning monk or suicide, and it still brings in me a hatred as fresh as anything for all of mankind.

[Chinaski]

When I was twelve I learnt that my mother treated a six month old girl who had been raped.
The very idea of that is more disturbing than any burning monk or suicide, and it still brings in me a hatred as fresh as anything for all of mankind.

Wtf. I hate people.

[JimC]

SS wrote:

I am sick of seeing sanitized violence. Gives kids the wrong impression. I want my son to know that, if he points a gun at someone and pulls the trigger, the result will be bloody, sickening, painful and loud. He wouldn't know that from all our 'protective measures' in the media. He has no reason to assume that a gunshot will result in anything that isn't sterile and quietly pretty as the hero slips off to heroic sleep. Fuck that.

Excellent point, spaz, I agree totally.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

SS wrote:

I am sick of seeing sanitized violence. Gives kids the wrong impression. I want my son to know that, if he points a gun at someone and pulls the trigger, the result will be bloody, sickening, painful and loud. He wouldn't know that from all our 'protective measures' in the media. He has no reason to assume that a gunshot will result in anything that isn't sterile and quietly pretty as the hero slips off to heroic sleep. Fuck that.

Excellent point, spaz, I agree totally.

Which makes my initial point, that it is ridiculous for a supermarket to ban the display of a cover because the artist's style uses splashes of paint which might be interpreted as resembling blood to some people and before a single, actual complaint has been made about it. It is nannying based on some exec's bonkers view of what might offend and is as stupid as withdrawing fluffy pigs in case they upset moslems.

[charlou]

SS wrote:

I am sick of seeing sanitized violence. Gives kids the wrong impression. I want my son to know that, if he points a gun at someone and pulls the trigger, the result will be bloody, sickening, painful and loud. He wouldn't know that from all our 'protective measures' in the media. He has no reason to assume that a gunshot will result in anything that isn't sterile and quietly pretty as the hero slips off to heroic sleep. Fuck that.

Excellent point, spaz, I agree totally.

I agree with that paragraph, too, but the second paragraph of the post comes across as the height of arrogance:

I want violent violence and sexy sex. These things are not a problem for parents who are able and willing to have a conversation with their children about what they've seen. It's those fucktards who aren't able to talk about sex and violence and the results of both whose children suffer from exposure to the images. But so what? Do we choose not to read because some asswipes are illiterate? Do we choose not to learn and use the scientific method because some idiots believe in creationism? Why do we censor our media because there are people in the world who should not have had children?

Some parents prefer to protect young eyes from violent images for a while and you call them fucktards who should not have children? You're talking about me there. Not that I would consider the cover in the op something worth protecting young children from, and not that I have ever had any difficulty discussing violence and sex with my children, but I think exposing young children to the full range of violent images is probably potentially harmful to their mental health and I would not want to risk that, regardless of the fact that I am able to discuss it with them.

My daughter (age ten at the time) watched the film Saw when she stayed overnight at her cousin's place and was traumatised for weeks afterwards, not sleeping and very confused, and still has flashbacks to it that disturb her, despite all my attempts to talk her through it.

We don't have to expose children to violence or violent imagery to help them appreciate the reality and horror of it. Plenty of people grow up with a suitable enough sense of empathic awareness about it without the need for such tactics. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that indiscriminate desensitisation of young children to graphic violence can lead to developmental problems with empathy and distinguishing reality from fiction.

[Chinaski]

Who the fuck let a ten-year-old watch Saw? That's different than "just violence", that's a movie DESIGNED to shock and have a psychological impact.

[charlou]

Her fourteen year old cousin.

[Chinaski]

Bah. I was 17 when I saw the Saw movies and had to bury my head between my gf's tits every now and then. And for some of the scenes I actually had to look away!
Anyway, my point is that there's a difference between hiding pictures of violence from kids (although I agree that sheltering them until a certain age might not be a bad idea) and forcing them to watch a movie that's designed to deliberately and purposefully shock you through a clever portrayal of violence. I'd rather my kid watch a Tarantino movie than something like Saw or Hostel. Tarantino's point is to make it so over the top that it's obviously ridiculous.

[charlou]

Context certainly makes a difference ... I recall seeing scenes and images of real human horror from the holocaust, first world war and vietnam at a very young age and being 'awakened' by them ... a sort of consciousness raising that a child that age could not articulate, but happens nevertheless. I do remember thinking that people can be incredibly horrible to other people, and feeling very sad about that ... and being confronted with the reality of death on several levels (violence, morality, permanence, biological) in a very graphic way, and appreciative of that with somewhat awed fascination ...

... which is, of course, very different to the kind of films and images designed to provoke and mess with the minds of adults ...

As a parent, I act to protect my children from mental and developmental harm. I make conscious, thoughtful decisions based on potential risk and I act on those. All my children are well adjusted individuals who are under no illusion that putting a gun to another person's head and pulling the trigger is anything other than extremely violent, messy and abhorrent.