In January 1920, America solved the problems that had been plaguing the country. Prohibition went into effect and all alcohol was made illegal, thus removing the clear cause of moral degeneracy and immoral behavior, and proving that an act of Congress can indeed be a beacon of light for the uneducated masses clearly in need of guidance.
Prohibition was encouraged by men such as Representative Richmond Hobson, who in 1914 encouraged Congress to pass a law“…to destroy the agency that debauches the youth of the land and thereby perpetuates its hold upon the Nation.” Except, of course, that it all went terribly wrong, and the 1920’s in America are remembered as the Roaring Twenties- the decade of flappers, hot jazz, bathtub gin, and the most widespread and flagrant disregard for the law ever seen in the US. The restriction on alcohol made it seem incredibly sexy. It also had the opposite effect than the one that the Women’s Christian Temperance Union had had in mind. Widespread flouting of the law, the flappers’ open sexuality, the deaths from bad booze, and the rise of mobsters getting rich off smuggling the hooch resulted. Oops.
It became clear pretty quickly that prohibition wasn’t the panacea that had been hoped for. What was next to blame? Immediately at hand was Jazz! Anne Shaw Faulkner wrote a piece in 1921, “Jazz originally was the accompaniment of the voodoo dancer, stimulating the half-crazed barbarian to the vilest deeds.” She dug up supposedly scientific evidence to prove her point that jazz was clearly going to destroy brain function, thus leaving it’s listeners unable to tell wright from wrong, good from evil. Women were wearing short skirts, and rouging their knees, and cutting their hair, and dancing to this so called music! The people must be informed of the danger they’re in! Parents must be warned! Something Must Be Done!
Is any of this starting to sound familiar? Well, let’s bring it closer to home, then. In 1954 a sub committee of the U.S. Senate looked into the effects of comic books on youth. With assistance (and testimony) from the now infamous to fans everywhere Dr. Frederic Wertham, the sub committee listened to testimony from publishers of comics, lawyers, social workers and others, and issued questionnaires regarding delinquency and violent crime, and how it related to crime comic books.
Ultimately, the Senate subcommittee decided to take no action as there was no evidence of such an evil influence on the youth of America. Wertham, of course, is still remembered for his crusade against comics. He believed, “the most subtle and pervading effect of crime comics on children can be summarized in a single phrase: moral disarmament.” Insisting in his book, The Seduction of the Innocent that comics were responsible for not only glorifying villains and criminals, but promoting promoting homosexuality (Batman and Robin being “a wish dream of two homosexuals living together” criticizing Wonder Woman as being the “lesbian counterpart of Batman”) and of teaching kids dangerous lessons (that they can fly because Superman was.)
The reason that Wertham’s views were so well publicized was that they appealed to the public as an explanation for the violence they saw in the world around them. Here was a highly respected psychiatrist, an esteemed researcher of children and childhood traumas, and an expert witness whose writings had been used as evidence before the Supreme Court. Naturally he only had the best interests of the populace in mind. And he was very convincing, playing on people’s fears.
And giving them a reason why it was not their fault. Every dark and frightening and upsetting thing that could happen to them, their kids, be done BY their kids was clearly someone else’s fault. The devil made them do it. I’m sorry, I meant the alcohol. I mean, the jazz. The comic books. It’s not MY fault, you see. I’m a good person, a good parent, child, sister, friend.
Any of this starting to sound familiar? Perhaps like what’s currently being said about video games? While I don’t want to say that comics and games and such are never used to spread offensive or hazardous ideas, but there is just as good a chance of those ideas being found in a newspaper or a poster or a website.
My point, of course, is that people are always going to be looking for something to shift the blame onto. The trick, of course, is what do you do about that? How do you defend comic books and video games and manga and all that stuff without sounding as crazy as they do? Good questions. I’m sure I’ll think of somethng by next week.
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