Mothra Posted January 17, 2015 Posted January 17, 2015 My daughter has recently gotten into a couple of TV shows made for tweens - Kickin' It and the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Aside from the bad acting and ridiculous plots, I've noticed that the main characters hardly ever interact with their parents. Also, parents and all other adults are portrayed as borderline retarded. In the case of Kickin' It, we are supposed to buy that a man who has the self discipline to reach a black belt in karate and the business skills to have his own dojo, has the maturity of a 12 year old. I find this disturbing. Am I reading too much into this? Or is there some weird subtext going on and if so, what are they trying to say to kids? I'd love to hear others' thoughts. 4
AynRand Posted January 17, 2015 Posted January 17, 2015 This might sound a little conspiracy theoryish but Maybe the marketers have noticed this trend of child abuse that is so rampant in America today, and through developmental research they may have found out that the vast majority of children do not in reality love their parents, so they design shows that depict the children as rugged individuals who can make their own way in the world without the need of the parents who just abuse the children. 6
Pepin Posted January 18, 2015 Posted January 18, 2015 It has been quite common for parents to play no role in these sorts of shows and for it instead to be an aunt or uncle. A common reason is that the show wants to have crazy scenarios, without making it seem like there is bad parenting occurring. The parents are often a plot device that come in to restore sanity when things go too far. Why are adults so stupid in these shows? Likely because it mirrors what most children think of the adults in their surroundings, so it might help them relate. It also probably has a lot to do with the writers, who likely don't look very well on most of the adult population. What is the most likely reason? Well, unfortunately it has to do with writing difficulties. Writing a show with strong parental authorities is very difficult. Writing a good character is hard enough, but a good parent? I feel like instead of taking on the challenge, most writers take the easy route and bypass the parent altogether. It is far easier to write stupid characters. More importantly, if the show centers around hi-jinks, then that is what the audience wants to see. Having a strong parental figure would kind of provide a preemptive strike on anything of that caliber. There would also be little motivation for the children to act in the way they do if the parents were good. The passive aggression and blatant ignoring or authority figures, be they aunt or uncle or parents, is justified because the caretakers actually are idiots. If they were reasonable and nurturing, the children would kind of come across as dicks. This is supported by the trope where one of the characters comes across another child who has very good parents, and still acts very badly. This is never presented the same, but is rather shown as "wow, that kid is kind of a douche". Although the protagonist(s) may also act in similar ways, the one who has no reason to act in such a way is implicitly made out to be bad. Point is, that without an incentive in the plot for the children to behave badly, that it is hard to hop on board with what is happening. There is also something to be said for PR issues. From what I've heard, bad parenting seems to illicit more complaints, usually because parents don't want their children to associate those fictional parents with parents in general. 5
shirgall Posted January 18, 2015 Posted January 18, 2015 It has been quite common for parents to play no role in these sorts of shows and for it instead to be an aunt or uncle. This has been going on for a long time. Uncle Scrooge... Donald... and the three nephews. Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy have tons of Aunts and Uncles... For too much information, see http://www.donaldisme.dk/fecundity.htm 1
MysterionMuffles Posted January 18, 2015 Posted January 18, 2015 GREAT TOPIC you guys are blowing my mind! It has been quite common for parents to play no role in these sorts of shows and for it instead to be an aunt or uncle. A common reason is that the show wants to have crazy scenarios, without making it seem like there is bad parenting occurring. The parents are often a plot device that come in to restore sanity when things go too far. Why are adults so stupid in these shows? Likely because it mirrors what most children think of the adults in their surroundings, so it might help them relate. It also probably has a lot to do with the writers, who likely don't look very well on most of the adult population. What is the most likely reason? Well, unfortunately it has to do with writing difficulties. Writing a show with strong parental authorities is very difficult. Writing good a good character is hard enough, but a good parent? I feel like instead of taking on the challenge, most writers take the easy route and bypass the parent altogether. It is far easier to write stupid characters. More importantly, if the show centers around hi-jinks, then that is what the audience wants to see. Having a strong parental figure would kind of provide a preemptive strike on anything of that caliber. There would also be little motivation for the children to act in the way they do if the parents were good. The passive aggression and blatant ignoring or authority figures, be they aunt or uncle or parents, is justified because they actually are idiots. If they were reasonable and nurturing, the children would kind of come across as dicks. This is supported by the trope where one of the characters comes across another child who has very good parents, and still acts very badly. This is never presented the same, but is rather shown as "wow, that kid is kind of a douche". Although the protagonist(s) may also act in similar ways, the one who has no reason to act in such a way is implicitly made out to be bad. Point is, that without an incentive in the plot for the children to behave badly, that it is hard to hop on board with what is happening. There is also something to be said for PR issues. From what I've heard, bad parenting seems to illicit more complaints, usually because parents don't want their children to associate those fictional parents with parents in general. You seriously took all the words straight from my mind. I have nothing to add.
Dylan Lawrence Moore Posted January 20, 2015 Posted January 20, 2015 GREAT TOPIC you guys are blowing my mind! You seriously took all the words straight from my mind. I have nothing to add. Seconded.
Mothra Posted January 25, 2015 Author Posted January 25, 2015 Great ideas! But scary. Mostly... why does my own daughter like these shows? I think we're close. I certainly don't hit her or yell at her. It gives me a lot to think about.
GA_Freeman Posted January 28, 2015 Posted January 28, 2015 I have a 9 and 12-year-old boys,just for reference. They do seem to like the tween shows because as referenced above a seem to be able to relate to the shows and The shows are ridiculous and whimsical and they find them amusing. I find the tween shows really disgusting from a personal perspective, however, they do seem harmless in the fact that I believe that my children don't actually learn any interaction from these.I have never experienced any bad reactions from the children watching the shows and other than Finding them offensive and objectionable on philosophical principles, they are simplistic and amusing. I was irritated by them at first because the men really seem stupid and ineffectual. However, as pointed out above and by my children, the mothers are also fairly stupid and ineffective. So I did discuss it with my children and they seemed pretty aware of what was going on and after giving them my opinion I let it rest. My experience is that peaceful parenting and an openness to ideas that the children are interested in and wanting to share makes this a non-issue. They watch it for entertainment and at this point, still trust me and want to discuss these things with me so I feel comfortable with the situation. my children seem much more affected by YouTube as they can learn things off of YouTube. They discover ideas, projects, mods, programs and an amazing number of things so that YouTube is a much more powerful medium in my opinion. 2
J-William Posted January 29, 2015 Posted January 29, 2015 my children seem much more affected by YouTube as they can learn things off of YouTube. They discover ideas, projects, mods, programs and an amazing number of things so that YouTube is a much more powerful medium in my opinion. I agree with that! Holy crap is youtube amazing. Last year by watching youtube videos I learned to do something I've wanted to learn for twenty years! Penn Jillette says that you can learn more about juggling from an afternoon of youtube than he learned in an entire career.
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