This statistic contradicts common American feelings on professional wrestling, where wrestling is in fact less violent then primetime network programs which are on at the same time as WWE and other wrestling programs, but escape most of the ire that parental groups put on the WWE and other related professional wrestling organizations.
These parental groups have routinely demanded that professional wrestling, and most notably WWE, be forced to decrease not only the violence on the company’s programs, but the language on the programs.
“[T]he Parents Television Council (PTC) has ranked WWE programming among the worst shows on… television… [because WWE is] too violent for family hour” (Tamborini 2).
The problem with the Parents Television Council condemnation is that the primary offender for professional wrestling violence, WWE’s RAW, comes on at 9 o’clock at night on Monday night, which is traditionally a school night and a time at which adult programs with “non-kid friendly” content are shown.
The fact that RAW is shown at 9 then contradicts the notion, by the PTC, that family hour and WWE programming coincide. The PTC is not the only parenting group that has condemned the WWE, as there have been countless others, but a common theme within the parent groups is that the WWE has to do something about kids watching the WWE’s TV-14 rated shows.
The parents have taken the responsibility, off of each parent, in choosing what their children watch, and have put the blame of changing their programming on the WWE, which is not geared toward children based on the language, violence, and sexual nature of the RAW program.
Monitoring one’s own children in what they are watching and what they are doing is central to being a good parent. Nothing makes this point more clear than the news of the deaths of a “9 year old from North Carolina and 6 year old from Florida… [from trying to] imitat[e] wrestling moves,” seen on WWE programming (Tamborini 15).
Without the presence of WWE programming in these homes, or with the presence of discussions on what is acceptable or not in society, and what is safe and what is unsafe, it is likely these two boys would not have perished.
It also should be noted that RAW is rated TV-14, which means that any child under 14 years of age should not be watching the program the children who died, from attempting maneuvers that they witnessed on television, were less than 14 years of age, and was therefore not the target audience the WWE was aiming for.
Though, the deaths of the 9 and 6 year olds were tragedies, the WWE should not be blamed because both WWE’s RAW and Smackdown are marketed for adult males given the violence, sexual content, and the time at which RAW is shown, 9 o’clock.
Given that the target audience is adult males, and the rating is TV-14 it is the responsibility of the parent to censor WWE programming by turning the show off.
Many aspects are combined in the effects of violence in professional wrestling on the general public. The views of wrestling by those who watch and do not watch greatly differ in the audience’s views on professional wrestling.
The fact that professional wrestling has more violence then that of other primetime programs is true. It is the still the responsibility of the parent; however, to monitor and converse about what their child is watching.
Monitoring what children watch will lessen the chances of the emulation of inappropriate trademarks, wrestling maneuvers, and suggestive actions between the children that watch the mature programming of professional wrestling.
2 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete