#bitescience | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lady-of-disdain · 3 years

Text

Does Fiction Lead to Grooming, and The Effect of a Relationship Like Sessrin on a Child Audience.

Ok, so I posted a response on a lengthy thread some time ago that I wanted to update some of my points on, and also repost to be more easily visible since that post ended up disappearing due to some shenanigans.

I also wanted to update this argument, because I’ve started seeing some pro-shippers argue that even if sessrin became canon the romantic portrayal of this relationship wouldn’t affect child viewers. I posit that this is untrue. The very nature of the effect children’s cartoons/media has on the views and social behavior of children is still a field with much academic study going on in it. however, the idea that children like to emulate what they see in cartoons, and the notion that positive portrayals of characters and relationships of diversity in cartoons can lead to a higher rate of acceptance among the child audience to these ideals in real life has so far been a very real, and tangibly proven fact.

The original point of this argument was in response to someone’s statement that made a point along the lines that “media does not affect grooming relationships in real life”, and if it did

“it would affect not only the thought processes of the victim, but that of the potential predator as well.”

My response as follows.

The potential predator we are talking about here is a grown-ass-adult. We are talking about a person who is old enough to know right from wrong, and that children/teenagers are off limits because the law says so. Can pornographic materials stoke the fire of pedophilia, and make someone who is only fantasizing about offending actually take the leap and become an offender? Possibly? But I doubt seeing an abusive relationship on GoT is going to be spicy enough to be the tipping point for a potential future groomer. And even if it were, at this point in the adult’s life, it’s a little too late for them to stand up in court and say “your honor, a television show made me do it.”

In this house, we blame the abuser, no one else!

This is the important distinction though: that we can have intelligent discourse over the problems inherent in these kinds of relationships in adult media. Was ‘Lolita’ a book glorifying an adult man’s attraction to an underaged girl, or condemning it? Is ‘Cuties’ a movie about the dangers children face performing provocative dance moves for an audience of adults, or was it created to pander to MAP’s? Would the relationship between Jon and Daenerys really be ok just because the Targaryen’s traditionally married their blood relations, or would it still be wrong because it’s incest?

Children’s media doesn’t have these kind of deep, introspective themes because children’s brains are still growing, and learning, and these kind of messages can become muddled and confused. We are still constantly trying to find out just how much of an effect media has on the views, and thoughts that children develop as they grow.

From the discourse over marketing toys to children in the form of Saturday morning cartoons, to the use of cartoon characters to sell cigarettes, and the very real problem of the portrayal of race and diversity in children's programming, these are ALL points that have been the subject of scientific and psychological study.

A very quick search brought up MANY articles and peer reviewed theses on these subjects:

The American Psychological Association on Advertising and Children

Influence of Cartoon Media Characters on Children's Attention to and Preference for Food and Beverage Products

The Relationship between Cartoon Trade Character Recognition and Attitude toward Product Category in Young Children

Racial and Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Children’s Television Use and Self-Esteem: A Longitudinal Panel Study

Why Diversity in Children’s Media is So Important

A very interesting study I found was on the influence of Western cartoons on children in Kenya, found Here. It’s a 200-page peer-reviewed thesis, so I’ll try to condense it as reasonably as possible.

The research was performed among primary school children in Kenya who were exposed to the following Western cartoons: ‘Spongebob Squarepants’, ‘Sofia the First’, ‘Lion Guard’, ‘Doc Mc Stuffins’, and ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’. The focus of the study was on the effect of children’s social behavior after viewing those cartoons. As such there were multiple factors considered, everything from the influence of the violence, and language shown, positive messages like friendship and generosity, to views on gender and race.

two of the most startlingly tragic results I read in this study are as follows:

“...a majority of the children preferred white cartoon characters as they have been conditioned to see "white‟ as the norm through the foreign television cartoon programs. This could further explain why the Doc Mc Stuffins was the least popular among the cartoon programs selected for this study as the lead character is dark skinned.”

and

“Having established that a majority of the children preferred white colored cartoon characters, the researcher sought to further establish whether the children would want to have an association with fair skinned children. 56.6% of the children strongly agreed that they would like to make friends with fair skinned children because white cartoon characters are better looking.”

Finally, an excerpt from the conclusion of this thesis:

“The study revealed extensive reliance of children on foreign television cartoons. The study therefore recommends that more local children content especially cartoons need be produced from the developing countries to substitute the current extensive reliance on foreign television cartoons for educational and entertainment purposes by the Kenyan children. There is urgent need for the producers to focus on content that will amplify children’s morals and values such as honesty, generosity, and respect among others; content that will help them appreciate their cultures and the diversity that comes with it.”

So what does all of this have to do with Yashahime and the portrayal of a romantic relationship between Sesshomaru and Rin?

Besides just affecting their views on the things we’ve already discussed, there is also a discernable influence children’s media can have on their views of romantic relationships.

There is a really interesting peer reviewed thesis I found here about the effect Disney movies have on children’s views of romance.

The paper describes interviews they had with children where they would show the children pictures of iconic Disney princes and princesses and would be asked three questions: Have you seen this movie? Are these two people in love? What does being in love mean? The thesis conclusion ended as follows:

“Consequently, this research illustrates the modernization of the oral tradition of folklore from moral messages of honor and duty meant to teach the lessons that will guide children into adult hood, to the Disney formula of love at first sight leading to romantic love. The augmentation of folklore tales in this way produces a new scope of inquiry to examine the potential influence and consequences Disney films have to inform children’s understanding of love relationships. The importance of this study is that it has found that children are creating meanings when exposed to romantically themed media and this influential media effects how children create meaning about their social world. This thesis has described the importance of children being affected by this media, how these meanings are identified and internalized and finally how children are expressing ideas of romantic love.”

A much shorter read over here on Bitescience talks about how even young teens can be influenced slightly by romantic media.

Indeed, there are still a lot of other things besides the media they consume that can affect a child’s views on things like material goods, food consumption, race, gender, sexual orientation, and romance. These views can and do change and grow as the child ages into adulthood, but people who prey on children do everything they can to avoid their targets from growing out of harmful views that benefit the predator’s goals. While many of us might have grown up with relationships like sessrin in media we consumed and learned after we grew older the wrongness of this kind of relationship dynamic, children, and teenagers who have not grown into this knowledge yet are targets for predators. So why do we want to make the predators work easier by spoon-feeding this kind of relationship dynamic to young people?

To close things off here I want to use a personal example. I want to show everyone my very first OTP:

This is Goliath and Elisa from Gargoyles. They are cute, and I fell in love with them as a wee little child of just 9 years old, and I still love them to this very day.

Are they the reason that these days I see creatures like this:

in movies and shows, and go all heart eyes?

I don’t know, maybe? Maybe not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a connection to one of my earliest remembered favorite TV romantic relationships, and this weird obsession I have today lol.

#anti sessrin #anti rinsess #yashahime #inuyasha #antisessrin #hanyo no yashahime #yashahime: princess half-demon #tw grooming

14 notes · View notes