Alec Troven (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
element_wizard) wrote2006-03-27 11:26 am
element_wizard) wrote2006-03-27 11:26 am
Here there be dragons
I was talking with Fin the other day and we ended up talking about children's television programs for the really young. You know; Barney, Teletubbies, Sesame Street those sorts. She mentioned one called Dragontales... or something like that. Naturally I was intrigued. And then I was horrified.
The dragons that they depicted were...happy squishy... things that ate dragonberry muffins and... were very undragon-like. I protested this greatly because well, dragons aren't happy and squishy. They're dangerous. Even if in some worlds they don't exist. It's the symbolism of the thing then. Maps have "here there be dragons" on them for places of danger and unknown. Now they're changing the danger into happy squishy.
Thinking about this, I've noticed it's been done to other things as well, like violence and weapons. Now, I'm grabbing the moral high ground and saying that I never played with weapons when I was a child. I had my toy sword that I went around trying to kill things with. Sure, but when I got old enough and strong enough to use a real sword I was shown how to use it. And how dangerous it could be. I took lessons, I spent hours, days, weeks and years learning how to use it properly. The one time as a child I tried to use one of my father's weapons I got a beating and a lecture. It wasn't a toy.
Now it seems like, at least in the worlds that I've seen... the more technologically advanced ones, this responsiblity towards teaching children what danger is, is gone. They don't show them that weapons are dangerous... that dragons are squishy and safe.
And I guess I want to know is... why?
The dragons that they depicted were...happy squishy... things that ate dragonberry muffins and... were very undragon-like. I protested this greatly because well, dragons aren't happy and squishy. They're dangerous. Even if in some worlds they don't exist. It's the symbolism of the thing then. Maps have "here there be dragons" on them for places of danger and unknown. Now they're changing the danger into happy squishy.
Thinking about this, I've noticed it's been done to other things as well, like violence and weapons. Now, I'm grabbing the moral high ground and saying that I never played with weapons when I was a child. I had my toy sword that I went around trying to kill things with. Sure, but when I got old enough and strong enough to use a real sword I was shown how to use it. And how dangerous it could be. I took lessons, I spent hours, days, weeks and years learning how to use it properly. The one time as a child I tried to use one of my father's weapons I got a beating and a lecture. It wasn't a toy.
Now it seems like, at least in the worlds that I've seen... the more technologically advanced ones, this responsiblity towards teaching children what danger is, is gone. They don't show them that weapons are dangerous... that dragons are squishy and safe.
And I guess I want to know is... why?
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