#like even within their universes context of child soldiers being the social norm

[runephoenix6769]

Why Netflix aging up the Characters could spell disaster.

Ok, so I’ve tried to find confirmation that this is true and kinda found bubkiss so far.  But.... Zuko being aged up by two years does not bode well his motivation or Azula (or Sokka for that matter), narratively speaking and will massively change how their stories/character arcs hit.  It’s my belief that by aging up the characters they’ll kinda lose some of the soul of the show AND the poignancy of just how much pressure has been laid on the shoulders of Gaang and Azula's trio. The nuance of Children fixing a world broken by adults. (I shall preface by saying that anyone under 18 is a child and therefore even joining the military at 16 is still awful, but this post is being written within the context of the avatar universe, its societal norms and customs.)

Hear me out.  Within the show, all the main cast of children are supposed to be outliers and exceptionally skilled, even surpassing many of the adults in that world in terms of mastery of their elements and ability to execute strategy.   At 16/17 Rangi had her first commission after graduating from the Junior Corps in record time, to eventually become one of the youngest Lieutenants in Fire Nation Army service, during peace time.  400 years later we are in the midst of a global war, meaning the goal posts within the various societies would have shifted considerably. (Apart from the Earth Kingdom, they seriously need to get with the times.) Zuko is the heir to the throne of an imperial expansionist country, where military service is expected of many of the aristocracy. (If not every citizen doing something towards the war effort.) And has been since the reign of Sozin.  Being the heir, he would naturally be expected to take a military commission at 16/17, as precedent has been shown to us via Rangi. This would serve to foster loyalty from his soldiers, train him in ways of command to prepare him for taking over the Nation, etc etc.  Lets say that Netflix keep the rest of his story the same, so he is still ousted at 13 sent on a mission of folly as a cruel punishment. Well that just casts his 4 years at sea and his behaviour towards his men in an awful light. In four years he has not learned regard for the safety of his men? It makes the treatment of his men look callous instead of being a child who doesn't quite grasp how much his crew do for him, that they too have been ousted and separated from their loved ones! Four years of shite treatment would surely land a mutiny on his hands?  If anything, it serves to make him look whiny, and incompetently oblivious to the needs of others.  And what does it mean if they move the timeline of the Agni Kai up by two years, to 15?  It doesn't have quite the same impact. Remember what sits at the core of this show. It is ultimately about children trying the fix the world that the adults broke, violence, cruelty, child soldiers and the effects of war upon them, under intense pressure to succeed.  Zuko is supposed to be a child who hasn’t even begun to figure out what he wants.   His character arc in the show is supposed to be that journey!

Which brings me to Azula!  A child prodigy, who took down Ba Sing Se in a relatively bloodless coup at 14! Its meant to be an awe inspiring Herculean feat! A top notch military strategist, she is meant to be unmatched by any of her peers.  Her age in the OG show certainly explains her behavior, her not being developed enough in many ways. This contributes towards the deterioration of her mental health when she cannot reconcile the heavily cultivated sense of self with the reality culminating in the tragic and heart wrenching mental breakdown at 14! At 16/17, it makes it look like a huge ass hissy fit! OG Azula’s inflection moment begins in The Beach episode. She is begins to ask questions of herself in the form of small experiments. It takes the form of her hiding their identities on Ember Island.  It is as if she is trying to feel out if she is as witty and charming as she believes, but she comes to learn that she is woefully socially inept, people don’t like her for her, beginning the spiral of insecurity and self doubt. We are also told that Azula’s mother thought her a monster and she is massively hurt by that, though she plays it off as nothing.  This insecurity is blown wide open on the Boiling Rock cemented by Ty Lee’s betrayal and culminates in Azula, who is truly terrified that he might burn her in a way similar to Zuko, seeing her being sidelined by Ozai.  She takes as a form of punishment for her ‘failure’, a form of banishment, that she has been discarded like Zuko, when she had imagined being by her father’s side as they burned the world in celebration of their mutual victory rather than for what is truly is which is Ozai being a glory hog and reaping all the benefits from Azula’s hard work.  Which brings me to the suggestion by Azula to burn the world in the first place. A child suggesting that you ‘Burn the World’ smacks a whole lot differently when you think of it as a kid not quite grasping/understanding the ramifications of such a suggestion, but a 16 year old? Such a thing tips her from confused mentally unwell child with a crippling fear of failure raised without a lick of compassion to full blown villainy with nothing remotely sympathetic about her! The way the last Agni Kai is framed you are supposed to feel sympathetic towards her! Which makes me wonder if they are gonna paint Azula as unhinged straight from the get go? Her unravelling at the seams is supposed to be her journey!

Sokka.... at 17!  In the OG show, Hakoda does the right thing by telling Sokka to remain behind to look after the village because at 13 he is too young to go to war.  Why leave him behind at 15? Would that not serve to feed into feelings of inadequacy, that he was deemed too weak to leave and fight with the other men and boys of the tribe?  Now, I would argue that Sokka’s OG arc rivals Zuko’s redemption. He does feel inadequate and overcomes it. He also unlearns a shit load of misogyny! What 17 year old doesn’t take responsibility for his own clothes, in a tribe were adults are few and far between? What 17 year old expects his little sister to be his mother and bear the brunt of the domestic? How obtuse and unfeeling would that make Sokka? It would propel him to the side of boorish, lazy and entitled rather than the sweet teenage boy who grows to realise he has a lot to learn.  OG Sokka is humble as hell and not afraid admit when he is lacking! He will go and openly admit his flaws and learn from others who he had previously written off.  Suki gives him a glass of respect women juice and he keeps on chugging, only adding to the Sokka we know and love.  This is supposed to be his journey! 

OG Sokka is just as much of a genius as Azula!  They are both supposed to be exceptional. Having them sit at 16/17 figuring this all out within a war torn world were it would be totally normal for them to participate in the generational war machine kind of robs them of this. Their more child like behaviours, grappling with concepts and truly understanding their consequences is supposed to remind us that they are children, being asked to do something no child ever should! Aging them up casts these things in a whole other light, skewering the what makes this show so beloved!  If you change the core characters to the point their journey’s don’t make sense within the world they inhabit, or they become unrecognisable to the audience you’re trying to milk then really.....what’s the point?  

#avatar last airbender #atlab #atla #avatar the last airbender #prince zuko #princess azula #sokka #zuko #azula #rangi #rise of kyoshi

[thesilentsnapshotproject]

Wells, L, Photography: A Critical Introduction, 4th Edition, Routledge, 2009

the shift with the introduction of Kodak – mass market, similarly this has continued into today with the rapid succession of digital slrs, camera phones, go pros, easy printing access etc

‘cenotaph’ – ‘with the coming of the first world war there was a boom in camera sales, which reached its peak in 1917 as families bought cameras to record soldiers leaving for the war. Portraits of young men in uniform, many of whom never returned, make a poignant moment in most twentieth-century family collections’ – page 148

would be wrong to argue that the extracting of family images from a private to a public sphere is a modern/current action only, for pictures of ‘home-based daily life emerged in commercial imagery’ as early as the late twentieth century, ‘such images, perfected for advertisements and promotional design were routinely delivered to the breakfast table on cornflake packages, and baby food jars, and greeted shoppers with their serried ranks on the shelves of early super markets’ – page 150

in the later half of the twentieth century ‘snapshots and consumer imagery were fast becoming two sides of the same coin’ – page 150

Jennifer Ransom Carter, advertising photography 1970 to 1984 for Kodak Ltd, ‘we aimed to tread a line between reality and unreality as we produced a professional interpretation of the family snap’… ‘ and of course the pictures people want to keep are those that record the “happy memories” not the messy reality’ – page 151  - private/public – what is actually photographed for the family album became an issue of private and public within itself, it wasn’t just private images being taken out of context for public use but also some things were so private they didn’t even get photographed as they didn’t fit the social expectation of the perfect family

‘unhappy childhoods, broken families, child abuse, disgruntled teenagers and the persistence of poverty are only a few of the all too common experiences not recorded in domestic pictures. The family image came to be seen as riven with fractures and contradictions’ – page 152 – so what was private, really private within a family, remained that way, not even made public to the wider family, these events and problems as such were not allowed to enter the family album, which begins further discussions on private/public – find a contemporary photographer that contradicts this and exposes this factors in their photography – sally man perhaps? 

It could be argued that by stripping photos from their original intention or context, publicising them for all to see in the public eye or on social networking sites, that they lose their value, sentimentally or emotionally, however ‘Almost everyone has their own collection of pictures – sometimes in albums, sometimes digitally stored on a computer sometimes organised in packets or draws, sometimes just scattered around in a disorderly fashion but impossible to throw away. Every collection is different, every example unique. It is no longer enough to outline a social history of such images, since any history must now include interpretations and contextual information brought by their owners and users. These pictures do not stand alone but are enriched by memory, conversations, anecdote and whispered scandal. They are truly personal because they are part of the accumulated history of people currently alive, who know all too well that memories are not exclusively happy ones.’ – page 152 – therefore perhaps regardless of their presentation forms or the way in which they are distributed to us, our own personal photographs retain the same meaning and value they originally held. 

‘while many individuals bring to their personal collection emotional investment…to make sense of pictures which are not our own, we must change gear to become readers of the pictures and engage in a semiotic exploration, paying attention to cultural as well as photographic codes’ – page 153 

• also discuss incredibly saturated world of images today, generally the change in times – link back to Kodak and the mass market increase, it started in that era and has been escalating ever since, continuing today to icloud sharing, facebook, instagram etc, images are no longer shared with family and closest friends but rather with the world, strangers unknown to us, see and interpret our everyday, daily lives through our personal photographic collections, use instagram, tumblr etc as examples – non private settings allow access to anyone

‘personal photographs expect to be understood within an interpretive community, a group of users who share the same understandings of pictures which record and confirm valued rites of passage and culturally significant moments’ – page 154

‘pictures of events such as anniversaries, religious holidays and weddings are symbols of social integration. They have different significations for different cultural groups, who bring an instant recognition to the details by which the meaning of the event “subtly” overwhelms the personal aspect of the picture and fills it with allusions to tribe and ritual’ page 154 – (Hirsch, J, Family photography: Context, Meaning and Effect, New York, Oxford University Press, 1981, Page 59) facebook – presenting our photos to our own social group, tagging those individuals involved – it is in context, as it is publicised to a certain social group to whom the images will relate directly to, so actually these so called public images are just as private as the family album much like the album we share them with a selective group, who we choose to and keep them from others 

Ursula Kocharian – example- page 154

‘Just as family histories fit uneasily with histories of communities, personal histories remain part of, yet often at odds with, the histories of families. The three overlapping modes of community, family and personal rub up against each other. Each one important in its own right, but questioned and often invalidated by the others in a recurring dissonance that frequently underlies discussions of personal photographs.’ – page 154

the extraction of private to public contextualisation is not to be secluded to the way in which we personally distribute our own family and intimate photos online, but as Liz Wells points out ‘As the twentieth century ended, the public media themselves began to look back on personal upheavals. Millions now watch television programmes that trace the secret histories of ordinary people, often using their own personal snapshots’ – page 161 

Wells questions ‘where do families record such present distress and memories of atrocities past?’ – page 161 – in fact, previously they could be recorded in the gaps within the album, what is missing and can only be seen by looking at the edges of the images and what they hint at, that told the stories that were never supposed to enter the family album, never be made public – relate to a quote about the complete deletion of such imagery today – traces – in digital media there are no traces, unlike the material indications produced by an album, gaps, tears, missing bits etc

These days ‘infinite variations on the family form have become visible as never before. Arguably this is partly due to the popular exploration of domestic imagery in new and very public contexts.’ – page 164

• Discuss family photography in magazines such as OK and HELLO, revealing indiscretions and the private moments of celebrity individuals to the whole world and the bringing of family photographs into galleries – ‘challenging the boundaries between the public and the private’ – discuss photographic examples here 

‘however for the digital generation the experience of personal and family photography has radically changed. A picture is no longer a material object to treasure, but an instantaneous communication, disregarding distance.’ – page 165 – picture messages, snapchat, facebook, instagram etc all these devices and social networking applications allow you to share life as it happens, with the images contacting or outreaching strangers rather than close relatives, their meanings are being explored through the exchange of images on the screen. 

Wells goes on to argue that these are ‘ images whose meaning are forever lost, because their context has been lost.’ – page 165 – in regards to the work by Joachim Schmidt 

‘Personal photography has played a different but equally important role in the modernisation of Western culture. It has developed as a medium through which individuals confirm and explore their identity, that sense of selfhood which is an indispensable feature of modern sensibility – for in Western urban culture it is as individuals that people have come to experience themselves, independently of their role as family members or as occupying a recognised social position.’ – page 123 – so perhaps the shift from private to public exposure of the family photograph has something to do with the fact that we no longer care, we don’t want to, and are not expected to represent the ‘family’ as a social norm anymore, instead, we simply present and represent our ‘self’ – this old tradition of family representation simply no longer exists, hence the disappearance of everything that coincides with this tradition, the album, the image in a locket, the retention of the treasured photographic object seems to only continue to exist in the older generations who were bought up with analogue processes and an entirely different culture, one before the digital age

OK/HELLO argument – pointless – as early as the creation of photography, in the Victorian era the exposure of celebrity family life was made public through carte de visite collections – relaxed picture of Queen Victoria’s children and Princess Alexandra giving her daughter a piggy back became the best selling carte de visite, so even though family photography was intended for private viewing within the family and friends this example proves otherwise 

[mediaareplural]

The Commodity Self

Howdy hey and welcome back! Let’s take a moment to discuss what it means to have a commodity self.  A person’s identity is constructed partially through social interactions and how others view them in social situations.  Children learn their social standing in the world through social interactions with their family members and their peers.  One main way an individual defines themselves is through the media they consume.  In Practices of Looking: An Introductioin to Visual Culture, the authors mention theorist Louis Althusser and how he describes this phenomenon as interpellation, which is “the way that images and media texts seem to call out to us, catching our attention.”  For example, some people are compelled to sit down and watch a reality tv show, while others may be more interested in watching the local news or reading an autobiography.  People begin to define themselves by the media they are drawn to, and start to seek out social groups based on the media they are interested in.  Since one of the natural human needs is for belonging, it only makes sense that people would search for others who are drawn to the same media that they are.  As I am at the ripe age of nineteen, I have been exposed to a massive amount of media commodities in my lifetime, which have shaped my identity.  Growing up during the major technological changes of the 2000’s made it easy for me to adapt to learning how to use new technologies that baffled older generations. I learned how to use cassette tapes and VHS tapes at the age of two, and expanded that knowledge to DVDs and Blu-rays as the years went on.  Now, I have many technological commodities of my own such as a cell phone, laptop, Nintendo 3DS, and a Kindle, along with an extensive DVD collection.  In Practices of Looking: An Introductioin to Visual Culture, the authors explain that “we construct our identities, at least in part, through the consumer products that inhabit our lives,” which explains why I partially define myself by the technologies that I have access to. Throughout high school, I felt as though I was an outcast because I did not have a smartphone.  During my freshman year, smartphones were only owned by people whose families were wealthy enough to afford them, but that quickly changed.  By my senior year of high school, I was one of the few people in my class who did not have a smartphone.  Because of this, I stood out like a sore thumb and no longer fit into the social groups I used to be in.  This proves that owning certain commodities define our identities, whether or not we are in control of what commodities we have access to.  The websites and apps I use also determine my commodity self. Being on the younger end of the millennial spectrum, I easily fit into multiple demographics.  On one hand, I am an adult who uses e-mail for professional communication and watches Netflix practically every day.  But on the other hand, I am still a teenager who uses apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on a daily basis.  The use of these various sites puts me in different demographics, thereby splitting my commodity self and uniting it simultaneously. Media theorist Stuart Ewen describes the commodity self as “the idea that our selves, indeed our subjectivities, are mediated and constructed in part through our consumption and use of commodities.”  People my age, myself included, mediate ourselves based on what app we are using. For example, who I am on Instagram is a different persona than the one I portray on Twitter.  Not only do I use the apps for different purposes and to reach different audiences, but the layout of each app is unique, so it is nearly impossible to use them in exactly the same way.  I use Instagram as a photo sharing social media platform, allowing my friends a tiny window into my life.  Twitter is what I use when I want to comment on social injustice, relatable situations, or simply to share a quick anecdote.  People can easily change who they want to be with the different commodities they wish to use.  Another form of commodities that I use to define my commodity self is the various content that I consume.  For example, I am interpellated by YouTube videos, movies, and television shows. The types of movies I am drawn to are Marvel movies, Disney movies, action, thrillers, and dramas.  Some television shows that I watch that define myself by are Criminal Minds, Parks and Recreation, Doctor Who, and Stranger Things, among others.  Part of the reason I define myself by these commodities is because there are either characters that I relate to personally or there are characters that I empathize with. Movies and television shows are important to me because I find the reality within them, and connect that to my life.  I even quote various television shows and movies on a daily basis, which has become a personality trait of mine.  With every television program or movie I watch, I go in as one person and come out a different one; I become someone with a better perspective on life and have a new understanding of the world around me.  One of the main ways people learn about new commodities is through the advertisement of them to the public.  As the authors of Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture point out, people are often drawn to advertisements because they “present an abstract world, often a fantastic one, that is situated not in the present but in an imagined future.”  This can be clearly seen in the way Marvel movies are advertised.  There are many factors that go into the advertising of something as broad as a franchise of movies, one of which is the ideology of gender norms. Sturken and Cartwright mention that “societies function by naturalizing ideologies, making the complex production of meaning take place so smoothly that it is experienced as a ‘natural’ system of value or belief. For example, it is widely accepted, yet rapidly changing, that boys like superheroes and girls like princesses. Therefore, the advertising pushes the ideas of violence and action to try to attract a male audience. Even in the composition of shots in particular movies, it can be clearly seen that certain angles are used to portray women in a specific light during the course of the film.  One example of this can be found in the film Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  In the scene linked above, Black Widow is fighting her way onto a cargo ship where she and Captain America must save some hostages.  As an audience, we get to watch as she fights all the bad guys on the ship, empowering women in the process.  But then, all that female empowerment is shattered when Black Widow knocks a guy out with a pole, and we are given a clear view of her behind, perfectly centered in the frame, for an uncomfortable amount of time.  As previously discussed, these movies are advertised with men in mind, and scenes like this should not come as a surprise. However, the use of gender norms to advertise superhero movies is rapidly changing, so it is disappointing to see that degrading images such as this one can still be found in films that should be intended for everyone.  Another ideological framing that has rapidly changed in the advertising of Marvel movies is the representation of diverse races and cultures.  In the 2012 film The Avengers, the audience can easily recognize that all members of the main cast, aside from S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, are white.  All other cultures were vastly underrepresented in this film, which was unfortunate to see.  However, in Marvel’s newer films, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, move diverse characters are being introduced into the film franchise.  In fact, in February of next year, Marvel is releasing Black Panther, which has an almost entirely black cast.  Not only does this ideological shift in advertising tell people that Marvel is accepting of all cultures and ethnicities, but they are also widening their consumer net by including characters in the universe that more demographics can relate to.  Sometimes fans need to negotiate the meanings of commodities they associate themselves with, so as to enjoy the product that is being presented to them without having their mind clouded with other aspects of that commodity.  I am a fan of Disney’s animated movies, and have been since I was a child.  Both the old and new movies mean a lot to me because they remind me of my childhood and take me away from the realities of life for a period of time.  Over time, I have adapted my understanding of the movies and the significance they hold in real-world situations.  Anthropologist Claude Lèvi-Strauss describes this phenomenon with the French term bricolage, which is “a mode of adaptation in which things (mostly commodities) are put to uses for which they were not intended and in ways that dislocate them from their normal or expected context.”  For example, the film Atlantis: The Lost Empire had a very different meaning to me as a child than it does to me now.  As a kid, I always thought the movie was about going on an adventure and Milo and Kida meeting and falling in love.  Now that I am an adult, though, I recognize the film’s themes that question capitalism and the ethics of archaeology. This film calls its audience’s attention to the reality of what the characters are doing and how some people have hidden agendas in situations that can occur in the real world.  Bricolage plays an important part in negotiating the meanings of commodities.  Another way I have had to negotiate the content of animated Disney movies is by looking past all of the work that goes into making an animated film.  While sitting on my couch, curled up in a blanket enjoying The Little Mermaid or Zootopia, I never take a step back to consider the long, painstaking work that has gone towards the end result of the film I am watching.  Animators spend countless hours drawing each frame of a scene or digitally adjusting each movement, depending on if the film is hand-drawn or computer-generated, and most likely spend days working on a five second span of one scene.  The amount of energy and time that Disney employees put into a movie surmounts the run time of the final version of the film. But, to me and many other general audience members, these films are just a great way to relax.  I negotiate the meaning of Disney films because I want them to have the same meaning they had when I was a naïve child, and thus I have to ignore and repress the idea that people most likely cried over the difficulty of making the animation flow smoothly.  It is much easier for me, as a member of the audience, to remove myself from the harsh realities of life and the truth about the difficulties people face.  Also, while appreciating the animated content in front of me, I never stop to think about the horrific original fairy tale the film is based on.  Most of the stories Disney produces are based on old fairy tales from a variety of countries, but they have to be modified in order to make the films safe for children to watch.  For example, in the original Cinderella fairy tale, Cinderella’s step-sisters attempt to try on the glass slipper but their feet are too big, so they saw off their toes in an attempt to force their feet into the slipper and marry the prince. Later in the story, during Cinderella’s wedding, the step-sisters get their eyes pecked out by ravens.  Disney clearly needed to skirt around these images in order to keep their G-rating. Even though I have this knowledge as an adult, I generally do not think about how the story is meant to go, according to the Grimm Brothers or Hans Christian Andersen, while watching the Disney version of the story.  I negotiate the meaning of these films because it is easier to enjoy the safe version of a beloved story I know well than it is to realize the harsh and violent realities of the source material.

#commodity self #disney #marvel #bricolage #interpellation

[kansascityhappenings]

Children who are spanked more likely to become violent toward future partners, study says

Parents who believe in “spare the rod, spoil the child” might be setting their children up to become violent toward future partners, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of Pediatrics.

“We asked 758 kids between 19 and 20 years old how often they had been spanked, slapped or struck with an object as form of punishment when they were younger,” said the study’s lead author, Jeff Temple, an associate professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch. “Kids who said they had experienced corporal punishment were more likely to have recently committed dating violence.”

This result, he said, held up even when contributing factors such as sex, age, parental education, ethnicity and childhood abuse were controlled.

“One of the advantages of our study was to control for child abuse, which we defined as being hit with a belt or board, left with bruises that were noticeable or going to the doctor or hospital,” said Temple, who specializes in dating, or relationship, violence. “Regardless of whether someone experienced child abuse or not, spanking alone was predictive of dating violence.”

The result was no surprise to Dr. Bob Sege, a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatricians who specializes in the prevention of childhood violence. The academy strongly opposes striking a child for any reason, pointing to research that links corporal punishment to mental health disorders and aggression.

“This study confirms and extends previous research that says children who experience violence at home, even if it is couched as for their own good, end up using violence later in their lives,” said Sege, who was not involved in the new research.

“For children, their parents are the most important people in the world, and they learn from them what are social norms and how people should behave toward each other,” he added. “Corporal punishment confuses the boundaries between love and violence for children while they are learning how to treat others.”

Boston University Associate Professor Emily Rothman, an expert in partner violence, agreed: “The experience of having someone direct aggression to you increases the likelihood that you’ll fall back on aggression when in a flight or fight moment. Having been hit by the parent can elevate stress and reduces a child’s coping skills, so they may lash out.”

A nation of spankers

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child defines corporal punishment as “any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light.”

Though spanking or slapping is most common, the committee also identifies behavior such as “kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion” (such as washing a child’s mouth out with soap) as forms of corporal punishment.

Calling any form “invariably degrading,” the committee’s Global Initiative has persuaded 53 countries since 2001 to pass laws banning corporal punishment, even in the privacy of a home. The agency says another 56 countries are working to pass similar laws.

However, it’s legal in the United States for parents to physically punish their children at home, and most think that’s exactly as it should be.

Since 1986, the University of Chicago has been asking Americans the following question in its annual General Social Survey: “Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree that it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good, hard spanking?” The latest data, through 2016, show that 73.6% strongly agree or agree with that sentiment.

“It’s been a controversial issue for several decades, with some parts of the country, like the South, using corporal punishment more than others,” Rothman said, adding that religious fundamentalists are also more likely to believe in corporal punishment. “They don’t think of it as violence. It’s a parenting strategy.”

“There’s a tendency for adults who have been spanked to say ‘I turned out just fine,’ ” Temple said. “So they continue the behavior with their children.”

Temple and Sege argue that attitude is shortsighted and doesn’t take into account two decades of research showing no benefit from corporal punishment.

“There’s zero evidence that it enhances children’s development, and there is a whole bunch of evidence that it has negative outcomes,” Temple said. “Our goal is not to turn out fine. Our goal is to turn out healthier and happier than previous generations.”

Sege agreed: “We didn’t have seat belts for children when I was growing up, either. Research changed that. The effects of corporal punishment are quite well established to be poor.”

‘It’s okay to spank’

Some remain unconvinced of the harms of spanking, including a small group of physicians and researchers who continue to argue that it is beneficial, or at least not bad for kids.

“I think that like any disciplinary tactic, its effect is in the context of how it’s used,” Oklahoma State University Professor Robert Larzelere said. “Research is strongest for the use of spanking between the ages of 2 and 6, when milder types of correction have failed.”

Larzelere co-authored a position paper on spanking for the the American College of Pediatricians, a small group of physicians who have a conservative stance on many parenting matters. Some of its position papers state, for example, that homosexual parenting is harmful to children, gender dysphoria in children will be outgrown by adolescence and cohabitation before marriage will negatively impact any children born before, during or after cohabitation.

Larzelere and his co-author, Dr. Den Trumbull, concluded that “it’s okay for parents to spank,” but with some conditions: Parents should ensure children know it’s “motivated by love and concern for their well-being” and be certain “they do not use disciplinary spanking too severely.” Spanking should always be used in a manner that reduces the need to use it in the future, the paper said.

Spanking also should only be used when children fail to respond to milder disciplinary tactics (e.g., time out) or fail to stop harmful misbehavior (e.g., running into a street).

To bolster their viewpoint, Larzelere and Trumbull point to “serious limitations” in recent research: Studies often rely on a person’s recall of childhood punishment, fail to separate spanking from other types of corporal punishment that might be more severe and draw what they consider to be overblown correlations with faulty logic.

“People who move to Florida are more likely to have Alzheimer’s,” for example, Larzelere said. “And it’s not because Florida causes Alzheimer’s.”

Researchers in this camp point to alternate explanations for the negative outcomes from spanking. For example, children who are spanked may have a number of behavioral problems to start with, and any aggression or mental health issues they develop could have more to do with those underlying behavioral problems than the spanking itself. Yet another possibility is that adults with mental health problems could be more likely than healthy adults to recall being spanked as kids.

Swift rebuttal

Critics of spanking say the ideal study does not exist, as it would involve taking a group of similar children, asking the parents of half of them to spank and the other half not to, and observing the children as they grow up to see whether the spanked group is any different. Such a study would not be ethical.

Instead they point to various meta-analyses of large numbers of studies to prove their point about the dangers of corporal punishment.

“People say there is a debate about spanking. The debate is not in the data. The data is very consistent,” said Elizabeth Gershoff, associate professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

In collaboration with Andrew Grogan-Kaylor at the University of Michigan, Gershoff analyzed 36 studies of spanking and found that parents who said they had spanked their children were three times more likely to say their children had aggressive behavior in the following years.

Many other undesirable outcomes were associated with spanking, including children acting out and having poor relationships with their parents, as well as being victims of physical abuse later in life.

During their investigations, Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor also looked for evidence that supported people in the United States — and researchers — who think spanking is good for kids. “We thought maybe we would find that in some studies, but we did not,” Gershoff said.

In a study in 1975, US soldiers who said they had been spanked as kids were less likely to report opiate use, but Gershoff and Grogan-Kaylor point out that this group might not represent the general population.

A study published in September asked over 8,000 adults ages 19 to 97 about their childhood experiences with spanking and found that those who were spanked were more likely to drink heavily, use street drugs and attempt suicide.

“These results provide strong support for consideration of spanking as an (adverse childhood event),” the study authors wrote. Adverse childhood events include sexual and physical abuse and neglect, substance abuse, mental illness and partner violence within the home.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls adverse childhood events “an important public health issue” due to their strong relationship to numerous health, social and behavioral problems throughout a person’s life, including substance use disorders; smoking; heart, lung and liver disease; and poor work performance.

A single spanking will probably not do lasting harm

Although surveys suggest that the majority of American parents have spanked their children, it is not clear how many are regular spankers and how many just lost their temper once or twice. Parents in the latter group can probably take heart that they did not cause their children lasting harm.

“Once or twice is almost surely no big deal, and the real problem is the parents who are doing it a lot. … It’s really the parents who are using it regularly and intentionally as a form of discipline,” said George Holden, professor and chairman of the Department of Psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Getting spanked just that one time may not affect a child’s relationship with their parents, but it may still be remembered and resented, Holden added.

Gershoff agrees that the odd spanking would probably not have long-term effects but asks “why do it at all?” if no studies have found positive effects.

There is some evidence that the support for spanking in the United States is slowly fading. In the 1980s, 82% of women and 84% of men agreed with spanking as a necessary form of discipline. According to a 2014 survey, that number had dropped to 65% of women and 76% of men agreeing that children sometimes need a “good hard spanking.”

If spanking doesn’t work, what does?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a number of alternatives to spanking, including taking toys and privileges away and the age-old technique of time-out.

Sege says the techniques depend on the child’s age.

“During the first year what infants need to learn is love,” he said, “while they discover their new abilities such as crying and making messes. So parents should distract, by giving them other things to do that are less disruptive or picking them up and moving them to a different place. That’s all they can do.”

As kids grow to toddlers and persist in doing things you don’t want, he said, the best technique to to tap into their need for attention.

“Toddler’s crave their parent’s attention, so use that to your advantage,” Sege said. “Pay attention to the things your children do that are wonderful; reward them for those with praise. Then when they do something you don’t like, put them in time-out and take the attention away. Use that. That’s how time-outs work.”

As children get older, he suggests letting them learn the natural consequences of their behaviors.

“So instead of shielding, help them learn the lesson, as long as they are not in danger,” Sege said. “Things like ‘you didn’t put your toys away, so instead of playing, you have to clean them up before we can play.’ It takes parents out of the loop.”

Teenagers, he says, also need to learn to take responsibility for their actions.

“And you do that by calling them out on their behavior and its consequences and then help them figure out how to resolve those consequences.

“It’s hard, because it requires, at least at first, a level of mindfulness and thought on what you are doing as a parent,” Sege said. “Parenting isn’t easy. The good thing is that our children excuse us for the mistakes we make.”

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports http://fox4kc.com/2017/12/05/children-who-are-spanked-more-likely-to-become-violent-toward-future-partners-study-says/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/children-who-are-spanked-more-likely-to-become-violent-toward-future-partners-study-says/