A quantitative content analysis of children's comic magazines has examined a three-dimensional pattern of values and attitudes in comic culture: sexism, racism and violence. This cultural pattern directed against women and various Ethnic groups is presented and discussed in this chapter.
The comic cartoon describes human behaviour in a variety of situations. A critical examination of children's comic magazines reveals that comics are powerful and pervasive communicators of racist and sexist attitudes, and predispositions towards violence. Recent political debates and issues raised over racist or sexual discrimination in modern western capitalist societies, or distant echoes of the rebirth and expansion of neo-fascist ideological beliefs, along with the contemporary situation of constant oppression of underdeveloped countries, and in some cases extermination of social minorities, all should make us critical of any form of communication in which racist, sexist and violent predispositions are occurring and promoted. Social sciences and particularly feminist research has long seen the issue of sexist bias and stereotyping in literature for children as an important social and political issue. The findings of these investigations suggested that the characterization of girls and women in comics reinforces traditional sex-role stereotypes directing females to domestic and interior occupational roles in the social structure. Furthermore, general concern has been expressed about the apparent increasing of violence in society and attempts have been made to find causal relations between media violence and actual violent acts. Comic books especially those dealing with crime or adventure and directed towards boys, appear to be a fertile field for the study of human representations of violence.
A quantitative content analysis of the comic magazines of the sample selected has been conducted, the results of which are discussed in this chapter. Figure 5.1. shows the comparative total numbers of racist, sexist and violent references in the total number of comics analyzed. It shows the proportions of racist, sexist and violent references in each type of comics, expressed as percentages of the total numbers of racist, sexist and violence instances respectively. The results reveal the fact of differential stereotyping depicted in each type of comics. Sexist attitudes are the main preoccupation of human interest comics, which present no considerable racist and violent stereotyping themes. Humorous comic magazines have been found to be strongly based toward racism and violence, and less on sexism. Violence was found to be the dominant stereotyping theme in adventure comics, whereas sexist or racist attitudes have been secondary preoccupations. As far as racial stereotypes are concerned and ethnic minority has been found to be negatively stereotyped, whereas the figure of the White Anglo-Saxon is explicitly stereotyped in a positive way. Women and girls have been the targets of a traditional sex-role stereotyping pattern, which places them in a subordinate role towards men and the social system. Racism and sexism can be seen to consist ideological forms of violence and oppression against women and ethnic groups. Violence, as explicitly glorified in these comics, surely provides the material means to express these ideas in significant and realistic ways in social life. The emphasis through the content analysis has been the depiction and the description of the sexist, racist and violent message in comics. The main attempt has been to indicate the origin and production of these ideological messages in relation to concrete cultural forms in the Anglo-American context.
Figure 5.1: Total amount of stereotyping instances of racism, sexism, and violence in children’s comic magazines.
Racism
The fact that the social minorities of the Red Indians of North America or the Black immigrant populations of the western societies or Africa, are in the comics, the main target of racial stereotyping, should point out to the close association of racism as a reflection of its historical development and evolution in the social-cultural context of the western capitalist world. Comic magazines, then, explicitly reflect values and attitudes of the western, more specifically Anglo-American culture, in the form of dominant cultural stereotypes representing these values and attitudes. It has been noted, too, that comics is the type of literature closely associated with the development of American society and views and values expressed in them are generally considered acceptable (Malter, 1952). And this accounts for the constant racial prejudice toward minority groups expressed in comics (Berelson & Salter, 1946:179).
These are a few studies on racial stereotyping in children's comic books that have concentrated on the North-American Indian and the Black African. Green (1974:4) argues that the western comic book has long served as an ideological vehicle to reinforce the dominant culture's stereotype of the Indian, which wants him to be aggressive and primitive. This personality pattern was found to be misleading in a study by Agogino (1950), whose historical analysis depicted the North-American Indian as leading a peaceful hunting and raiding economy, rather than being constantly preoccupied with ‘war against the pale faces!’ Green (1974:7) clearly points out that ‘the western comic introduces, perpetuates, and reaffirms a negative representation of the Indian’. Moreover, this continual racial misrepresentation of the Red Indian culture by the comic magazine, seems to be a logical follow up to the systematic extermination of the Red Indians during the Wild West conquest mythical era.
Black characters are the modern counterparts of the Red Indians in this continues process of racial stereotyping in children's comics. Most creators of comics in the 1960s were indeed worried about introducing black characters at all (Tevens, 1976). As Zimet (1980:59) points out, ‘Africa and the groups which are African in appearance come off worst... and as Red Indians, usually receive the hostile savage treatment’. A common pattern occurring in comics is that of a whole range of ideal personal characteristics attributed to AngloSaxons, whereas non-whites, are restricted to those of criminal, savage, stupid, strongly exotic, pleasant but subordinate and insignificant (Laishley, 1972). This pattern of racist stereotyping was clearly evident in most of the comics of the analysis.
A random sample of ten stories of humor and ten of adventure comic magazines was selected for a detailed analysis of racist stereotypes (Table 5.1). As there were no evident instances of racial stereotyping in humor interest comics, it was decided to exclude them from the present analysis. Table 5.2. is based on the total number of racist references in the twenty comics (adventure and humor) further analyzed. It shows the proportions of racist references in each type of comics expressed as a percentage of the total number of racist instances. The percentage of racism was found to be higher in humorous comics. This is probably so, because a stereotype would be easily passed on through a joke or a funny situation, in a harmless and unnoticed way. Six categories of racial stereotypes were defined according to the ethnic group to which the stereotyping was addressed:
(1) Black or other coloured tribes presented as being primitive, without culture and constantly preoccupied with murder and cannibalism;
(2) Eastern block nations, and occasionally European ones, portrayed to be involved in espionage against the American interests and ideals; (3) explicit cases of white Anglo-Saxon supremacy;
(4) Asians similarly portrayed as evil and sneaky and without any signs of civilization;
(5) North-American Red Indians as being aggressive and preoccupied with war against the White: and,
(6) Blacks being in bondage or involved in criminal activities (Table 5.2.; Figure 5.3; Appendix).
Table 5.1: Total percentage of racist stereotypes found in adventure and humour comic magazines.
Figure 5.4: Total amount of stereotyping instances of racism in humour and adventure comic magazines.
Figure 5.5: Total amount of stereotyping instances of racism in adventure comic magazines.
Figure 5.4. is based on the total number of racist representations in the twenty comics analyzed in detail. It shows the Proportions of different ethnic groups stereotyped, expressed as a percentage of the total number of racist instances. The results indicate that the main concern of racial stereotyping, in both types of comics, is directed against the North-American Indians, and Blacks, both groups pictured as aggressive, with direct predispositions towards slavery and crime, and not in any way superior to the White Anglo-Saxon figure. A closer examination of each of the two categories separately shows greater percentages of racial stereotyping against the Red Indians and lesser towards other ethnic or racial groups, in adventure comics. This is shown in Figures 5.5. and 5.6. which are based on the total numbers of racist representations in each category of comics analyzed. They show the proportions of different ethnic groups stereotyped, expressed as percentages of the total number of racist instances. The greater emphasis on stereotyping the Red Indian in adventure comics (Figure 5.5.) is explained by the fact that the main theme of this type of comics is drawn from the Wild West conquest and the war for Independence. As Figure 5.6. shows, humor comics give more emphasis on stereotyping a wider range of ethnic groups, because the stories of this type deal more often with contemporary social reality. In general, the stereotyping pattern of Europeans, who have through the years come in historical or political conflict with the United States of America, such as English, Spanish, Germans or Russians, usually involves ridicule of their different cultural traditions and practices. When the comic story comes to the primitive tribe, there is never evidence of signs of civilization, only cannibalistic tendencies expressed in mystifying rituals and murder ceremonies. The White Anglo-Saxon supremacy is, in this way, promoted, but there have been also explicit cases of stating white supremacy found (Figure 5.3.; Figure 5.8. and Appendix).
Figure 5.6: Total amount of stereotyping instances of racism in humour comic magazines.
The origin of racism appearing in different forms of the mass media is not accidental. It can be better explained and understood when its origins of development are considered in certain Anglo-American historical contexts. The development of racist beliefs can be traced in colonial and expansionist desires of British and American imperialism, and the creation of the mythological conquest of the Wild West. Racist beliefs, then, as expressed in children's comics, represent the cultural links to the relevant social contexts out of, and for which, they were developed, that is expressing certain Anglo-American cultural myths and traditions.
As Cawelti (1964:30) has argued that, the Western, as we know it today in novels, movies and television, ‘was essentially elaborated after the Civil war, as a form of popular entertainment, and the cowboy of the Great Plains became the mythical archetype of the West. It was the historical demand of the time, that led writers of popular westerns to develop the cowboy hero, which ‘doubtlessly reflected the general cultural attitudes of Americans’ (Cawelti, 1964:34).
The colonial expansion of the late sixteenth century onwards, too, resulted to the development of the main ideas about race and colour. Back in the plantations of the southern States of America, early racist aspects of the Anglo-Saxon supremacy belief, associated with Black slavery, were being developed. Stamp (1952:391) notes that, the idea emerging seemed to imply that Blacks could only be civilized through a slow evolutionary process during which they would gradually acquire and transmit to their descendants the white man's patterns of social behavior. As the colonial period progressed, ‘these ideas’, argue Hartman and Husband (1974:20), ‘ became elaborated and, more and more, widely diffused until by the end of the nineteenth century, the ideas of white superiority held a central place in British national culture...’
The long history of British colour prejudice had by the end of the nineteenth century become an integral element of British culture; it was embodied in all aspects of British culture, and it is today's children that are socialized in a culture containing strong legacy of slavery and imperial glories (Hartman & Husband, 1974:29). These beliefs and ideas are mainly derived from media sources. The degree to which racist attitudes in comic books influence children would appear to depend on the extent of the reader's knowledge from different sources (Himmelweit, et al, 1958). Bailyn (1959) noted that, as a result of the comics' philosophy of social relations, children are likely to adopt various ‘models of social pathology’ to explain a certain behaviour; for example, people commit crimes ‘because they are naturally bad’. A combined study on the effects of racial stereotyping in America, reported that it might well be that long-term influence on social behavior depends upon the continued reinforcement of attitudes in the child's total environment.
There is enough evidence to suggest and support the view that this constant reinforcement is powerfully provided through the American mass media. This is probably best exemplified in the case of the birth of the American folklore hero, Captain America, and the phenomenal rise and expansion of the American version of neo-facist ideology. But this also illustrates the cultural links between the American value system and the comics' content. First of all, the birth of Captain America itself seems contradictory. Captain America is supposed to be fighting against the expansion of fascism and forms of totalitarianism, but in his own philosophy is implicit the origin of fascist ideology (Figure 5.7.). ‘We are going to create a new race of strong people’, yells Professor Reinstein, as his blond Aryan youth is being successfully transformed to the modern popular American superhero image. Professor Reinstein's comic image was proved, last Summer in Hayden Lake, Idaho, to be a living and growing nightmare.
The 1986 Aryan Nations Congress that took place in Hayden Lake, Idaho, the prospective capital of the coming White Sovereign National State of America (Figure 5.8.), sent the message out quite clearly stated: ‘The white youth of this nation shall utilize every method and option available to neutralize and quite possibly engage in the wholesale extermination of all subhuman non Aryan blood peoples... men, women and children which are non-Aryan blood shall be terminated’ (Winchester, 1986:40).
Most interestingly their message was transmitted as numerous television stations were allowed to film the end-of-rally cross-burning ceremony (Figure 5.9.). The reasons and the political intentions, that the mass media in this case served, were made clear by Robert Miles, an Ayran leader, who said: ‘if one in a thousand viewers says, hey right on, what a neat idea... then that's just fine. That's 10.000 new supporters, more money, more noise, more likelihood, we'll win. Television is just playing right into our hands’ (Winchester, 1986:40). But what is most worrying is that it is not only television that supports racist attitudes, but comic magazines too, especially those addressed to young children without the critical capacities of an adult. Oppression of racial minorities then is a favorite theme of contemporary social reality, either in the ideological expressions of a comic magazine, or the brutal actions of racist activities of neo-fascism. They all contribute to a constant legitimation of a false consciousness, a criminal offence of social responsibility of those who control and exploit our lives.
Sexism
Women and girls have also been treated in a similar way in children's comic magazines, as racial and ethnic groups have. Considerable amount of research on sex-role stereotyping in children's literature has pointed out that young girls are presented through comic magazines with, and inserted into, ideological and discursive position by cultural practices which position them in subordinate roles in the social structure (Barabant, 1976; Grauerholt, et al 1982; Hudson 1984; Seiter, 1986). A representative of the International Committee for Mothers, in a conference on ‘popular culture and personal responsibility’, held by the N.U.T. in 1960, stated this point about women's and girls' literature: They do present an image of women which is the kind that men want to have, and unfortunately, this kind of woman is expected to remain at home and take no interest in outside affairs (Alderson, 1968:109).
Indeed, this image of women, as being frivolous, seductive, motherly and domesticated, has been indicated through all the comic magazines of the analysis. The various stereotypes of female inferiority hinder a female's self-image and perpetuate a low social status for females through a constant reinforcement of sexist attitudes. Sexism refers, therefore, to all those attitudes and actions which relegate women to a secondary and inferior status in society.
Current approaches to sexism in literature have raised the issue of content of producing ideas that are meaningful to a certain pattern of social life. Such approaches rely on a view that sexist literature present stereotyped images which offer a biased and distorted picture of reality. But it is probably the case, as Walkerdine (1984:164) argues, that comics do not simply distort or bias a reality, that exists outside the pages of the comic magazines, but rather that those practices are real.
Girls' comics, examined in the analysis, were found to be strongly ‘biased’ towards sexism. Moreover, they have been found to offer guidance as to how young girls may prepare themselves to be good enough ‘to win the glittering prizes: the man, the home, the love, and so on’. Alderson (1968:3) has identified a similar make up in the content of girls' magazines, which was also indicated in two of the four girls' comics in the analysis: i.e. Catherine and Marina. They contain: (1) photographs of pop stars; (2) strip-story romances; (3) short-printed stories; (4) features and gossip about pop stars; (5) letters from readers asking for information about pop stars and about personal problems; (6) fashion, shopping and beauty units; (7) miscellaneous items such as short love poems, horoscopes, competitions linked with advertising; and (8) advertisements. The other two girls' comics dealt mainly with strip stories, ‘exclusively addressed to girls’.
Figure 5.10: Total amount of stereotyping instances of sexism in humour, adventure and human interest comic magazines.
The presence of all those image industries (fashion, cosmetics, music) in girls' comics would justify Carter's (1984) suggestion that gender, especially in the case of girls, is often operating as a dominant variable for the structuring of consumer groups. McRobbie (1982) in her analysis of girls' comics discusses the codes through which adolescent femininity is constructed. What these magazines offer is heterosexual practices about ‘getting and keeping a man’. She identifies four codes: romance, personal and domestic life, fashion and beauty, and pop music. These codes construct an ideology of femininity which is being shown to be operating in the reproduction and legitimation of traditional and subordinated female roles. Other studies on sex-role stereotyping in literature (Weitzman, et al, 1972; National Organization of Women, 1972) have suggested, examining a wider range of children's comics, that women are being portrayed in passive and submissive, whereas men always appear in instrumental, social roles. Saenger (1963) suggested that this is a distorted picture of the American family life, while Berger (1973) in contrast characterized it as important archetype of American life.
Table 5.3: Total percentage of sexist stereotypes found in adventure, humour, and human interest comic magazines.
Table 5.4: Total percentage of stereotyping categories of sexism found in, adventure, humour, and human interest comic magazines.
The same codes of femininity, and similar themes depicted in other studies, have also been found in the comics examined. A random sample of ten stories of each of the three categories of children's comics available was selected (Table 5.3). Human interest comic stories were found to be strongly biased towards sexism, whereas adventure and humor comics, mainly addressed to boys, showed little, though considerable, tendencies of stereotyping sexist attitudes. The results are shown in Figure 5.10. This figure is based on the total number of sexist references in the thirty comics (adventure, humor and human interest) further analyzed. The figure shows the proportions of sexist references in each type of comics expressed as a percentage of the total number of sexist instances. Six categories were decided under which stereotyping instances of sexism were depicted:
(1) dependency of women to men or home;
(2) physical or mental inferiority of women towards men;
(3) female emphasis of marriage and flirting practices;
(4) constant preoccupation of women with appearance, beauty, fashion and pop stars;
(5) women's orientation towards domestic roles and breeding of children;
(6) jealousy and romance as the main emotional situations in which women and girls are usually involved (Table 5.4.; Figure 5.11 and Appendix).
Figure 5.12. is based on the total number of sexist representations in the thirty comics analyzed in detail. It shows the proportion of the different stereotypes addressed to girls, expressed as a percentage of the total number of sexist instances. As it is shown, there is a general emphasis on women's appearance and fashion, through which girls are encouraged to consider beauty as full-time job demanding skills, patience and learning. Looking though, at the kinds of stereotypes which are emphasized separately in each of the three types of comics, some interesting inferences can be made about the images of girls as portrayed in boys' or girls' comics relatively.
Figure 5.12: Total amount of stereotyping instances of sexism in humour, adventure, and human interest comic magazines.
Figure 5.13: Total amount of stereotyping instances of sexism in adventure comic magazines.
Figure 5.14: Total amount of stereotyping instances of sexism in humour comic magazines.
Figures 5.13., 5.14. and 5.15. are based on the total number of sexist representations in the ten adventure, humor and human interest comics respectively, analyzed. They show the proportions of different stereotypes, expressed as percentages of the total number of sexist instances. Adventure stories, it was found, give their stereotyping priority of girls, mostly on inferiority of women towards men, consequently stressing more on male supremacy (Figure 5.13.).
Figure 5.15: Total amount of stereotyping instances of sexism in human interest comic magazines.
The ideological messages of sexism in children's comics are evident. The themes which appear in these comics act as powerful signifiers keying into struggles which are neutral to the production of femininity and female sexuality. They implicitly offer a model of traditional sex-role stereotyping, engaging with the production of girls' conscious and unconscious desires, and prepare them for a ‘happy ever after situation’ of getting and keeping a man. Traditional stereotyping wants boys to be active and girls to be passive, boys to lead while girls to follow and serve them (Zimet, 1980). None of the comics breaks with this traditional expectation of conformism and conservatism. Comics appear to be purveying a crude, old-fashioned moralism, being conservative on sexual questions, emphasizing parental protection, with the message, as Hudson (1984:51) notes, ‘parents always have good reasons of care and concern for the things they do and the rules they make’.
The ideological pattern of sexist attitudes, comic magazines offer, is a cultural representation of exploitation, characteristic of western capitalism. Talcott Parsons noted that what persons are can be understood in terms of a set of beliefs and attitudes which define what they ought to be. Moreover, argues Busby (1975:105), the American mass media have been offering and propagating definitions of what persons ought to be.
Violence
In children's comic magazines, though, a third dimension of this ideological oppression of social and ethnic minorities is found: violence. Violence has been a recurrent theme in comic books and research evidence has supported that comic books can be a pervasive influence on the aggressive social behavior of children and behavior. The concern of the analysis though, as it has been noted elsewhere, has been with the behavior of comics cartoon characters in violent situations, rather than with the effects on the behavior of those who expose themselves to cartoon violence.
The analysis agree here with Lovibond's (1967) hypotheses, that the ideas, attitudes and values expressed in humor and adventure comic magazines, and the related mass media, possess sufficient coherence to be characterized as an ideological system, the core of which is the ‘idolatry of violence’. Moreover, exposure to comic books and the other media, influences the child in the acceptance of this ideology of violence. This becomes critically important and has certain social implications, as this ideology of violence of comic books bears a remarkable affinity to the ideology of fascism, the core of which is the issue of force in the domination and exploitation of the weak by the strong (Mumford, 1939).
Figure 5.17: Total amount of stereotyping instances of violence in humour and adventure comic magazines.
Previous research on violence in comic magazines has reported the great percentage of violent themes that comic stories deal with (Graafs, 1954). Edelstein and Nelson (1969) have reported that the comic cartoons of their analysis did express violent of expressive behavior on a range from mild to severe in intensity, They also found that there were measurable and predictable differences in behavior of the social classes depicted, in joke settings, and the direction and intensity of ‘jest valences’. The majority of the comic cartoons they examined, showed elements expressive of violent behavior from which hostility or aggression might be inferred. Most interestingly Di Fazio (1974) analyzed comic books in the U.S. during the post-World-war period and the Cold war years, to find differences in treatment of basic American values. He found the ‘peaceful resolution of conflict’ was one of the values least often portrayed in both time periods. That is, comic magazine violence of the two eras was indicative of the social anxiety or violence characterizing the political atmosphere of each time.
Table 5.5: Total percentage of violence stereotypes found in adventure and humour comic magazines.
Table 5.6: Total percentage of stereotyping categories of violence found in adventure and humour comic magazines.
To decide the amount of violence present in children's comic magazines a random sample of ten humor and ten adventure stories was selected. (Table 5.5). Again, as with the analysis of racism, human interest comics were excluded as an extreme case of minimized explicit violence. Usually, violence in human interest magazines occurred more in verbal, indirect and implicit forms, such as gossip, jealousy, and so on. War comic magazines were also excluded as extreme cases of maximum amount of violence, and because it was thought that violence as expressed in the World War II situation, these stories portray, is different from the violence occurring in everyday social situations, in certain socio-political, historical, or even sentimental, aspects.
The total amount of stereotyping instances of violence was found to be extremely high in both types of comics, still higher in adventure stories, because of their close association and preoccupation with themes of power, menace and war. Figure 5.17. based on the total number of violent representations in the twenty comics (adventure and humor) further analyzed. It shows the proportions of violence references in each type of comics expressed as a percentage of the total number of instances of violence. Seven categories were decided under which the stereotyping instances if violence occurred. These categories though, can be seen as parts of two main classifications of explicit violence in comic magazines. First, four categories of violence stereotypes were categorized under the form of mild violence, defined as, any action which would cause obvious physical pain or injury to the receiver of such action:
(1) fighting episodes between comic characters using individual physical strength; (2) tortures or mistreatment situations;
(3) shooting or stabbing, without the actual result shown; and
(4) use of a variety of weapons in fighting, such as, missiles, explosives, hand-grenades, and so on.
Three categories of stereotyping violence were categorized under the form of severe violence, defined as, any action which would cause violent death, destruction of property or murder:
(1) murder or killing of individuals;
(2) scenes of immense destruction; and
(3) macabre death or settings (Table 5.6.; Figure 5.18 & Appendix)
Figure 5.19. is based on the total number of representations of violence in the twenty comics analyzed in detail. It shows the proportion of different stereotypes of violence, expressed as a percentage of the total number of instances of violence. The results indicate the main emphasis of adventure and humor comics on physical strength of the comic heroes as decisive for success and victory. Fighting episodes using physical strength if nothing reinforce the masculine character the male readers of these comics are anticipated to adopt. The use of weapons and their actual direction against individuals was found to be the general second priority these comic stories stress on. It seems that the relative emphasis of comic stories on one or the other stereotyping form of violence, is differentiated according to the age, and probably the sex, of the readers to which they are addressed.
Figure 5.19: Total amount of stereotyping instances of violence in adventure and humour comic magazines.
Humour comics present comparatively lower amount of sever violence in the form of macabre death, murder, tortures or destruction of property, because they are addressed to younger children, who are probably readers of both sexes. Mild violence forms are found to be more favorable for this type of comics (Figure 5.20.).
Figure 5.20: Total amount of stereotyping instances of violence in adventure comic magazines.
Figure 5.21: Total amount of stereotyping instances of violence in humour comic magazines.
Moving to adventure comic stories, the result indicate more emphasis on forms of violence than forms of mild violence. This probably accounts for the age of older children and mainly boys, to which this type of comics is addressed to. Figure 5.21. is based on the total number of violent references in the adventure comics further analyzed. The figure shows the proportion of the different violent stereotypes, expressed as percentages of the total number of violent instances. Individual fighting, stabbing, shooting, tortures and a variety of weapons used, are more often associated with murder and killing. It seems that the basic philosophy followed by cartoonists in this differential representation of violence is expressed in two continuing stages. Humor comics, as well as adventure, teach through violence, the lesson of ‘the strong defeats the weak’, and adventure comics carry on the lesson defining the characteristic aspects, and also on the likely outcomes, of being ‘strong’ or ‘weak’. The overall lesson must be that, in any conflict, physical or military strength is always decisive and in favor of victory: a ‘celebration of masculinity’.
The case of the great amount of violence stereotyping simply justifies the fact that children's ‘comics’ have nothing to do with laugh, fun or entertainment, at least in the ways that common sense, to which they are addressed, suggests. Therefore, the case might be, either that the definition of humor and laughter has a very different meaning for the comic's producers, or that certain intentions may be responsible for this overlap. Philosophers have long believed that the comic or laughter resulting from it were indicative of the feeling of superiority of the creator of the comic or the observer of the comic situation. Koestler (1964:31) defined humor as ‘the only domain of creative activity where a stimulus or a high level of complexity produces a massive and sharply defined response on the level of physiological reflexes’. He concluded that the production of comic stimuli involved self-aggrandizement, aggressiveness and by implication a measure of violence. The question of the essence of violence in children's comic magazines lead to the question of the possible influence of comic violence on children's social behavior. Adorno and his associates (1950) have argued that ‘ideology in words and in actions are essentially the same stuff’, therefore, one would expect that, under appropriated circumstances, acceptance of an ideology will result in active behavior congruent with a system of ideas. Violence in children's comic magazines often portrays and promotes different aspects of an ideology of militarism as dominant and necessary part of social organization and progress.
That militarism is a congruent ideological system of the American value system is an easily recognizable, if not undeniable, fact. The question would be whether this ideology of violence and militarism of the comic world is accepted by and imposed on children, as Adorno, et al, pointed out. Possible intentions of comics to impose and promote a militaristic view of society can be identified, considering the case of science fiction comics in connection with recent American attempts to establish a program of militarization of space. As Figure 5.22. shows, ‘star wars’ is the central theme favored by most science fiction stories examined. Highly skilled and trained cosmonauts, with the assistance of technologically advanced armies of robots, androids, spacecrafts and weapons, are involved in a continuous travel through the distant horizons of space. To a certain extent, this justifies contemporary political dreams of imperialism, for ‘a better and safer future’, through advancement of space technology. The recent President Reagan's proposal for an advanced ‘defense’ space program of seven billion dollars remains, for the moment, a long distant dream for the intentions of the Pentagon militarists and the U.S. foreign policy (Figure 5.23.). It would be interesting to question whether the millions of children and teenagers, who are daily bombarded through the pages of comic books and other media with a constant militarization of their consciousness, could see the political and social utopia such as a program includes. Furthermore, to question whether they could see the realistic and tremendous economic and political interests behind this program.
Nevertheless, the idea that there might be strong links between popular entertainment forms, such as comics, and aggressive predispositions in human behavior remains a controversial issue (Murdock & McCron, 1978; Gunter, 1986). Early research attempts that tried to link comic book violence with juvenile delinquency (Hoult, 1969; Wertham, 1954) were proved unsuccessful, as general social conditions, lack of opportunities, or class inequalities were uncritically ignored. Lovibond's (1967) studies suggested a firm relationship between exposure to mass media violence and ‘endorsement to an ideology which makes the use of force in interest of the egocentric needs the essential content of human relationships ‘(Lovibond, 1967:98). Lovibond's suggestion supports the view that this will consequently result to a decreased readiness or a condition of social apathy’ of children towards violence in whatever form it occurs. It was suggested though much later, that the mass media operate as a part of a network reinforcing and concentrating influences the effects of which are likely to be cumulative over a long period (Tan & Scruggs, 1980; Belson, 1975; 1984; Tracey, 1984).
What should be stressed is that, by arguing and trying to establish links between comic book violence and possible influences on children, may seem trivial, and moreover, that we miss the main point: the social power and origin, and the intentions behind the production of the message of violence; and this is so, for two reasons. As Gunter (1986) has argued, there are certain implications and methodological problems associated with the hundreds of studies that try to establish possible links between media violence and social behavior. ‘they are confined to a handful of basic research methods each of which has crucial limitations which are sufficient in each case to cast doubt on the validity of their findings’ (Gunter, 1986:7). Moreover, a second popular argument on the effects of media violence, suggests that we should look are the effects of media violence, through the hypocrisy on the part of the broadcaster, the cartoonist or the film-maker, and still, that it is contradictory to claim, on one hand, that media violence has no effects, while on the other, to claim to potential advertisers that the media bestly represent their interests.
The complex pattern of violence in children's comic magazines, either it takes the form of ideological exploitation of social and ethnic minorities, or is explicitly exemplified by the glorification of force and power, clearly divides children's consciousness of social reality in two oppositional models of social character. First, ‘the strong’, who is in position of military and ideological power, and secondly, ‘the weak’ and subordinate, whose position is a manipulative and exploitative parameter, justifying its dependant's supremacy. Children are given pre-manipulated hero-models to identify with them, moreover, with the false realities of the dominant exploitative culture out of which they were given birth, and represent. The ‘made in U.S.A.’ dreamland of the comic world remains for many children a memory of the lost world of childhood. Even worse, it may become the motive for the beginning of an endless pursuit to bring that dreamland to reality, and if not, to get as close as possible to a contemporary social model that would most accurately fit it.
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