It looks like the ultimate goal of psychology it to let parents know there is no way to be sure they’re bringing up their kids right. On the heels of two much-talked-about studies about how modern superheroes and their non-stop aggression are bad for adolescent boys, MSNBC.com published an article suggesting that mock fighting and playing that they are superheroes battling super villains are actually good for young boys. Michael Thompson, a psychologist, says that playtime and actual aggression are firmly separated in the minds of children. Mock fights are perfectly healthy so long as they don’t devolve into real fights. Several teachers in the article agree, although they confess that they break up boys who play at fighting more often than girls at their more peaceful play, to be on the safe side. The two points of view seem completely opposite, but are they as set against each other as they appear? (via Superheroes are Bad for Boys. Or, Possibly Good for Boys. - ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews)
Why don’t they ever study girls in these things? Because boys are the only ones interested in comics, video games, mock fighting, etc.?
Allow me. This psychologist is lazy, stupid and opportunistic. She is piggybacking on the enormous popularity of superhero films in an effort - a successful effort - to get attention.
This has been done before, at the only other time in history comics were gaining such attention by fear-mongering psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham, whose papers have just been made available at the Library of Congress.
And yes, according to the same lazy logic that says “boys who are in juvenile hall like comics, therefore all comic readers are bound for juvenile hall”, and the same lack of any research into the culture that lumps in superheroes with “slackers”, all girls play with dolls. Big, pointy-boobed Barbie dolls.
And all the men smoke pipes while Mommy cooks.
