You are what you watch

K Chronicles is a font of comic diversity, going from the personal to the universal and back again in a way that makes it like real conversation: Some days, you talk about what you did last night, some days you talk about something you read.

This is a "something you read" day, and one of the nice things about the format is that Keef gets a chance to kind of lay it out before he goes into his own take on it. This is consistent with the conversational format, in contrast to single-panel political cartoons, which of necessity lack context.

With this many panels, he's able to say "Here's what I read, and here's what I think about it," rather than just hit you with a bumpersticker take.

And the topic of role models requires more than a bumpersticker. It's important to note that the study did not note the specifics of what kids watched on TV, simply the number of hours.

It's frustrating that the study itself is not freely available, but studying 400 kids over a year indicates some depth and it seems reasonable to assume that they would mention if the kids were not well-distributed in terms of family income, gender and race so that the study wasn't skewed by imbalances. (They do mention that African-Americans were the only statistically significant minority group in the study.)

Simply zoning out on TV instead of going out and playing is an issue in itself, but, given that kids do zone out on TV for hours, it's worth examining what they are absorbing.

The researchers note that black characters on shows are disproportionately portrayed as "hoodlums and buffoons," while, for women, "The roles are pretty simplistic; they’re almost always one-dimensional and focused on the success women have because of how they look, not what they do or what they think or how they got there. This sexualization of women presumably leads to a negative impact on girls.”

I'm sure there are people who would insist that the dial is crowded with "politically correct" shows in which women and minorities have the prominent roles while white men are portrayed as uptight and foolish, but, first of all, those shows tend to suck, and, in any case, they aren't all that prevalent anyway, and, regardless of their intentions or (perhaps more accurately) their proclaimed intentions, they still retain some problematic elements.

For example, when women on TV are not beautiful and well-dressed, they tend to be abrasive and unpleasant, and even when this is shown as "speaking truth to power," I suspect that when little girls are shown that the alternative to beauty is angry wisecracking, it really doesn't offer them much in the way of a positive role model.

I mean, just a hunch, but I think most guys would rather be Sean Connery than Don Rickles, and most women would rather be Mary Tyler Moore than Roseanne Barr.

As for what today's children are seeing, there simply aren't any unattractive girls on the Disney Channel, and I doubt the kids are watching reruns of "Law & Order," where S. Epatha Merkerson played a powerful, intelligent, professional, average-looking woman.

Nor, by the way, are they likely watching the shows Keef lists as quality television. At least, I kinda hope they aren't. 

But his final panel makes a critical point, which is that there is a difference between carelessly passing along a portrayal of the world in which minorities and women still, for all their gains, tend to hold secondary roles, and declaring the status quo as the way the world is intended to be.

I'm sympathetic to the notion that women and minorities are taking places that once would have been filled by white men, but, even in the face of affirmative action, white guys are doing all right. Excellence is still the key to success, mediocrity still puts you on the bubble, and I'm sorry if that bubble is becoming more crowded, but grow up.

I mean, I'm sure it was easier to get a seat when the movie theaters were segregated, too, but showing up on time still works. 

And, when it comes to role models, the fact that kids can flip over to the Fox Channel and see white guys portrayed as whiners is not exactly a step in the right direction.

Comments

[Mary in Ohio]

Off topic, sort of, but I thought you would know: What has happened to "Lost Side of Suburbia"? The author took a sabbatical last fall, but he let us know. Now it just hasn't been updated - and it was featuring a strong, effective female at the time! Coincidence or conspiracy (to sort of drift back on topic)?

[Mike Peterson]

Apparently, according to comments at the GoComics site, he's off mountain climbing, which would make sense for a young school teacher -- "young" for the climbing and "school teacher" (in New York State) for the timing of the break.

I'd like him to come home and get things rolling again. There's a pace to "Lost Side of Suburbia" that I enjoy, and certainly the stories are good.

[Jerry]

I guess more "'Magical Negros" wourld'nt help.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicalNegro